Why Can't WNBA Coaches Define What a Woman Is?
Kevin McCullough
I have a question, and I promise I'm asking it in good faith, with a smile on my face and my hands raised in the universal gesture of "I genuinely just want to understand." Here it is: why does defining the word "woman" appear to be the single hardest pop quiz in professional sports right now?
Because this week, not one, not two, but three WNBA head coaches were asked some version of the same basic question—should biological males compete in women's sports—and all three responded like I'd asked them to derive the Riemann hypothesis on a napkin.
Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White led off. "I don't know that I would say I'm educated enough from a scientific standpoint," she said, before noting she's not "educated enough at the different levels" to weigh in further. Fair enough, except that Stephanie White coaches in a league whose name has the letter W built directly into it. Not a hidden W. Not a silent W. The very first letter. It's right there on the jerseys.
Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama went next, an hour earlier, actually, so if anything he had a head start. His answer: "To be completely honest, I don't think I've ever had to think about that." A basketball coach in a women's professional league had never once had occasion to think about what makes his league a women's league. I don't know whether to call that refreshing honesty or the setup to a very expensive joke.
Then, the next day, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve stepped up to the mic and—credit where it's due—actually said a sentence with content in it. Reeve said it's "not the case" that biological men are in girls' locker rooms, calling the framing "problematic" and full of "innuendo." Which is a real position! I disagree with it, but at least it's a position, built out of actual words that mean actual things, unlike her colleagues' interpretive dance around the subject.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2026/08/02/why-cant-wnba-coaches-define-what-a-woman-is-n2680534
