Natalie Nakase was about to coach the Golden State Valkryies against the Toronto Tempo on Sunday when she was asked about a controversy surrounding a different team and one of its players.
The WNBA’s first Asian-American coach was more than happy to give her opinion about transgender women playing in women’s sports, which has loomed over the league since Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham spoke out against it last month.
“Thank you for that question,” Nakase, a former Clippers assistant coach, said during her pregame news conference. “For me, sports is about belonging. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about allowing everyone to be their authentic self. You know, I’m big on that just because I have been criticized for my height, for my ethnicity.
“I’ve been in those ‘you shouldn’t belong here’ [discussions] many times. And for me, I don’t want that space, especially Golden State, to ever feel like that. So I’m all about women, little girls deserving to play, and that includes trans women. So I’m all about inclusivity.”
Nakase’s comments came on the same day that Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a T-shirt that read “Trans kids belong” under her jacket during her team’s game against the Fever. Reeve and Cunningham were seen speaking before the game, but the WNBA’s all-time winningest coach declined to reveal the details of their discussion to reporters afterward.
“Both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate,” Reeve said. “And there are some things that we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues, and I think it’s how you handle things.”
It was the third consecutive Fever road game at which supporters of both sides of the argument gathered outside the arena to rally for their cause. It was also the third straight game at which Cunningham received boos from the crowd inside the arena.
Cunningham, who didn’t speak with reporters after the game, posed for pictures with Jennifer Sey and Riley Gaines, two outspoken political activists against transgender women in women’s sports.
Fever teammate Caitlin Clark, one of the WNBA’s biggest stars, did speak with reporters, for the first time since the controversy started. A reporter opened the news conference following Indiana’s 108-100 loss to the Lynx by asking Clark how she and her teammates have navigated the conversation around the issue.
“I think, for us, it’s not really a discussion we really have in our locker room,” Clark said. “I think it’s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions. But our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins, and obviously we didn’t do that tonight, so we need to find an area to improve in that way.”
When the same reporter started asking Clark for her reaction on the matter, she cut him off.
“I just answered for you,” she said.
In a July 21 ESPN article, Cunningham said she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
The next day, she told reporters that her stance is “kind of common sense,” adding, “I’ll stand on what I said, and I’ll always believe that.”
Before the Fever’s game on Friday in Portland, Cunningham told reporters, “I’m here to play basketball, but I’m also here to be me, and I’m not gonna like shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don’t agree with that.”
Speaking to reporters before the same game, Indiana coach Stephanie White expressed some “frustration” in not being able to focus entirely on basketball but said “I also understand this is part of our growth edge as a league.”
“We have to to be able to manage, we have to be able to insulate as much as we can, and then we have to be able to lead with conversation,” she said.
Asked how she would feel about a “biological male” playing in the WNBA, White said: “I’m not educated enough in terms of transgender and transitioning to give you a smart answer. I would say, though, that I just don’t feel like exclusion is an answer, and I think that we need to have deeper, more layered conversations.”
Portland coach Alex Samara told reporters before that the transgender community has the team’s “full support.”
“They’re a very important part of what the values of the Portland Fire are,” he said. “I know our organization is going to be intentional in making sure our fans feel comfortable and supported when they come here to the fire pit.”
Earlier last week, Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was banned by the WNBA from attending her team’s next five home games after she allegedly cursed at two teenage girls who were holding a sign in support of Cunningham when the Storm was playing the Fever on Tuesday.
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