Stephen A. Smith is defending Sophie Cunningham by making it clear he doesn’t want to see NBA players transition to play in the WNBA, which to be clear, is not something the transgender community has ever fought for.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham garnered attention this week for comments made in an article published by ESPN, where she expressed a desire to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” Cunningham has since doubled down on those comments, telling reporters it’s “common sense” to “protect children” by keeping men out of women’s sports.
On his Thursday afternoon SiriusXM Radio show, Stephen A. Smith came to Cunningham’s defense, just as he often has with conservative media personality Riley Gaines who campaigns against transgender women participating in women’s sports.
“What if an NBA player decided to transition to playing in the WNBA? How elite would they be? How great would they be? We gotta put stuff in its proper perspective and call it like it is” – Stephen A. Smith on SiriusXM pic.twitter.com/dzxAFCZe9X
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 23, 2026
“What if an NBA player decided to transition to playing in the WNBA?” Smith asked. “How elite would they be? How great would they be? We gotta put stuff in its proper perspective and call it like it is.”
But that’s not the proper perspective. The exhausted Donald Trump line about recruiting LeBron James to play in the WNBA is a disingenuous way of distracting from the discussion about transgender athletes.
“I am a supporter of the LQBTQ+ community,” Smith maintained. “I believe in supporting people’s civil rights and civil liberties come hell or high water. To the end. But you also gotta look out for everybody else. You can’t look out for a trans athlete at the expense of biological women. What did they do? Just like there’s a sport for men, there should be a sport for women, get a sport for trans athletes, or league rather.”
“We live in a society where people got scared. They got scared to say these things. We’ve got to stop that. Every truth ain’t meant to be told…but it ain’t meant to be hidden either,” Smith continued. “You can’t have a society where we’re ignoring the clear unfairness of a male transitioning to female and competing in their sports. It is clearly unfair to women. Sophie Cunningham is a thousand percent right!”
There are fair and reasonable arguments on both sides of the transgender athlete discussion, but it’s disingenuous to claim transgender athlete support means supporting men in women’s sports. It’s disingenuous to claim transgender athlete participation puts “little girls” at risk of playing sports against “biological men.” And it’s also disingenuous to claim the WNBA is at risk of being infiltrated by NBA players. When comments made about transgender athletes are meant to fearmonger, it makes it difficult to have productive conversations on the topic.