Sports are inherently political. You can say “shut up and dribble” all you want, but at the end of the day, sports are one of the most politically entrenched sectors of society. I’ve been thinking a lot about that over recent weeks. Everything from the still constant booing of the American national anthem at Toronto Raptors games, how International Women’s Month is celebrated, to the differences between Men’s and Women’s March Madness coverage and discourse this month, to even the Raptors’ Pride Night celebrations Sunday evening and more.
Without most people even noticing a lot of the time, sports are political. The singing of national anthems at sporting events began during the second World War as a way to show solidarity to the troops, but also to solidify patriotism and loyalty to the country in which the event was being held. In recent years, there have been instances of using the signing of a national anthem at sports events to include small acts of protest, like changing lyrics to highlight the dark history of colonialism in North America. Opposite sides of the political spectrum, each important ways of proving the way politics have been ingrained into sports.
There’s also a reason sports continue to be played during turbulent eras in human history. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was created during World War II to provide people with sports entertainment even as a lot of the men who would usually be athletes were away at war. The women were the ones left behind at home, and so they were the ones playing in games to entertain. Sports is one of the most widely enjoyed and accessible forms of entertainment — there is no question that sending messaging through sports is an extremely effective way to get a message across.
You’d think we would have come a long way in many aspects of society since World War II, but unfortunately many of the same themes in humanity that were problems then are still problems now. Prejudice, discrimination, racism, sexism, homophobia and the list continues are still every day aspects of life. While they don’t seem to affect the most privileged, as we can see more than ever thanks to the access media allows us, the average sports fan still feels these things in their every day lives.
I mean, it’s only been in the past few years that professional women’s sports leagues either a) existed and b) were accessible to watch/attend.
Sports teams inherently try to include all sects of their fanbase, but ultimately thanks to the capitalistic nature of sports these days, that is not really possible. It then falls to the media, and then to the players themselves, to do that work to make sports more inclusive for all. Unfortunately, basic inclusion is political in the year 2025. Also unfortunate — the level of toxic masculinity and stigma around being different that still exists in the NBA and other men’s leagues.
So, how can those of us in the higher levels of the privilege scale be better allies? It’s something I talked with Garrett Temple of the Raptors about back in December. Temple is an active member of the NBA’s player union, and his family also has deep roots in the Civil Rights movement in the USA. When I asked how NBA players can be better allies, Temple’s response focused on representation. Basically “if you can see it, you can be it,” — that players need to be intentional in making real connections with their WNBA peers, with kids in the communities, and with people that are different than them.
A story also came out of Connecticut this week about the UConn Huskies women’s team, and their support of teammate Jana El Alfy during Ramadan. El Alfy’s teammates wake up early to join her for her meals before she begins to fast, and often join her at sunset to break her fast. Her roommate, predicted no.1 draft pick Paige Bueckers, has taken on the task of waking up before sunrise to make sure El Alfy eats before her fasting begins, making her avocado toast and scrambled eggs. Bueckers also makes sure her teammate doesn’t sleep in past her alarm so she has time to eat. All things we can do to make our teammates and friends celebrating Ramadan feel supported.
From early morning wake ups w/ Paige Bueckers to dinner surrounded by teammates, how UConn women’s basketball is supporting Jana El Alfy as she observes Ramadan during March Madness
"I feel like I'm blessed and grateful to be surrounded with this group” https://t.co/3w78DvtIHj
— Maggie Vanoni (@maggie_vanoni) March 24, 2025
While it’s often the exclusion in sports that is highlighted in media — players refusing to wear Pride jerseys, players saying anti-semitic remarks, players being sexist etc — it’s important to highlight all the athletes that ARE doing the work to be better allies.
When it comes to the media side of sports, I’ve seen the gaping holes in diversity when it comes to covering an NBA team. Just last night, as I sat in the corner of the Raptors’ press room waiting for Darko Rajakovic to come speak, I realized I was the only woman in the room. TSN sideline reporter Kayla Alexander (an absolute gem btw) later joined, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was still the only woman writer in the room — as I often am. While the guys of the Raptors’ beat are all genuinely kind and inclusive to me, it still doesn’t change the fact that having more women in the space would end up creating a lot more diversity in the writing that comes out about this team. It’s why SB Nation/Locked On’s Katie Heindl is one of my favourite writers in all sports — her commitment to nuanced crossroads topics in sports stories is something I strive to model in my own work.
More inclusivity in men’s sports spaces would also mean maybe I wouldn’t have to hear the homophobic remarks being made court side during warmups about Pride Night, but I digress.
Going back to teams themselves, there needs to be less importance put on looking like allies and more importance on the actual work. Again, it’s hard at a corporate level to do so, but not impossible. Women’s sports leagues have been at the forefront of inclusivity, activism, and putting money where their mouth is when it comes to ally-ship. The WNBA’s in-season tournament is built on a system of charitable donations. Each team picks a local charity to support at the beginning of the season, and everything from wins to assists/rebounds and more means money is donated to the teams’ charity. Since the WNBA’s players are incredibly diverse, that means the charities hit on many communities as well. Everything from mental health, healthcare advocacy for queer people, fighting homelessness, pro-choice rights for women and more have been included in these charitable efforts.
The WNBPA is also heavily involved in politics and activism — think back to when a right-wing politician owned the Atlanta Dream and the WNBA campaigned for their opponent (Raphael Warnock) during the WNBA bubble season to ensure the owner was not re-elected. The players also used their bubble season in 2020 to bring attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, protesting games and highlighting stories during the season.
More than that, women’s sports leagues go further in their theme nights than just slapping a rainbow onto things at Pride Night or mentioning Women’s Month — they actually tap into the culture of these communities to make sure their celebrations are authentic. One thing that stood out recently was the PWHL’s Pride Logo, that was well received by their fanbase for including many aspects of LGBTQ+ culture that fans related to. It’s the small effort of a logo that goes a long way in authentic inclusion and representation.
Celebrating Pride ️ ️⚧️
We are proud to celebrate Pride beginning in March and throughout April! Our Pride Unity Games, presented by e.l.f., celebrate the LGBTQ+ community with special guests, activations, in-game tributes and partnerships with local and national LGBTQ+… pic.twitter.com/7HPuqzaSlP
— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial) March 19, 2025
You can sit there and say “exclusion is so engrained in men’s sports culture” — and it is — but what are we doing about it? How can we make the NBA (and other men’s sports leagues) more diverse, so that it’s not exhausting just to exist in these spaces when you’re not a straight while male? Because it is just that — exhausting — to see places preaching women’s empowerment when there are barely any women there to empower, to hear these prejudiced remarks when you’re there to cover a game on Pride Night, to be doing your job at a game and getting relentlessly berated with anonymous dick-pic Air Drops onto your phone (true story, it’s happened).
Being politically involved is unfortunately sometimes exhausting. I have a lot of pride when it comes to being a woman on a male sports team’s beat — that representation does matter — so despite the exhaustion it’s important to keep showing up. To keep writing about these men’s teams, to keep making your voice heard in media scrums, interviewing players even when it feels intimidating. Most important, it’s important to keep trying to figure out how to be a better ally to those who don’t have as much privilege as I do, to keep trying to use the platform I have to highlight voices that aren’t usually listened to.