God bless Sophie Cunningham and Enes Kanter Freedom for having the courage to say what many people are apparently becoming afraid to say: common sense still matters.
I'm surprised that we somehow live in a time when stating an obvious biological fact can suddenly become controversial. A discussion that should be grounded in science, fairness, and common sense is too often reduced to labels—“transphobic,” “racist,” or “hateful”—simply because someone expresses an opinion that does not conform to the prevailing narrative.
But labels do not settle arguments. Facts do.
And when the discussion involves women’s sports, the question should be simple: How do we protect fairness and opportunities for women and girls?
The WNBA is called the Women’s National Basketball Association for a reason. Women’s sports exist because there are meaningful biological differences between males and females that can affect athletic performance. That is not an insult. It is not hatred. It is the very reason separate sporting categories exist in the first place.
We have different divisions in sports because competition is supposed to be fair.
High school athletes compete in high school leagues. College athletes compete in college leagues. Professional athletes compete professionally. Different sports have different divisions, weight classes, age categories and classifications—all designed to create a level playing field.
So why should the women’s category be treated as though the principle of fairness suddenly does not matter?
This is not about denying anyone dignity. Every person deserves respect and should be protected from discrimination and harassment. But respecting individuals does not require us to abandon reasonable boundaries in competitive sports.
The debate becomes even more important when the physical advantages developed through male puberty are relevant to competition. Sports are not simply about identity. They are about physical performance, strength, speed, endurance, size and other biological characteristics.
That is why the rules matter.
We have seen how even small differences in physical advantages can matter in elite competition. The famous exhibition matches involving Venus and Serena Williams and German male player Karsten Braasch are often cited in discussions about the differences between men’s and women’s tennis. Whatever conclusions one draws from those matches, the broader point remains: sex-based athletic differences are real and relevant to competitive sport.
And acknowledging that should not automatically make someone an enemy of transgender people.
This is where the conversation has gone terribly wrong.
Someone can believe that transgender people deserve dignity and equal treatment while also believing that women’s professional sports should maintain eligibility standards designed to preserve competitive fairness.
Those positions are not mutually exclusive.
Nor is every disagreement about transgender participation necessarily about racism or hatred. Race has nothing to do with the basic sporting question being discussed. The issue is whether the rules governing a women’s competition adequately protect the women who worked, trained and sacrificed to reach that level.
Think about the young girl watching professional women compete and dreaming that one day she might be there.
She deserves a sporting system that takes her opportunities seriously.
Her talent deserves protection.
Her hard work deserves protection.
Her dreams deserve protection.
And the women who fought for greater opportunities in sports deserve to know that the category created for them will continue to mean something.
The irony is that we have spent decades telling girls that they deserve a fair chance to compete. Now, when some people raise questions about how to preserve that fairness, they are sometimes told that asking the question itself is unacceptable.
That should concern all of us.
We should be able to have difficult conversations without immediately attacking the character of the person raising the issue.
We should be able to say that biological sex exists without being accused of hatred.
We should be able to discuss women’s sports without pretending that biology is irrelevant.
And yes, we should be able to use common sense.
Even language has rules. When we ignore the rules of grammar, we call the result grammatically incorrect. In science, we rely on evidence and definitions. In sports, we establish categories and rules because without them, competition loses its meaning.
Words matter. Definitions matter. Rules matter.
And facts matter.
The WNBA—and women's sports generally—deserves a thoughtful, evidence-based conversation about eligibility, fairness and the protection of female athletes. That conversation should not be driven by fear, political pressure, social-media outrage or name-calling.
It should be driven by fairness.
I hope more athletes, celebrities, sports personalities and influencers will have the courage to participate in this conversation—not by attacking anyone, but by asking reasonable questions and standing up for what they believe is fair.
Common sense should not be a political position.
It should not be a culture-war weapon.
And it certainly should not be something we are afraid to express.
At the end of the day, this is about protecting women and girls while treating everyone with dignity.
We can do both.
Let us respect people without abandoning facts.
Let us protect women’s sports without turning transgender people into enemies.
And above all, let common sense prevail.
