The landmark CBA, which required more than a year of negotiations with the WNBA, is now in question. The issue is trans athletes’ participation in the WNBA. Amid this debate, two former NBA players, Kanter Freedom and Royce White, have announced plans to enter the 2027 draft.
Now, a former ESPN star has called for the WNBA to take this matter seriously.
Samantha Steele Ponder Makes a Request Amid WNBA Statement
Sophie Cunningham started the debate with her comments against the inclusion of trans athletes in women’s sports. Now, former ESPN reporter Samantha Steele Ponder has spoken out on the issue and revealed why it is personal for her.
Ponder shed light on an incident where she claimed she was put on the NY Post cover for sharing her views on the inclusion of trans athletes in women’s sports.
“I stopped posting about 9 months ago when 2 men from the NY Post showed up at my house, filming my daughter and me, because I had the audacity to tweet that she shouldn’t have to keep playing boys in a girls bball league. They put an unemployed homeschool mom of 3 as the sole cover of the NY Post for something that is so elementary, fundamental and obvious that it feels absolutely insane that we are still discussing this. Stop with the “it’s only a few” argument… since when is that a reason to not care about injustice and the truth?” she wrote.
The issue has been a broader debate across women’s sports, but recent developments involving Freedom and White have brought it into sharper focus in the WNBA. Ponder further asked the WNBA to firmly stand against trans athletes in the league.
“The WNBA should be courageous. Stand for women. You can’t stand for something you can’t even define. Acknowledge that the inherent differences between men and women were the whole reason we needed the WNBA in the first place. Boundaries, clarity and exclusion are not hateful in sport… they’re the prerequisite to playing and loving the game. Without the lines, without the rules, without the honesty about who’s in and who’s out, there is no fair competition.”
I stopped posting about 9 months ago when 2 men from the NY Post showed up at my house, filming my daughter and me, because I had the audacity to tweet that she shouldn’t have to keep playing boys in a girls bball league. They put an unemployed homeschool mom of 3 as the sole… https://t.co/uceu9JqzVg
— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) August 13, 2026
The league has already started discussing the controversy. The WNBA’s general managers and presidents discussed transgender athletes on Wednesday during an anti-hate task force meeting. The WNBA shared a statement that there were “no immediate eligibility matters affecting” the WNBA and slammed the “bad-faith efforts” to “marginalize others.”
However, critics continue to claim that the WNBA is not doing enough to tackle the issue. Ponder has now joined the criticism, calling for the league to do more to promote equality and provide clear guidelines on the trans-athlete issue.
