Wiggins Trashes WNBA Culture

[bschwartz]

Strong opinions from former Stanford and WNBA player Candace Wiggins. It is just one opinion so hard to know fact from fiction, but wowsers. Got to be more to this story whether it comes out or not.

LINK

 

[Orangutan]

Strong opinions from former Stanford and WNBA player Candace Wiggins. It is just one opinion so hard to know fact from fiction, but wowsers. Got to be more to this story whether it comes out or not.

LINK

"The way I looked, the way I played – those things contributed to the tension"

Hard to imagine how someone so modest quickly made enemies, eh?

 

[Vowelguy]

Statements like this raise a red flag for me:

"I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women."

Given that there are ~150 players in the league, that would mean there are 3 heterosexual players. Surely not true. And while she may not have intended the statement literally, she's a smart person - she knows that a statement like that would be more interpreted as demonizing than anything. She could easily have given a more realistic number if she wanted.

 

[Bretski]

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Apply that to whatever part of the article you want.

 

[j66kicker]

Looks to me like she's pre-hyping the autobiography she's writing

 

[oldude]

Wow! I hate to say it, but this type of story, whether true or not, is a potential bombshell for the media. It brings to mind the controversy created by another Stanford grad when Jonathan Martin implicated Richie Incognito and the Miami Dolphins in systematic bullying.

 

[Orangutan]

Let's see how WNBA players are reacting!

 

[Plebe]

 

[cohenzone]

Seems like a total homophobe.

 

[EricLA]

Words have power, but they also have consequences. Maybe she got fired up during the interview and was a little more "passionate" about certain answers, but she knew she was going to speak about it and should have thought long and hard before blasting the entire WNBA and painting it with such a broad brush. I think she is burning a tremendous amount of bridges with anyone associated with the WNBA, or women's basketball.

Some of what she said may be true, but by making over the top statements, she has alienated many/most and made her message, whatever she intended it to be, more controversial and harder to ferret out the facts from fiction...

 

[Plebe]

Wow. This stink bomb from Wiggins is so ... 20 years ago.

It reminds me of the allegations of tennis player Alexandra Stevenson's mother back in the late 1990s, who claimed that (paraphrasing here) the WTA tour was overrun by lesbians and they were all jealous and resentful of her teenage daughter.

And I wonder what Tara is thinking right about now.

 

[emjay]

Statements like this raise a red flag for me:

"I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women."

Yes - there seems to be quite a bit of statement of opinion as fact in this article. Never mind errors like the assertion that there are 10 teams in the league instead of the actual 12.

This was a disappointing read. I feel badly for Wiggins that she felt she couldn't fit in - that would make any work environment challenging and unpleasant. But I'm disheartened by her suggestions that players in the league think they have to "play like a man," and particularly her way of distinguishing herself as "proud to be a woman." It's unfair and unkind to take away the players' personal ideas of what it means, for each of them, to be a woman. Comments like hers only uphold conventional and limiting definitions of sex and gender - and allow for thinly veiled homophobia to continue to be a reason, for others, to dismiss the league.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Hardly rings true does it. Having wrung everything she could out of the WNBA she decides to burn it? Not a great self referral to your next port of call. Would you hire Candace Wiggins?

 

[Plebe]

 

[Plebe]

 

[Orangutan]

As they say (sometimes with slightly more colorful language): If you ran into a jerk in the morning, you ran into a jerk. If you ran into jerks all day, the jerk is you.

 

[j66kicker]

Glory Johnson had two babies in the past year - which side does she count on?

I think Candace is just trying to stir up trouble to sell books.

And.... "She aspires to play on the pro beach volleyball tour and possibly the Olympics," and "touts the sport’s camaraderie and its 'celebration of women and the female body as feminine, but strong and athletic.'” ???

Doesn't pro beach volleyball have rules requiring participants to wear skimpy unis? It always seemed to me they were intentionally pandering to objectification.

 

[j66kicker]

Wow. This stink bomb from Wiggins is so ... 20 years ago.

It reminds me of the allegations of tennis player Alexandra Stevenson's mother back in the late 1990s, who claimed that (paraphrasing here) the WTA tour was overrun by lesbians and they were all jealous and resentful of her teenage daughter.

And I wonder what Tara is thinking right about now.

I wonder what Tara will be thinking after Candace's autobiography comes out.

 

[victor64]

She is going to get publicly trashed but I bet privately she gets a lot of support for speaking up. One thing though that she did mention about the WNBA is when they play. People are doing stuff and watching baseball in the spring and summer. Basketball is out of season when they play. If they played in season, college and NBA would kill them in the ratings. Catch 22.

 

[Plebe]

And.... "She aspires to play on the pro beach volleyball tour and possibly the Olympics," and "touts the sport’s camaraderie and its 'celebration of women and the female body as feminine, but strong and athletic.'” ???

Doesn't pro beach volleyball have rules requiring participants to wear skimpy unis? It always seemed to me they were intentionally pandering to objectification.

I know this is a trivial point compared to all her homophobic crap, but it's delusional to think that at age 30 she can switch to a sport that she hasn't played competitively in 12 years and make it all the way to the Olympics.

 

[Plebe]

She is going to get publicly trashed but I bet privately she gets a lot of support for speaking up. One thing though that she did mention about the WNBA is when they play. People are doing stuff and watching baseball in the spring and summer. Basketball is out of season when they play. If they played in season, college and NBA would kill them in the ratings. Catch 22.

Support from whom?

 

[j66kicker]

I know this is a trivial point compared to all her homophobic crap, but it's delusional to think that at age 30 she can switch to a sport that she hasn't played competitively in 12 years and make it all the way to the Olympics.

Maybe one who is delusional in one aspect is more likely to be delusional regarding other issues as well. Or.... maybe the volleyball is a well-thought-out publicity stunt supporting the grand promotional strategy....?

 

[victor64]

Support from whom?

She can't be making all this stuff up just to sell books. She also can't be the only player in the league that was bullied or uncomfortable with the style of play or number of gay players. What advantage would they have to publicly speak up?

 

[CocoHusky]

This is heartbreaking, disappointing, and entirely divisive on every level possible.

 

[CocoHusky]

She can't be making all this stuff up just to sell books.