Over the past few years, many people have become concerned about transgender women flooding women’s sports leagues and pushing out cis women. But former NBA star Gilbert Arenas does not see that happening in the WNBA – or even in high school girl’s basketball, for that matter.
During a recent interview, Gilbert Arenas downplayed any concern about a transgender woman playing in the WNBA because they weren’t good enough to play in the NBA, pointing out that the best women practice against men throughout their careers and want to compete at the highest level against men, anyway.
“It won’t happen. It won’t even happen in the high school level. The reason is … Hoop has its own entity,” Arenas said according to Fox News. “A hoop woman, your elite woman, she thinks she could compete with males. She doesn’t even consider females as equals. So when you’re talking about the Candace Parkers and stuff, they want to train with the males. So you’re not gonna have a male who’s that good that’s gonna say, ‘Hey, I wanna go against girls.’ Because if they’re that good, then they’re still competing with dudes.”
Arenas suggested that if there was a transgender basketball player good enough to play professionally, they would not want to play in the WNBA.
“They’ll be playing overseas basketball. … If they were good enough already, then they’re playing with dudes. … What I’m saying is, if there’s a trans player and they’re that good, they’re practicing and playing with the men anyway,” Arenas said. “They’re too good for women, that’s beneath them. So you’re not gonna have a ‘Juwanna Mann.’ No one is going to lower their skill down to play.”
[Fox News]
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