Retired WNBA Star: I Was Harassed for Being Straight in a '98 Percent' Gay League
Retired WNBA star Candice Wiggins said she was harassed and bullied by lesbian teammates throughout her career and that a "toxic" environment in the league led her to cut her professional basketball career short.
In an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune published on Monday, the 30-year-old who played eight seasons in the WNBA and won a league championship in 2011 stated that she wanted to play two more seasons "but the experience didn't lend itself to my mental state."
"It was a depressing state in the WNBA. It's not watched. Our value is diminished. It can be quite hard. I didn't like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me. ... My spirit was being broken," the four-time Stanford University All-American revealed.
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From the time she came into the league with the Minnesota Lynx in 2008, Wiggins claims that she was targeted for harassment because she was a nationally-known female basketball player and she was hetrosexual. She claims that other players were envious of her and the culture was "very, very harmful" for her.
"Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge," Wiggins said. "I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they could apply."
"There was a lot of jealousy and competition, and we're all fighting for crumbs," Wiggins continued. "The way I looked, the way I played – those things contributed to the tension."
Wiggins went on to say that others tried to "hurt me all of the time."
"I had never been called the B-word so many times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I'd never been thrown to the ground so much. The message was: 'We want you to know we don't like you,'" Wiggins stated.
Despite the harassment, Wiggins said that she holds no hard feelings.
"I want you to understand this: There are no enemies in my life. Everyone is forgiven. At the end of the day, it made me stronger. If I had not had this experience, I wouldn't be as tough as I am," she stated. "I try to be really sensitive. I'm not trying to crush anyone's dreams or aspirations, or the dreams of the WNBA. I want things to be great, but at the same time it's important for me to be honest in my reflections."
As the WNBA prides itself on being the most inclusive professional sports league, Wiggins' interview sent waves throughout the WNBA community. It elicited responses and criticisms from other WNBA players and coaches, many of whom argue that Wiggin's claim that 98 percent of WNBA players are gay is a bit of a stretch.
One of Wiggins' former coaches, Gary Kloppenburg, who coached Wiggins when she was playing for the Tulsa Shock, said on Twitter that he never witnessed any of the incidents that Wiggins' described in her interview and was "surprised" by her comments.
"I never witnessed any situation like Candice detailed. She was an extremely hard worker, a great competitor and a respected teammate," Kloppenburg wrote in a series of tweets. "The WNBA is an elite-level basketball league that prides itself on being inclusive and caring about the well-being of all its players."
I enjoyed coaching Candice Wiggins for two WNBA seasons and I was surprised by her negative comments about her time in the league. (1/3)
— gary kloppenburg (@CoachKlop) February 22, 2017
Other WNBA players wrote responses to Wiggins' interviews in the form of blog posts.
Monique Currie, an 11-year WNBA veteran who plays for the San Antonio Stars, wrote on her blog that although she never witnessed the type of bullying that Wiggins described, that doesn't mean that Wiggins didn't perceive that she was being bullied as a minority in the locker room.
"If Wiggins perceived her maltreatment to stem from her femininity in a league that 'encouraged women to look and act like men in the NBA,' if she was bullied because she was 'proud to be a woman,' then these feelings are real and we cannot discount what she felt. This was her perception," Currie wrote. "What does it feel like to be in the minority? Although the WNBA is one of the most deliberately accepting and engaging professional leagues in the world, Wiggins felt like a minority and thus alienated. This could be her own doing but again, this is how she felt."
"If Wiggins was reminded daily (People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time), that she was different, that can be discouraging and even embarrassing," Currie added. "'My spirit was being broken,' Wiggins said and perhaps we need to make sure that no player ever has to go through what Wiggins went through. Yes there is competition, probably some jealousy too, but this is sports! It's a competition."
Wiggins' interview also drew a strong response from Imani Boyette, a 22-year-old player with the Chicago Sky who grew up as a fan of Wiggins. In a blog post, Boyette, who is married to a man, said she was "disappointed" and "hurt" by the interview.
"I don't want to silence you Candice. I hope we can have an open dialogue about your experiences. But next time, I hope you ask your journalist to interview someone else who was there with you. I ask that you use real statistics. I ask that you not try to out other women. I ask that you try not to defame a league that gave you your platform, whether you like it or not," Boyette wrote. "I ask that you remember your sisters, your fellow WNBA stars, the young girls coming up after you. The WNBA is about inclusion, always has been and always will be. There is literally a woman from every walk of life in the league, which is why I love it so much. I have never experienced the bullying you spoke about, and I hope no one else ever does. Thank you for telling your truth."
