<\/p>\n
Gabby Williams (1) passes to a teammate during the Golden State Valkyries game against the Phoenix Mercury at Chase Center in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 9, 2026 in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Golden State Valkyries<\/a> forward Gabby Williams<\/a> recently found herself at the center of the WNBA\u2019s biggest story for a comment she made nearly three months ago.<\/p>\n An X account with the handle \u201c@BrickCenter_\u201d posted a 37-second clip Thursday afternoon<\/a> of Williams voicing her support for transgender athletes. As of Monday morning, the video had racked up more than 10 million views, 31,000 likes and 4,500 replies.<\/p>\n The clip was posted devoid of context. It did not state when or where Williams made her comments, leading various publications to falsely report that she said it on Thursday. In an on-court postgame interview after the Valkyries\u2019 94-76 win over the Dallas Wings on Friday, Williams said it had been a rough day for her off the court. She did not elaborate as to why, but said her teammates supported her throughout the day and that she felt \u201cso much love from our fans, from our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As it turns out, Williams made her comments on May 19 during a post-practice media availability in New York ahead of the Valkyries\u2019 May 21 game against the Liberty. She answered three questions from a reporter who said she was working on a project for Them<\/a>, an LGBTQ+ digital publication, ahead of Pride month and the WNBA\u2019s 30-year anniversary.<\/p>\n The reporter, Jackie Powell, first asked Williams how she\u2019s seen the WNBA\u2019s acknowledgement of queer fans develop over her eight seasons in the league. Then, she asked if Williams noticed a turning point in which players became more willing to talk about LGBTQ+ issues. Lastly, Williams was asked what problems she feels remain for LGBTQ+ players in the league, which was the clip that circulated online.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s trans rights now, is our new battle,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThat\u2019s (why) I was saying that the battles have changed. Like, our intentions are the same, but now the environment has changed. We see trans peoples\u2019 rights being stripped away from them. There\u2019s a lot of discourse around trans athletes and where they can compete in. I would welcome a trans athlete on my team or against my team, anytime. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a problem in the world. It\u2019s just another way to kind of attack trans people.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cBrickCenter\u201d brands itself as a parody account of ESPN\u2019s \u201cSportsCenter.\u201d It makes a living off of aggregating viral clips for engagement, one of several X accounts in the genre. Its profile picture mimics the \u201cSportsCenter\u201d logo, its bio says it is \u201cThe Worldwide Leader in Sports Fails\u201d and it claims to be sponsored by Rainbet, a crypto casino and online gambling platform.<\/p>\n Recently, \u201cBrickCenter\u201d has seemed to latch itself onto the trans athlete debate despite the fact that it is largely irrelevant to the WNBA (there are no trans players in the league). The account has routinely posted clips of Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, two former NBA players who recently announced their plans to declare for the 2027 WNBA draft.<\/p>\n The Williams video added another layer to the trans athlete debate, which has taken off in recent weeks after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham touched on the topic in an ESPN profile published July 21. Cunningham said she wants to \u201cprotect young girls\u201d from having to go against biological men, without any supporting evidence.<\/p>\n Cunningham\u2019s comments sparked small protests ahead of Indiana\u2019s games in Seattle and Portland. Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a T-shirt that read \u201ctrans kids belong\u201d against Cunningham and the Fever on Aug. 2. The two were seen speaking on the court ahead of the game; Cunningham said they each shared stories about their viewpoints, and left the conversation with \u201clove and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n The Valkyries have largely remained apart from the noise. The only member of the organization to speak publicly on the topic since Cunningham\u2019s comments has been coach Natalie Nakase<\/a>, who was asked for her thoughts<\/a> ahead of the Valkyries\u2019 Aug. 2 game against the Toronto Tempo. Nakase said she is \u201call about women, little girls deserving to play, and that includes trans women.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, sports is about belonging,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cIt\u2019s about inclusivity. It\u2019s about allowing everyone to be their authentic self. I\u2019m big on that because I have been criticized for my height, for my ethnicity. I\u2019ve been in those \u2018you shouldn\u2019t belong here,\u2019 (conversations), and for me I don\u2019t want that space, especially Golden State, to ever feel like that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association released a statement Friday that condemned all \u201chate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people,\u201d adding that the organization \u201cwill not be used as political pawns.\u201d WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a memo to teams on Friday that addressed the topic of \u201ctransgender athlete participation in women\u2019s basketball.\u201d Engelbert said it will be discussed this week by a task force of team presidents and general managers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabby Williams (1) passes to a teammate during the Golden State Valkyries game against the Phoenix Mercury at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":993564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[9769,62,67,132,68,2864,232,1707],"class_list":["post-993563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-gabby-williams","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-valkyries","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117073395567019204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/993564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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