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Last month, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham ignited a furious debate around the country when she spoke out against transgender women competing in women’s sports. However, one Emmy-nominated sportscaster is now arguing that Cunningham should have been disciplined for those comments. Over the past few weeks, the WNBA has faced a media firestorm that has even included former NBA players making a mockery of the league by trying to declare themselves eligible for the WNBA Draft. It’s been a massive distraction to a growing league, and sportscaster Chris Williamson believes that it all could have been avoided if the league would have disciplined Cunningham right off the bat. Sophie Cunningham’s Comments During an interview for the ESPN profile that was published last month, Cunningham was asked about her political views, and she took the opportunity to share her views on trans women in women’s sports. “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she told ESPN. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” Cunningham later doubled down on her comments, describing her views as “common sense.” “I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” Cunningham said last month. “And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. I stand on what I said.” Cunningham has made it clear since then that she has no plans to back away from the backlash surrounding her comments. However, she has also indicated that she would like to turn her attention back toward basketball. ‘Her conduct has objectively been detrimental’ Cunningham’s comments have led to anti-trans rallies outside essentially every Fever game, forced coaches throughout the league to answer politically charged questions at their press conferences, and led Cunningham’s own superstar teammate, Caitlin Clark, to be labeled a “coward” for not issuing a strong statement on the matter. It even led to former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White to mockingly declare themselves eligible for the WNBA Draft as fake transgender women. The WNBA has been turned into political football over the past few weeks, but Williamson, an Emmy-nominated sportscaster, believes that this all could have been avoided. “The moment the league didn’t discipline Sophie Cunningham for her transphobic comments, they set the table for almost all of this political discourse and nastiness towards the trans community. Her conduct has objectively been detrimental to the league,” Williamson wrote in a post on X. As Williamson suggests, the WNBA can and has fined or suspended players for “conduct detrimental to the league,” which is a formal rule for actions that harm the sport. This rule has been used to punish players for domestic violence arrests but also for off-the-court statements and even comments made on social media. So punishing Cunningham for comments she made to a news outlet wouldn’t be totally out of the question if the league did determine that the comments caused harm to the sport. The WNBA did not initially address Cunningham’s comments, but did issue a statement 17 days after Cunningham’s initial comments were published. “We embrace justice equity, diversity, and inclusion,” the statement read. “Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change. Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.” Cunningham was never given any sort of punishment or reprimand for her comments.