There’s been a lot of talk about the WNBA over the past few weeks, but not nearly enough of it has been about basketball.
Between the fallout of Sophie Cunningham’s comments regarding transgender athletes in sports, the protests for and against her stance, and the hard foul she took from DiJonai Carrington in a game, the WNBA has been used as a political football for parties whose interest in celebrating women’s basketball is, by their own admission, minimal.
Phoenix Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts is the latest to express his frustration with the current state of the conversation surrounding the WNBA.
“It really pisses me off,” Tibbetts told reporters on Saturday. “It’s disappointing. This is a great league. We’ve got great players. There’s great stories, great rookies, great teams.
“We just spend so much time talking about the wrong stuff. I don’t know why that happens in our league. It’s disappointing. I don’t know who can help change the narrative. Is it the coaches? Is it the players? Is it the media? There’s outside sources that are trying to create division, and at times it’s not a lot of fun. It’s not a lot of fun for our players. It’s not a lot of fun for our coaches, our organizations, because we are doing great things.”
Nate Tibbetts spoke on the recent dialogue surrounding politics and the WNBA, especially involving his USA Basketball coaching partner, Stephanie White.
“It really pisses me off. It’s disappointing. This is a great league. We’ve got great players. There are great stories, great… pic.twitter.com/CQwzmmbgDg
— Hayden Cilley (@HaydenCilley) August 15, 2026
Tibbetts took specific issue with the treatment of Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White, who was criticized by some for what was a completely reasonable response to the hard foul committed against Cunningham. White said she didn’t believe Carrington intentionally went out to strike Cunningham across the neck, but that it was a hard foul and thus called correctly. According to some, this response was reason enough to fire her.
“We make it about basketball, but some of the things that Steph has to go through — that’s wrong,” Tibbetts said of the stituation. “There’s no other coach in any professional sport that has to go through the stuff that she does, and I think of her a lot. It’s not fair. It’s not fair. She’s hired to coach basketball. They got a great team and they’re just dealing with stuff that doesn’t really matter. So that still pisses me off.”
Nate Tibbetts on Stephanie White, via @HaydenCilley:
“Some of the things that Steph has to go through… There’s no other coach in any professional sport that has to go through the stuff that she does… It’s not fair. She’s hired to coach basketball.”pic.twitter.com/ezbu41irEU
— Underdog WNBA (@UnderdogWNBA) August 15, 2026
Tibbetts has gotten to know White through USA Basketball. Tibbetts and White, along with Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase, will serve as assistant coaches on head coach Kara Lawson’s staff for the FIBA Women’s World Cup in September.
The Fever are fourth in the WNBA standings with 10 games left to play in the regular season. Superstar Caitlin Clark is playing some of the best basketball of her career. If the conversation surrounding the WNBA can cool off just a little bit, there’s plenty of great basketball on the horizon.
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