Layshia, you’ve talked about how going back to play this season gave the league an opportunity to be “centered in a way that an 80 percent Black” and LGBTQ+ league typically isn’t. Now that you’re all there at center court, what’s it like, especially during this moment of upheaval?

Layshia: It feels heavier than I expected. At the same time, there’s the fact that we are getting centered. The world is finally catching up to how great we are and how awesome our league is. I wanted the spotlight for everyone. We’ve all played for so many years and worked so hard for this moment. We didn’t get on the cool train of like, “Yo! Let’s start talking about politics and voting and Black Lives Matter.” We have been doing this work. It’s like basketball: Preparation shows, and we’ve been prepared for this moment.

The Times journalist Kurt Streeter pointed out that female athletes, particularly W.N.B.A. players, fighting injustice often do so without the same recognition their male counterparts receive. Is this season different?

Sydney: I do feel like we’re finally being heard. It took two pandemics happening simultaneously for people to sit down and listen. And while it is about coverage, it’s also about being Black women.

You have a lot of support for your activism but also many critics, some of whom are associated with the W.N.B.A., saying we need less, not more, politics in sports, so as not to alienate fans. Do you pay attention to that criticism?

Sue: To say to us, as W.N.B.A. players, to keep politics out of sports is incredibly hypocritical. There’s some irony because all anyone has ever done is judge us on everything but the game of basketball. We’re judged because we’re women. We’re judged because we’re Black. We’re judged because we’re gay.

People ask, “What makes women’s basketball players so good at this?” We just literally had to fight for ourselves for so long. And now we’re in a moment when all of those things have come to a head. If anything, we would love to be judged as basketball players. Imagine that — where they’re just talking about your play on the court and not what you look like and not who you’re dating. Imagine? That would be amazing.

Source: New York Times

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