Wiggins’ remark fuels concern
WNBA head ‘stunned’ by comment about ‘ toxic’ environment
WNBA President Lisa Borders says she was “stunned and disappointed” to read that former star Candice Wiggins found her experience in the league “toxic.”
Wiggins, a Stanford product who retired last season, told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the culture in the league was “very, very harmful” and that she was targeted throughout her career for being heterosexual and popular.
In a statement released by the WNBA on Thursday, Borders says: “Of course, it concerns me if any of our players do not have a positive experience and I hope that anyone who feels uncomfortable would reach out to me or others in the league office.”
In her interview, Wiggins said she was treated poorly because she was straight. The 30-year-old said she was bullied from the time she was drafted by Minnesota. “Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins said.
Current and former WNBA players were empathetic to Wiggins, but also disputed her claims in social media posts.
Tennis
One day after scoring the biggest win of her six-month-old pro career, Atherton’s CiCi Bellis came back down to earth in the Dubai Tennis Championship quarterfinals.
Caroline Wozniacki reached her sixth semi at the tournament by defeating Bellis 6-3, 6-2. Bellis, the youngest player in the draw at 17, had upset her first top-10 player, sixth-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, on Wednesday. The American started her match with Wozniacki confidently, jumping out to 31, but couldn’t sustain the momentum. “It was really fun for me to see what the highest level is (like),” Bellis said. Wozniacki will play Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in the semis. Sevastova defeated Wang Qiang of China 6-4, 7-5.
Nursing an aching n right shoulder injury, Serbian star Novak Djokovic has accepted a wild card to play in the Acapulco tournament that starts Monday in Mexico City. Djokovic, who earlier this month required treatment in the shoulder after a four-set Davis Cup win over Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, joins a loaded field of six top-10 players.
Soccer
Masterminding one of the greatest upsets in sporting history wasn’t enough for Claudio Ranieri to keep his job at Leicester. Ranieri was fired by Leicester nine months after the 65year-old Italian manager guided the club to the English Premier League title at preseason odds of 5,000-1. Leicester’s Thai owners took the drastic measure with soccer’s ultimate fairy tale threatening to have an unhappy ending.
The team is one point and one place above the relegation zone and in serious danger of losing its status in the world’s most lucrative league.
Miscellany
A Michigan sports doctor charged with sexually assaulting nine young gymnasts has heard the charges against him at a pair of arraignments. Dr. Larry Nassar was charged Wednesday with 22 crimes in Ingham and Eaton counties. Not-guilty pleas were entered in two courts Thursday. Nassar won’t be released. He’s in jail without bond in an unrelated child pornography case in Western Michigan.
Football
Russell Okung bet n on himself and lost. Or did he? The former first-round pick signed what basically was a one-year tryout last year with Denver. Serving as his own agent, Okung structured his contract so that only his $8 million salary in 2016 was guaranteed. He needed to have a big year to trigger the final four years and $48 million. He didn’t, and on Thursday the Broncos informed the former first-round pick they wouldn’t be picking up his $1 million option bonus next month that would have guaranteed him another $21 million. Okung, 29, could make up for all that lost money in free agency.
Bernie Custis, pro n football’s first black quarterback who blazed the trail for future CFL stars Warren Moon, Chuck Ealey and Damon Allen, has died. He was 88. Custis made pro football history on Aug. 29, 1951, when he became a starter with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who confirmed his death.
Dallas and Arizona n will play in the Hall of Fame game on Aug. 3.
Baseball
The head of the Major League Baseball Players Association says it will be difficult for big leaguers to participate at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Baseball returns to Olympics after a 12year absence for the Tokyo Games, which are scheduled for July 24-Aug. 9— in the middle of baseball’s season. “There are challenges with the schedule, and there are challenges with major leaguers being involved,” Clark said.