Stanford alum Candice Wiggins: She was bullied in WNBA because she’s straight

sfgate.com ^ | February 21, 2017 | Tod Leonard

[KingofZion]

She was the No. 3 overall draft pick from Stanford in 2008. She was named the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year as a rookie. She won a championship with the Minnesota Lynx.

The success, Wiggins says now, hid a darker reality.

“It wasn’t like my dreams came true in the WNBA. It was quite the opposite,” said Wiggins, the La Jolla Country Day alum who is being inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions’ Bretibard Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

For the first time in an extensive interview, Wiggins described what she said was a “very, very harmful” culture in the WNBA — one in which she contends she was bullied throughout her eight-year career. She also described the discouragement she felt being a part of a “survival league” that she said still struggles for attention and legitimacy after 20 seasons in existence.

***“I wanted to play two more seasons of WNBA, but the experience didn’t lend itself to my mental state,” Wiggins said. “It was a depressing state in the WNBA. It’s not watched. Our value is diminished. It can be quite hard. I didn’t like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me. … My spirit was being broken.”

Wiggins, a four-time All-American at Stanford, asserts she was targeted for harassment from the time she was drafted by Minnesota because she is heterosexual and a nationally popular figure, of whom many other players were jealous.

“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins said. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules (the other players) could apply.

[KingofZion]

So it has come full circle now.

[detective]

From the article:

“I didn’t like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me. … My spirit was being broken.”

Wiggins, a four-time All-American at Stanford, asserts she was targeted for harassment from the time she was drafted by Minnesota because she is heterosexual and a nationally popular figure, of whom many other players were jealous.

“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins said. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules (the other players) could apply.”

“There was a lot of jealousy and competition”

A toxic environment where 98% of the people are homosexual.

Gee, what does that remind you of?

[RightGeek]

I wonder what percentage of the WBNA fans are lesbians? http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/06/11/wnba_pride_women_s_basketball_finally_recognizes_its_gay_and_lesbian_fans.html

[glasseye]

I have been led to believe most women’s collage softball programs are the same.

[Robert DeLong]

Thank goodness for that, that she is straight that is. 8>)

[JerryBlackwell]

It is not bullying when a lesbian does it to a straight.

[jospehm20]

98% is lower than my estimate would have been.