#dan dakich

Gideon Taaffe and Charis Hoard at MMFA:

Instead of celebrating the rising influence of women’s basketball, right-wing media seized on the highly anticipated draft to attack the WNBA and dismiss the low wages of some of basketball’s biggest stars.  After a historic women’s NCAA tournament, the Women’s National Basketball Association draft drew substantial media attention both praising the rising influence of the league and criticizing the low wages of the league’s stars. Right-wing media chose to denigrate the sport and its players rather than engage with critiques of how women athletes are treated.

Cyd Zeigler at Outsports:

Charles Barkley went full-on scorched-earth against transgender athletes competing in girls or women’s sports in an interview this week with OutKick. He went so far as saying anyone who thinks trans women should be competing against other women are “stupid.” Barkley isn’t just another anti-LGBTQ talking head on Fox News or OutKick. In addition to being one of the greatest NBA players of all time and an extremely popular TV commentator for TNT and CBS Sports, Barkley has demonstrated a years-long willingness to share his views on hot-button issues and strongly support LGBTQ rights.

“Sir Charles” — once rumored as a possible candidate for Governor of Alabama — isn’t one to just shut up and dribble. Barkley’s comments about trans athletes are not easily dismissed as those of some raging bigot. Barkley is not a homophobe or transphobe. He embraces the LGBTQ community, and he has spoken publicly many times about his support for various letters of our community, including trans people. [...] With all of that context, and all of the public speaking Barkley has done on behalf of gay and trans people and the entire LGBTQ community, his comments this week to OutKick when asked about transgender women in female sports is like a giant brick being dropped on the entire movement for trans inclusion in sports. His full response: “I’m going to make this very simple for you, Dan. Men should not play sports against women.” To be sure, some may say the he didn’t say “transgender women,” but rather “men” — and trans women aren’t men. But we know what he meant: He meant trans women. That he used “men” makes it even worse for the efficacy of trans advocates. He continued: “I’m not going to get into all the bulls**t that’s that’s going on out here in the world today. It’s interesting. I always sit back and look at this stuff, and I’m going to tell you something. I love gay people, I love transgender people. I’m against any form of discrimination, period. “I love my gay friends and I love my transgender friends. But I’m not going to get into all this stuff that’s going around. “Men should not play sports against women. If anyone thinks that, I think they’re stupid. “I support the gay community 100%. I support the transgender community 100%.” For full effect, he emphasized BUT in the next sentence. “But I do not, under any circumstances, zero, think men should play sports against women. And if anybody has a problem with that, they’re going to have to get over it. I’m not going to change. I think it’s wrong. Period.”

TNT Sports’ Charles Barkley, who has long had a record of LGBTQ+ support, went on Outkick’s Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich last week to state that trans women should not be playing in women’s sports.

See Also:

Awful Announcing: Charles Barkley takes stance on transgender athletes: ‘Men should not play sports against women’

From the 05.08.2025 edition of Outkick's Don't @ Me With Dan Dakich:

Pete Tsipis and Reed McMaster at MMFA:

As Fox Sports has been broadcasting the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, personalities from Fox Corp.'s OutKick brand, including founder Clay Travis, have been belittling women’s soccer and attacking the United States women’s national soccer team. Travis is a conspiracy theorist and the founder of the OutKick, a sports and variety outlet owned by Fox Corp. that regularly promotes far-right grievance politics and coronavirus conspiracies under the guise of sports news. Travis has made sexist comments directed at female professional athletes, writing that “if you can’t tell if a woman is hot or not in her uniform, then it isn’t a sport you should be watching. This means the only acceptable sports to watch women play are beach volleyball, tennis, and stripping.” He has attacked other networks for covering WNBA players, claimed that the league has a terrible “product,” sneered at women who didn't have the proper equipment to compete in their sport, and insisted that teenage boys could beat professional teams of female athletes. Travis has also criticized female athletes for not being transphobic.

Leading up to the Women’s World Cup, Fox Sports aired ads featuring prominent players on the U.S. women’s national team and billed the tournament as “USA vs The World” to promote their coverage. But while many Fox Sports pundits critiqued the USWNT on their performance or tactical approach, OutKick blamed their tournament shortcomings on “wokeness” and other right-wing grievances. OutKick joined others in right-wing media that celebrated when the USWNT was defeated. Travis and others connected the political beliefs of players like Megan Rapinoe to their lack of success in the World Cup.