Former WNBA Player Sydney Colson Criticizes White Teammates on Trans Athlete Issues

Former WNBA player Sydney Colson has sharply criticized white players in the league for their stance, or lack thereof, on issues concerning transgender athletes. Speaking on her podcast "Unsupervised with Syd & TP," Colson stated that players who remain silent or make harmful comments on the topic alienate their teammates and lack respect within the league.

"For the white players in the league, when you don’t say s–t, and even worse, when you say things that are harmful, talking about the trans s–t, nobody respects you," Colson said. "Shut the f–k up. Shut the f–k up. Nobody wants to hear your opinion. Freedom of speech, so you can say it, but just know people are trying to get by when they’re dealing with you."

Colson, who played alongside Sophie Cunningham on the Indiana Fever in 2025, alluded to Cunningham's previous public statements on transgender participation in women's sports. In July, Cunningham had told ESPN, "I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men."

Colson emphasized the importance of solidarity among WNBA players, particularly concerning issues that affect marginalized groups. "Listen, if you never speak up about a damn thing when you know it’s impacting the people you claim to love and care about," Colson stated, "you ought to be ashamed to act like you’re cool with people, to act like you care about sisterhood, all of these things."

The conversation also touched upon comments made by Indiana Fever General Manager Amber Cox regarding the team's fanbase. Cox had defended the fanbase, which has faced accusations of racism from players and fans, stating, "The attacks on our fanbase have no basis in reality, and they need to stop."

Colson disagreed with Cox's assessment, citing players' documented experiences. "But what I painted for you was an environment of a culture that’s continuing and not being addressed," Colson said. "And people are being told that things are not ‘based in reality,’ even though players are documented and on record saying what they’ve experienced. So now, it’s a slap in the face to black players who are in the organization right now, who have been in it, who are possibly going to have to be in it."

Colson clarified that her criticism was not directed at every individual fan but questioned the organization's efforts to address problematic fan behavior. "We didn’t say that these individual people are racist, but this environment is not discouraging people from showing up and being hateful, racist, homophobic, sexist, any of those things," she continued. "It’s a problem, and it’s not new."

Colson, who tore her ACL in August of the previous year, is not currently on the roster.