Stephen A. Smith Calls Cheryl Reeve's 'Trans Kids Belong' Shirt 'Irresponsible'

Since Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a "Trans Kids Belong" shirt during Sunday's nationally televised game against the Indiana Fever, and gave an extended, nuanced defense of trans inclusion in women's sports, the story has moved from the arena to the airwaves. On Tuesday, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith used his SiriusXM show to call Reeve's move "irresponsible" and demand she explain herself.

"You are Cheryl Reeve, Head Coach of the Minnesota Lynx. That is an IRRESPONSIBLE thing to do," Smith said, according to Breitbart and BroBible, both of which aired the clip. "You are a coach for a female basketball team. Do you not think that the females are being screwed over if they have to compete against an individual who's born as a male? What are you talking about?"

Smith didn't stop at Reeve's on-court statement. He questioned whether she considered the WNBA's business interests. "No regard for the WNBA, the sponsors who may be put off by that," he said. "How is that okay?"

Smith followed up on social media Tuesday, posting that he wasn't retreating from the position. "You can support people's rights AND believe biological men shouldn't compete in women's sports. Those two things are not mutually exclusive," he wrote, according to his own post cited by Breitbart. "My issue isn't hate. It's protecting women, protecting girls, and asking why a WNBA coach chose to inject herself into a controversy that could hurt the very league she's supposed to represent. Common sense still matters. That's where I stand."

The dispute traces back to Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham's July 21 comments to ESPN, in which she said she wants "to protect young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men." Cunningham has repeatedly stressed she isn't motivated by animus. "I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that,'" she told ESPN, adding, "I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest."

Reeve's response, delivered at length before Sunday's game and reported by Awful Announcing, was more layered than a simple rebuttal. She argued the league bears responsibility for making sure no group of players feels unsafe or discriminated against, and she pushed back on what she called a distorted narrative. "It is not the case that we have 'biological men in girls' locker rooms,' the way it's being phrased, the innuendo there that somehow transgender women are predators," Reeve said, according to Breitbart's transcript. "There's a lot of narrative that is problematic that we need to address. That is simply not what's happening."

Reeve did draw a distinction she said the calculus changes "when you're beyond puberty, when you're in Olympic sport, when we have scholarships at stake and that sort of thing." At that point, she said, "common-sense people get together, and you find common ground to find a way to be inclusive." That's a meaningfully different position than a blanket no-restrictions stance, though Smith's criticism focused on the WNBA context specifically, where competition is exclusively among adults.

That's the crux of the disagreement Smith is pressing: not whether children should be excluded from youth sports, but whether adult biological males should compete against adult women at the professional level. Cunningham and Smith both frame that as a fairness issue for female athletes, not an attack on anyone's rights. Reeve frames her shirt and comments as pushing back on what she sees as an exaggerated threat narrative targeting a small number of trans athletes.

ESPN color commentator Rebecca Lobo urged viewers during Sunday's broadcast to listen to Reeve's full comments rather than rely on clips, calling them "incredibly thoughtful," per Awful Announcing. Smith, her own ESPN colleague, took the opposite view days later, calling the shirt itself the problem regardless of the nuance in Reeve's remarks.

No WNBA policy change has followed either Cunningham's original comments or Reeve's shirt. The league has not announced new rules on transgender eligibility, and no sponsor has publicly withdrawn support over the incident as of Tuesday. Small protest groups have gathered outside arenas during Fever road games since Cunningham's comments, but organizers have not filed any formal complaint with the league.

The unresolved question is whether the WNBA, under Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, will issue any guidance on how players and coaches can address the topic publicly, given that it now involves on-court apparel during a nationally televised broadcast. So far, the league has stayed silent, leaving players, coaches, and commentators to fight it out on their own.