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You don’t have to be a sports fan, let alone a WNBA fan, to know the league has been getting a lot of attention from the non-sports world as of late. Debates involving the potential eligibility of trans athletes and accusations of racially motivated fouls against the league’s biggest (white) star have, in many ways, taken the main stage away from the on-court play this season.
Everything that the WNBA is this year seemed to converge at the American Airlines Center last night, with the Indiana Fever coming to town to play the Dallas Wings. The Wings typically play in Arlington in an arena a fraction of the AAC’s size, but the appearance of Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham facing off against Paige Bueckers and crew turned the matchup into a pop-culture and political event as much as it was another spot on the WNBA regular season calendar.
Need a specific example of what we’re talking about here? Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was seen sitting near the court wearing a shirt with “XX-XY” on the front.
The Republican Senate candidate’s attendance and wardrobe choice were reportedly inspired by Cunningham’s mid-July remarks regarding trans female participation in women’s sports when she questioned the fairness of allowing “biological men” to play women’s sports, calling it “common sense.” Prior to the game on Thursday, groups with names such as “Moms for Liberty” and “Moms for America” held what appeared to be a sparsely attended rally outside the arena, supporting Cunningham and promoting “Texas values,” with signs reading “Biology doesn’t lie,” among other messages.
There are no current trans players in the WNBA, nor have there ever been any openly trans players in the league during its 30-year history.
The fact that Cunningham is on the same team as Clark, who is arguably the biggest women’s basketball star in decades, has seemingly made the Fever conservative white America’s sports cause célèbre. In July, a group of 11 Republican lawmakers, led by West Texas Rep. August Pfluger, sent a letter to the WNBA commissioner, demanding that the league take “accountability” for “multiple attacks” against Clark, while questioning whether the fouls, or “attacks” as the letter stated, might be racially motivated.
But, hey, if you can believe it, an exciting, fast-paced basketball game broke out during this GOP extravaganza. And Paxton wasn’t the biggest name in attendance. We know, it’s hard to believe. The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg was on hand, as was former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and local legend and Basketball Hall of Famers Nancy Leiberman and Tracy McGrady.
In front of more than 20,000 in attendance, the Wings fought back from an early deficit to take the lead in the second half and never give it back on the way to a solid win as Arike Ogunbowale and Jessica Shepard, not Bueckers, led the way for the local club. But Bueckers still made her presence felt, especially when she and Clark had a heated exchange in the second quarter when Clark took a swing at Bueckers following a soft foul. As Clark complained to the ref standing next to her, Bueckers put up a hand and, with a bit of a mocking smirk, told Clark to “calm down.”
It was a fun, colorful moment that illustrated why this match had been such a hot ticket for months. On top of all that, the Wings needed the win. With only a few games left in the regular season, the team has had difficulty holding on to leads late in games, something that is perhaps more problematic now that star rookie Azzi Fudd will miss at least the rest of the regular season with an injury.
It’s been a long time since a meaningful pro basketball game was played at the AAC, thanks to the disastrous 2025 Luka Doncic trade. Maybe the Mavericks will be better in 2026, but even if they’re not, the Wings recently announced they will play all their home games at the arena next season, so it won’t be long before another meaningful basketball game is played there again.
