Tara VanDerveer defends WNBA from Candice Wiggins’ allegations
Tara VanDerveer said she doesn’t know what former Stanford guard Candice Wiggins went through in the WNBA, but the Cardinal women’s head coach defended the league from Wiggins’ sharp criticism.
Wiggins, a four-time All-American for the Cardinal (2004-08), said in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, which The Chronicle printed Tuesday, that she was bullied during her eight-year WNBA career because she is heterosexual.
Wiggins said the culture in the WNBA is “very, very harmful” and that she was harassed from the time she was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in 2008. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women,” she said.
She said other players were also jealous of her because of her popularity.
“People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time. I had never been called the b-word so many times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I’d never been thrown to the ground so much. The message was: ‘We want you to know we don’t like you.’”
VanDerveer said she “loved coaching Candice,” Stanford’s second all-time leading scorer.
“I don’t know what her experience was with the WNBA. What I know about the WNBA, under (WNBA President) Lisa Borders and (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver, is that an inclusive, supportive workplace is really high on their agenda.
“It’s unfortunate that someone would feel that way. I just think they work really hard to have a great environment.”
Efforts to reach Wiggins were unsuccessful. In the Union-Tribune interview, she depicted the WNBA as a “survival league” that that still struggles for attention and legitimacy after 20 years of existence.
“I don’t know why someone would take the shots,” VanDerveer said. “The WNBA is a young league. It’s doing really well. It’s what we’ve experienced in women’s sports. ... Women’s basketball is growing, but we still have a ways to go. We know this. It’s still a great game.”
Referring to Wiggins’ contention that 98 percent of WNBA players are gay, she said, “I don’t know that math was ever Candice’s strength. That to me sounds homophobic and negative.”
In a follow-up interview with the Union-Tribune on Tuesday, Wiggins said she used the 98 percent figure because “it felt that way to me” rather than as a statistical fact.
She also said there was nothing in the earlier interview she would take back. Although there was ample criticism of her by other WNBA players and ex-players on Twitter and other social media, she said she received positive reactions from people close to her and private thanks from other players who she said had similar experiences.
VanDerveer said she hasn’t talked with Wiggins lately. Wiggins, 30, announced her retirement in March. Besides helping Minnesota to the championship in 2011, she also played for the Tulsa Shock, Los Angeles Sparks and New York Liberty.
VanDerveer also was disappointed that Wiggins’ remarks were given such extensive media play but Nneka Ogwumike, another Stanford alum, was given much less coverage for her MVP season in 2016 and her game-winning shot for the Sparks in the championship game.
Though the WNBA has not issued a response to Wiggins’ criticism, several players vigorously defended the league.
DeLisha Milton-Jones, an assistant coach at Pepperdine who won two WNBA titles and appeared in more games than any player in league history, said her experience in the league was a “complete contradiction of what’s been stated by Candice.”
She told espnW.com, “The WNBA has allowed many of us to live a dream. I pray that Candice does find peace with her life and is able to move forward without devaluing or diminishing what’s been priceless to so many others in the league.”
Chicago center Imani Boyette, a WNBA rookie last season, wrote in a blog addressed to Wiggins, “There is literally a woman from every walk of life in the league, which is why I love it so much. I have never experienced the bullying you spoke about, and I hope no one else ever does.”
San Antonio forward Monique Currie wrote in a blog that in her 11 seasons in the WNBA she has not experienced or witnessed the bullying that Wiggins described.
“Wiggins needs to check her privilege at the door, and not group her very unfortunate personal experiences on an entire group of women,” Currie wrote.