Head coach of undefeated women's basketball team slammed for saying trans athletes should play

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley was criticized after she said that she believes transgender athletes who identify as female should be allowed to compete on women's teams. 

"Damn you got deep on me, didn't you?" Staley told Outkick reporter Dan Zaksheske during a press conference Saturday after he asked for her thoughts on whether biological males should be playing on women's teams. "If you're a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That's my opinion. You want me to go deeper?"

When pressed further on whether transgender women should be able to participate on women's teams, Staley said: "Yes, yes. So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I'm okay with that. I really am."

The question came after the South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team won a game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Friday.

Commentators online criticized her response. 

"Great question. Horrific answer," talk show host Megyn Kelly said on X, formerly Twitter, in response to Staley's answer. 

Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele said on X that she hates that Staley "didn’t have the courage to speak the truth...especially bc I don’t think there’s any way she actually believes what she said." 

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