Sydney Colson’s comments targeted certain players in the WNBA. Now, a Fox News host fired right back, saying the league’s race debate is built on a double standard. Her warning: the players pushing that conversation might be the ones who get hurt by it.
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“I think it’s just such a double standard when you can have these players not only tweeting out the ‘white privilege’ and bringing up race, but also saying that certain people, because of their race, should shut up,” Fox News studio host Tomi Lahren said on the Big Weekend Show.
Lahren’s comments, which were clipped and posted to her X account, follow Colson’s own remarks, when she criticized white players who have remained silent about discrimination, or even made statements that she thinks are harmful towards marginalized groups. She made this comment on her podcast, Unsupervised with Syd & TP.
“For the white players in the league, when you don’t say s—, and even worse, when you say things that are harmful, talking about the trans s—, nobody respects you,” she said. “…You ought to be ashamed, y’all ought to be ashamed to act like you’re cool with people, to act like you care about sisterhood, all of these things.”
Those comments came in a July 21 profile from ESPN, where Cunningham explained that she wanted to protect “young girls” from competing against what she called “biological men.” She also rejected the idea that this meant she was opposed to transgender people.
Lahren explained in her segment that she saw the criticism, which could be levied at Clark and Cunningham, as something that could come back to haunt the wider WNBA. She also explained that she thinks that comments like those from Colson were explicit confirmation of how players around the league “hate Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham because they’re straight white women.”
“It’s going to be to their own detriment,’ she said. “They were mad a couple years ago that they weren’t flying private. They were mad because they’re not getting paid as much. Well, congratulations, you played yourself. No one’s probably going to care about you in a couple of years, and you did it to yourself, so I hope you enjoy it.”
Lahren also referenced one incident involving Cunningham. In August 2026, Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington was ejected for committing a Flagrant 2 foul on Cunningham during a game. After leaving the game, she took to social media and posted a highly controversial message and tagged the Fever, prompting even further debate about whether race had influenced the reaction to the incident.
Of course, the incidents have only contributed to the spotlight, something Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell specifically pointed out as a teammate of Clark.
“If I showed y’all my DM’s about the hate, and all of the stuff that comes with being a professional athlete—but specifically being an Indiana Fever basketball player—it’s a lot that goes into that,” she said. “Showing up every day to compete for fans that may or may not like you is hard. Playing with CC and having the eyes that she got, we get a lot of flak just for being on her team.”
Clark noted afterward that she was “upset” with how Mitchell had been treated by fans, and that she “didn’t stand for” being used for pushing a “racist rhetoric.”
With Cunningham currently an unrestricted free agent following the expiration of her current contract, only time will tell if the Fever will end up bringing her back.