--- title: Candice Wiggins Stands by Comments That WNBA Is Toxic description: Candice Wiggins stood by the comments she made earlier this week in which she called the WNBA toxic and claimed gay players bullied her canonical: https://time.com/4678406/candice-wiggins-wnba-toxic-basketball/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-22T12:44:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:53.519Z og:title: Candice Wiggins Says WNBA Is Toxic: 'My Spirit Was Being Broken' og:description: She also claimed gay players in the league bullied her for being straight og:url: https://time.com/4678406/candice-wiggins-wnba-toxic-basketball/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01106260e9f0c329/6988bb4c86f68e851f6e3975/candice-wiggins.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Connecticut Sun v New York Liberty og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Candice Wiggins Says WNBA Is Toxic: 'My Spirit Was Being Broken' twitter:description: She also claimed gay players in the league bullied her for being straight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01106260e9f0c329/6988bb4c86f68e851f6e3975/candice-wiggins.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Candice Wiggins Says WNBA Is Toxic: 'My Spirit Was Being Broken' > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Feb 22, 2017 12:44 PM UTC  Candice Wiggins, then of the New York Liberty, handles the ball against the Connecticut Sun at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 9, 2015. Candice Wiggins, then of the New York Liberty, handles the ball against the Connecticut Sun at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 9, 2015. Jesse D. Garrabrant—NBAE/Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Feb 22, 2017 12:44 PM UTC Former professional basketball player [Candice Wiggins](https://www.candicewiggins.com/) on Tuesday [stood by the comments](http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-wiggins-20170221-story.html) she made earlier this week in which she called the WNBA toxic and claimed gay players bullied her. Wiggins, 30, had [told the San Diego _Union-Tribune_](http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-wigginsside-20170217-story.html) on Monday that the WNBA culture was “very harmful” during her eight years playing for the league and that other women harassed her in part for being straight. “It can be quite hard. I didn’t like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me,” she said. “My spirit was being broken.” “Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins added. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they (the other players) could apply.” The interview took place ahead of her Tuesday induction into the San Diego Hall of Champions’ Bretibard Hall of Fame, according to the newspaper. Wiggins, who announced her retirement last year, defended her remarks amid backlash, telling the _Union-Tribune_ in a new interview that speaking out “freed” her “spirit.” “I know it sounds heartless, but I don’t care,” she said. “I’m not sorry for saying what needs to be said. And I’m not patting myself on the back. It wasn’t brave, but it would have been cowardly for me not to do it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4678406/candice-wiggins-wnba-toxic-basketball/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4678406/candice-wiggins-wnba-toxic-basketball/"},"headline":"Candice Wiggins Says WNBA Is Toxic: 'My Spirit Was Being Broken'","datePublished":"2017-02-22T12:44:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:53.519Z","description":"She also claimed gay players in the league bullied her for being straight","url":"https://time.com/4678406/candice-wiggins-wnba-toxic-basketball/","keywords":["motto","Basketball","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01106260e9f0c329/6988bb4c86f68e851f6e3975/candice-wiggins.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01106260e9f0c329/6988bb4c86f68e851f6e3975/candice-wiggins.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Connecticut Sun v New York Liberty","caption":"Connecticut Sun v New York Liberty","creditText":"Jesse D. 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