The right tried to rain on South Carolina's NCAA victory with transphobia. Dawn Staley won't let up

As a second consecutive record year for women’s college basketball reached another landmark conclusion this weekend, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley displayed to hardcore fans and casual viewers alike why she is one of sports preeminent ambassadors — and it wasn't solely because of what her players accomplished on the court, but how she acted off of it. Then a little-known reporter named Dan Zaksheske from the Fox News’ sports website Outkick decided it was necessary to not “stick to sports” — something Outkick begs of athletes to do only when they agree with those athletes — and asked Staley her opinion on transgender athletes in women’s collegiate sport, using the deliberately offensive “biological males in women’s sport” framing before finally quieting down to allow Staley to respond. Former respected ESPN anchor turned right-wing sports darling Sage Steele fumed that Staley “didn’t have the courage to speak the truth” and that “Dawn knows damn well that she never be a Hofer if she played against men.” Steele then further rambled that “It’s irresponsible and unfair for her and other retired female players in all sports to confidently say that they’re now ok with this” and tagged LGBTQ star couple Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe in her post. She had no shame in saying Staley “would trade” any one of her players “for a mediocre boy with an identity crisis.” Gaines’ transphobia gained her a national platform in right-wing media after she finished technically tied for fifth place two years ago to Harvard’s transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at a college meet.