Candice Wiggins says she was bullied because she wasn’t a lesbian in WNBA

Candice Wiggins, who played in the WNBA for the New York Liberty – among other teams, told the San Diego Union-Tribune this week that she was bullied by other players in the league for not being a lesbian. Wiggins suggested that 98 percent of players in the WNBA are homosexual and described the culture of the league as “very, very harmful.”

“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins said. “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.’”

Wiggins, who left basketball at the age of 29, also slammed the WNBA’s low TV ratings.

“It was a depressing state in the WNBA,” she said. “It’s not watched. Our value is diminished.”