WNBA champion Candace Wiggins shared how she leaned onto her faith after being bullied by other players in the league for being straight.
WNBA Champion Candace Wiggins
In 2016, WNBA player Candace Wiggins voluntarily retired from her career because of the hardships she faced. She had been bullied by other players in the league for being straight. A year later, she disclosed the truth during her controversial interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The then 29-year-old athlete shared the truth about the bullies. She even shared the truth that WNBA has a culture in it where they encouraged women to look and act like the men in NBA.
“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Candace told the publication. “I would say 98% 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.”
Controversial interview
That interview sparked a huge issue. The professing Christian was attacked by “unimaginable anger.”
“It was an anger directed toward me that I have never imagined was possible. It was unimaginable anger that I had sparked,” she explained to The Christian Post in an interview a day after the 2021 NBA All-Star Game.
Candace is the daughter of the popular baseball player Alan Wiggins who died at the age of 32. She has played for four WBNA teams since she started her career in 2008. The 2008 Sixth Woman of the Year won her championship with the Minnesota Lynx in 2011.
The 34-year-old athlete emphasized during her interview with Christian publication that she meant no harm with her comments made four years ago.
Faith
Candace has also revealed that it was God who helped her get through her severe injury in July 2010 when she tore her Achilles tendon.
“I went to God because I wanted so badly to digest the entire Bible, but I felt the guilt … I felt very lost,” she said. “Immediately, God heard my sorrow and sadness, and the message I got, the inner voice I got, was just treat the Bible like you treat all the other texts in your life,” she said.
And from that moment on, she continued reading the Scripture and cultivating her relationship with God.
“That kind of brought me to a place where I thought I was living in my purpose. From that point on, I stayed reading the Word,” she added.
Read also: Zach Williams And Dolly Parton Win Grammy Award For ‘There Was Jesus’