Claim:The WNBA suspended basketball player Brittney Griner because it supposedly found out she’s a man.
In late July and early August 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that the WNBA suspended basketball player Brittney Griner because it supposedly found out she’s a man.
The claim spread widely on TikTok. One user posted a video with a caption misspelling Griner’s name, reading “Brittany Griner has been suspended from the WNBA for being a male!!!”
@king_millennial_ent Brittany Griner has been suspended from the WNBA for being a male!!!#fyp #breakingnews #wnba #brittanygriner #suspension #trending #fypシ #viral #imnotsuprised #foryoupage ♬ original sound – King Millennial Entertainment
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), X (archived) and YouTube (archived). Snopes readers wrote in to ask if the claim was true.
We found no evidence that the claim about Griner’s sex or her status in the WNBA was true.
The claim circulated around the same time as another false claim that the WNBA would introduce “sex testing.” Days after the claim started circulating in late July 2025, a match official ejected Griner from a game against the Dallas Wings, sparking speculation about a possible suspension though the WNBA had not publicly confirmed this.
The footage some social media posts used to prove the alleged suspension was 11 years old and not related to Griner. We found no reputable news outlets reporting the claim, which would have been hugely newsworthy if true (archived, archived, archived, archived). Given the above, we rate this claim false.
We reached out to the WNBA, Griner’s team (the Atlanta Dream) and Griner’s agent to ask whether the claim was true and await replies to our queries.
Griner told ESPN.com in 2015 that speculation about her sex and gender was nothing new. Griner said she “got called a boy all the time” but had learned to laugh it off. “I’m just like, ‘I’m a girl, I’m in the right bathroom,'” Griner said.
Reporting at the time and in 2025 used she/her pronouns for Griner. In 2022 PolitiFact, a fellow signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles, rated a claim that Griner was a man “Pants on Fire,” the outlet’s equivalent rating for Snopes’ “False,” based on a lack of credible evidence.
Regarding Griner’s claimed suspension, we found no credible outlets reporting this “news.” Additionally, popular videos that claimed to show NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspending or banning Griner actually used a video from 2014. In that video, Silver announced a lifetime ban for then Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in response to racist comments the league’s investigation found he made during a recorded conversation.
Snopes has previously reported on claims involving Brittney Griner, including whether she faced a suspension over comments about fellow WNBA player Caitlin Clark and whether she faced criticism for kneeling for the national anthem.
“Brittney Griner Had to Be Held Back From Ref After Getting Ejected vs. Wings.” SI, 31 Jul. 2025, https://www.si.com/wnba/brittney-griner-had-to-be-held-back-from-ref-after-getting-ejected-vs-wings.
Brittney Griner Suspended Wnba – Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=78cfef7a28cb5e8a&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB1138GB1138&q=brittney+griner+suspended+wnba&tbm=nws&source=lnms&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZrjP_Cx0LI1Ytb_FGcOviEreERTNAkkP8Y6EXltYTGWtrb4Tcmpawr1aVXRNn5Y-5GUIef4kKYoQxciaXtdkVadzgAxvGYJF-tR9h9MXN-CW02j4sEa3wGHVEZg7yA5kjK0yHGZCREHSlG9C7vxWfd5EVcnpphGr3JlqUKu15Uk2RXpBX70MmkDWcpZlnZsV3tjx8Tg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ3tGkxvaOAxV6XUEAHXiHJg0Q0pQJegQIEhAB&biw=1920&bih=845&dpr=2. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
Brittney Griner Suspended Wnba – Search News. https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=brittney+griner+suspended+wnba&FORM=HDRSC7. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
Brittney Griner Suspended Wnba – Yahoo Search Results. https://uk.news.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrkLeWAe5No9gEAF89LBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=brittney+griner+suspended+wnba&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
Brittney Griner Suspended Wnba at DuckDuckGo. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=brittney+griner+suspended+wnba&ia=news&iar=news. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
Cercone, Jeff. “No, Basketball Star Brittney Griner Is Not a Man.” @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/aug/09/facebook-posts/no-basketball-star-brittney-griner-not-man/. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
CNN. “(Raw) NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Bans Donald Sterling.” YouTube, 29 Apr. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHCgmVikntw.
“Griner: ‘I Don’t Know What People Think I’m Hiding.'” ESPN.Com, 6 Jul. 2015, https://www.espn.com/espnw/article/13176422/phoenix-mercury-center-brittney-griner-opens-bares-all-espn-magazine-body-issue.
Liles, Jordan. “Rumors Spread about WNBA ‘sex Testing,’ Brittney Griner and Karoline Leavitt. Here’s the Truth.” Snopes, 4 Aug. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/wnba-brittney-griner-karoline-leavitt/.
“Risers and Fallers: Fiebich Trending up, Griner Struggling.” ESPN.Com, 1 Aug. 2025, https://www.espn.com/fantasy/womens-basketball/story/_/id/45880813/fantasy-womens-basketball-wnba-risers-fallers.
“Sterling Receives Lifetime Ban, $2.5 Million Fine.” ESPN.Com, 29 Apr. 2014, https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/10857580/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers-owner-receives-life-ban-nba.
Zeigler, Cyd. “Brittney Griner’s Behavior Was Inexcusable. The WNBA Should Suspend Her.” Outsports, 31 Jul. 2025, https://www.outsports.com/2025/7/31/24116658/brittney-griner-atlanta-dream-wnba-technical-foul-ejection-suspension/.
