There’s a controversy in the Women’s National Basketball League. The controversy is whether a transsexual man-to-woman player should be allowed to play.

This controversy is currently a purely hypothetical one – there are no actual transexual players in the WNBA. But the question has been posed, should there be?

We know that men have inherent physical advantages over women. They’re bigger and stronger. They have denser muscles, due primarily to their much greater testosterone levels. That muscle density makes them not only stronger but also faster, quicker and able to jump much higher.

So, follow the science. A man would have an unfair advantage over a woman on the basketball court. An average NBA player of 6’6” and 215 pounds would dominate.

A person like Nikola Jokic would be like an adult playing with children. He could score 80 points every night. Even a backup guard could score 60 points every night simply by rising above his woman defender’s outstretched arms on every jump shot. In effect, every shot by the man would be an open one, because the woman defender would be unable to jump high enough to contest it.

That doesn’t mean I pooh-pooh the WNBA. For example, I’m on record for admiring the shooting skill, game knowledge, innate competitiveness and, OK, I’ll say it, the good look of Caitlin Clark. (Her teammate Sophie Cunningham is out of my league.) But even apart from Caitlin Clark, any WNBA player could run circles around me, even back in my prime.

They play a different game, these women do. Unable to launch themselves at the rim from the free throw line 15 feet away, there’s a greater emphasis on passing and shooting.

Dare I say it? They play the game that James Naismith invented some 135 years ago in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s much different from today’s NBA game, but no less fun to watch.

So why do some people think transsexuals should be allowed in the WNBA?

It’s because there aren’t any. Once we have one who is not on their team, they’ll cry FOUL! Once we have one who is on their team, they’ll cry INCLUSION! (Once we have one in their locker room, they’ll just cry.)

You see, these women are like their male counterparts in an important way: they want to win.