“The whole sports — trans sports issue, you know, is like an old Willie Horton thing,” Cuban said in his interview with Smith. “You know my attitude is, if there’s a trans athlete, no matter, what side you let the opponent, whether it’s an individual sport or a team sport, you let them decide if they wanted to compete against them or not. If they feel they can win, if they feel it’s not fair, it’s up to them.”

Cuban said the topic should not have been forced “down people’s throats.” He also said those who objected to males competing in female sports should not have been demonized or vilified. His words also suggested he didn’t find anything objectionable with boys competing against girls. Instead, it seemed he felt that society needed time to adjust to the issue, stating, “It takes time.” Then, after an unspecified amount of societal convincing and persuasion, it would eventually be accepted.   

“But to make it just a national issue so that if you weren’t supporting the fewer than 10 trans athletes in the NCAA, then, you know, you weren’t a good person, I just — people aren’t ready for that yet,” Cuban said. “And you’ve got to meet people where they are. We’ve taken this country so far in race relationships, uh, relations and, um, attitudes towards, towards LGBTQ. You know, it takes time. You can’t just force it down people’s throats.”

CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS REJECT LEGISLATION TO BAN TRANSGENDER ATHLETES FROM GIRLS’ SPORTS

Cuban then specified that boys competing in girls’ sports should never have become a campaign topic or a political debate. 

“And instead of trying to get it where the people who were being disadvantaged and being discriminated against are helped, they wanted to make it a campaign issue,” Cuban added. “Focus on helping the people, not using them to campaign.”