Ray Allen played 18 seasons in the NBA and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2018. Allen was a 10-time NBA All-Star and won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the 2000 United States men’s basketball team. In 2021, he was selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team, having won two NBA championships, one with the Boston Celtics and one with the Miami Heat.

Leroy Arrington is General Manager at ESPN Wide World Of Sports In Disney World and leads the operations, strategy and guest experience at one of the largest and most prestigious multi-sport venues in the world. They joined the Podcast for a recording over Memorial Day Weekend about being a sports dad, the youth sports scene, organizing events at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and much more.

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Why did Lamar Odom choose Killeen?

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take up the hot-button issue of whether transgender girls and women are allowed to participate in sports on girls’ and women’s teams.

The court’s decision to consider the matter sets up the possibility of two big rulings against transgender people two terms in a row, following last month’s 6-3 ruling in the Skrmetti case, in which the Republican-appointed supermajority upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. It takes four justices to grant review of an appeal.

Like the Skrmetti case, the court’s forthcoming decision in the sports-related appeals has national implications. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 27 states have banned transgender youth from playing school sports since 2020.

“Many of these bans allow for invasive forms of sex testing that put all female student athletes at risk and open the door for any school official or adult to question and harass young women,” the ACLU said.

The court agreed to review appeals from West Virginia and Idaho that raise issues under the Constitution’s equal protection clause and federal and state law. The court’s next term begins in October, and the court’s final decisions from the term are expected to be issued by next summer, just as the court finished this term’s decisions last week. So by this time next year, we should know where the court stands on this latest issue.

In the Idaho case, a federal appeals court said a trial court didn’t abuse its discretion in finding the state’s ban likely violates equal protection.

In the West Virginia case, another federal appeals court said the state’s ban can’t be lawfully applied to stop a 13-year-old transgender girl who takes puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since third grade from participating in her school’s cross-country and track teams.

In their petition urging review in the Idaho case, lawyers for the state and the Christian conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom said female athletes “have become bystanders in their own sports as male athletes who identify as female have taken the place of their female competitors — on the field and on the winners’ podium.” They said the appeals court ruling broke with legal precedent and biological reality.

With the high court’s decision to take the appeal, it’s now one of several on the court’s docket so far next term backed by ADF. The justices add appeals to the docket on a rolling basis and typically hear arguments in two-week sessions from October through April.

Opposing review in a brief last year, ACLU lawyers, who also represented the transgender side in the Skrmetti case, urged the justices to at least wait to decide what to do with this sports case until Skrmetti was decided.

“To the extent that there are unresolved issues in the context of athletics following Skrmetti, there will be plenty of future vehicles for this Court to resolve those issues on a complete record and with further development of the issues in the lower courts,” they wrote to the justices, who nonetheless chose this case as a vehicle.

In the West Virginia case, state officials said the appeals court “took on an exceptionally important issue — and got most every step exceptionally wrong.” They asked the justices to “grant review to ensure that women’s sports are preserved and protected.” Opposing review in a brief last year, ACLU lawyers similarly referenced the then-pending Skrmetti case. And like in the Idaho case, they raised procedural reasons not to take the West Virginia case, but the justices nonetheless took this one up as well.

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It has now been made official that 19-year-old Hugo Alba, one of Barcelona’s most promising youth players, has completed his move to OFK Belgrade.

The talented centre forward, who became a free agent on June 30 after his contract with Barcelona ended, has signed a deal with the Serbian club until 2028.

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Alba had already been training with OFK Belgrade for three weeks during their pre-season preparations and even made his unofficial debut on Monday, starting in a friendly match against Dynamo Moscow.

His move had been expected for some time, with the only thing missing being his official presentation, which finally took place this Wednesday.

Alba was the captain of Barcelona’s U19 A team under Juliano Belletti and enjoyed a standout season, scoring an impressive 28 goals.

A new challenge

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case over state restrictions on which school sports teams transgender students can join.

Just two weeks after upholding a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the justices said they will review lower court rulings in favor of transgender athletes in Idaho and West Virginia. The case will be argued in the fall.

The nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls on girls sports teams has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

More than two dozen states have enacted laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some policies have been blocked in court.

At the federal level, the Trump administration has filed lawsuits and launched investigations over state and school policies that have allowed transgender athletes to compete freely. This week, the University of Pennsylvania modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and said it would apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by her participation on the women’s swimming team, part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case.

Separately, Senate Democrats in March blocked a Republican push for a national ban.

Republican President Donald Trump also has acted aggressively in other areas involving transgender people, including removing transgender troops from military service. In May, the Supreme Court allowed the ouster of transgender service members to proceed, reversing lower courts that had blocked it.

A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women’s sports at the high school, college or professional level. That view was shared by about 9 in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats.

West Virginia is appealing a lower-court ruling that found the ban violates the rights of Becky Pepper-Jackson, who has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade. Pepper-Jackson sued the state when she in was middle school because she wanted to compete on the cross country and track teams.

This past school year, Pepper-Jackson qualified for the West Virginia girls high school state track meet, finishing third in the discus throw and eighth in the shot put in the Class AAA division.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Pepper-Jackson in two areas, under the Constitution’s equal protection clause and the landmark federal law known as Title IX that forbids sex discrimination in education.

“It’s a great day, as female athletes in West Virginia will have their voices heard. The people of West Virginia know that it’s unfair to let male athletes compete against women; that’s why we passed this commonsense law preserving women’s sports for women,” state Attorney General John McCuskey said in a statement.

Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson, who had urged the court to reject the appeal, said they stand ready to defend the lower-court rulings.

“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status. Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do–to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” the American Civil Liberties Union’s Joshua Block said in a statement. Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, also is representing Pepper-Jackson.

Idaho in 2020 became the first state in the nation to ban transgender women and girls from playing on women’s sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities.

The ACLU and the women’s rights group Legal Voice sued Idaho on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, who hoped to run for Boise State University. A Boise-area athlete who is not transgender also joined the lawsuit because she fears the law could force her to undergo invasive tests to prove her biological sex if someone questions her gender.

The state asked for Supreme Court review after lower courts blocked the state’s ban while the lawsuit continues.

The justices did not act on a third case from Arizona that raises the same issue.

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