The WNBA and USWNT represent the best of Martin Luther King Jr.'s beautiful vision

Last February the U.S. women's national team did something remarkable. Before the U.S. and Canada game in the SheBelieves Cup, the U.S. posted a photo on X, formerly Twitter, from the locker room. The photo showed players wearing white wristbands. On them, team members wrote "Defend Trans Joy" in pink and blue to match the transgender pride flag.

It wasn't the first time the USWNT refused to shut up and dribble. Megan Rapinoe is one of the world's greatest athlete activists. The team battled for equal pay. Individually, team captain Becky Sauerbrunn wrote an opinion piece opposing anti-trans legislation in her home state of Missouri.

"I have been championing gender equity in sport for a long time, and I am done seeing transgender youth being cruelly targeted to score political points," she wrote. "Transgender people are exactly that, people − not tools to be wielded in a climb up the political ladder. I’m not alone − hundreds of other elite women athletes from Billie Jean King to Candace Parker have consistently expressed loud opposition to bills almost identical to the ones being heard in the Missouri Senate. Thousands of college athletes have signed letters supporting transgender athletes and against discriminatory bills like these."

The USWNT is joined by the WNBA as perhaps the best in sports when it comes to fighting for the rights of others. Few teams, organizations or individuals do better than them. Why am I talking about this now? It's because of what today represents.

One of the worst things anyone can do on Jan. 15 to celebrate the life of one of the greatest Americans that ever lived is say this is what he'd believe if he were alive. You don't know what Martin Luther King Jr. would like or do or say.

What we do know is that King fought for total equality. Not equality for just one group but everyone. And right now, in sports, few people are fighting for equality for everyone like women athletes. In many ways, it's not even close.

This isn't to say men are not doing it. They are. LeBron James will go down not just as one of the greatest athletes ever, but also one of the most influential off the court.

University of Oklahoma scholars Tyler Johnson, Lauren Reinke, Gloria Noble and Tyler Camarillo noted in the Social Science Journal in 2020: "On Twitter, in interviews, and even on the basketball court, James has been outspoken about the state of African Americans and the tragedies and injustices resulting from high profile police shootings in recent years. More specifically, James has, through both words spoken and symbols worn, expressed ongoing public support for the Black Lives Matter movement’s presence and agenda."

James is revolutionary, but it's truly the women who remain the gold standard of athlete activism. There are two reasons why.

First: many of the women athletes who speak out, and thus take significant risks, have more to lose because they don't always have the resources and power their male counterparts possess.

A player for the Atlanta Dream doesn't make the kind of money that someone in the NBA does. The risks they take have far greater personal consequences. Yet they still do it. This is in contrast to someone like, say, Michael Jordan, who had immense power and wealth, was untouchable as an athlete, and mostly refused to use that power to speak out about societal injustices.

"You can't be afraid of losing shoe sales if you're worried about your civil and human rights," Hall of Famer and activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once said. "He took commerce over conscience. It's unfortunate for him, but he's gotta live with it."

The Dream, among other women athletes, take conscience over commerce.

The second reason: consistency. The WNBA's efforts go back years. Before the horrific murder of George Floyd, the WNBA had addressed police brutality in the Black community. They were doing so before Colin Kaepernick did. In 2016, as a story on WNBA activism in Harpers Bazaar notes, players from three WNBA teams were fined for wearing black warm-up shirts as a form of protest following a series of police shootings involving Black men. The fines were later rescinded.

"Don’t say we have a voice and then fine us because we use it," posted Mistie Bass, then a forward for the Phoenix Mercury. "#notpuppets #cutthestrings."

The WNBA helped elect Raphael Warnock.

"Our league is made up of the people that require more rights in this world and our society," said Nneka Ogwumike, who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks and is the president of the WNBA Players Association. "Because we understand our platform − and honestly, I think too, because of the narrative around how quickly it can disappear − I think that we take those moments to take advantage of, you know, the platforms that we do have and us being able to speak out and reach more than people would normally expect."

So today is about many things with one of the biggest being acknowledging, and never forgetting, what King stood for. The WNBA and USWNT fit that perfectly.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WNBA, USWNT represent the best of Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision