The WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, has denounced people she said are trying to “sow divisiveness” as the league grapples with a debate over transgender athletes.

Engelbert made the comments on Thursday before the Indiana Fever’s loss to the Dallas Wings at the home of the Dallas Mavericks. Demonstrators showed up outside American Airlines Center, as they have at other venues since the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports.

The WNBA issued a statement last week criticizing those trying to create a narrative about transgender women playing in the league. Engelbert’s comments in Dallas were her first since the league called out what it said were bad faith efforts to use the debate to “demean or marginalize others.”

There has never been a transgender woman – a person assigned male at birth who transitions to align with their gender identity – on a WNBA roster.

“People are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness,” Engelbert said on Thursday while sitting alongside Wings CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb.

“We’re being the center of political football for people who have never watched the WNBA, never have written about the WNBA or reported on the WNBA,” Engelbert said, echoing NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s recent use of “political football” to describe the debate that has engulfed the WNBA.

The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. Earlier this month, two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.

Engelbert sent a memo this month to team presidents and general managers saying the league would discuss the subject of transgender women in women’s basketball.

“There’s always going to be haters out there and we denounce it,” Engelebert said Thursday. “But that’s what happens when you have made it as a legitimate sports media and entertainment product.”

Some WNBA players and coaches have come out in support of transgender athletes, including Seattle Storm center Stefanie Dolson and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve.

“We need to protect trans kids,” Reeve said on 1 August. “To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports.”

Many players have declined to comment on the subject.