Former WNBA star Candice Wiggins says she retired early from professional women's basketball because, for eight years, she suffered constant bullying for being heterosexual.

Ms Wiggins claims that the WNBA is 98 per cent gay and the culture “very, very harmful”.

“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins said. “I would say 98 per cent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they [the other players] could apply.”

“There was a lot of jealousy and competition, and we’re all fighting for crumbs.

“People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time. I had never been called the B-word so many times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I’d never been thrown to the ground so much. The message was: ‘We want you to know we don’t like you.’” 

It's not often you hear of the shoe being on the other foot but, as Ms Wiggins has declared, it does happen.