Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom has officially notified the Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA of his decision to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft.
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Kanter Freedom declared his intention to enter the WNBA Draft on Friday, citing the league’s self-identification and inclusion guidelines as making him eligible. He argued that if self-declaration is sufficient for participation, he meets all requirements to compete.
“After careful consideration and reviewing the current eligibility guidelines, I’m officially declaring myself a WNBA prospect,” Freedom said in a social media video.
In November 2021, Kanter legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom upon becoming a United States citizen. He moved his birth surname, “Kanter,” to his middle name and adopted “Freedom” as his new surname to symbolize the liberties he found in the U.S., particularly freedom of speech and religion, which he felt were suppressed in his native Turkey.
Royce White, another former NBA player, entered the fray shortly after, stating he also identifies as a woman “sometimes… for purpose of basketball.” He too expressed interest in declaring for the 2027 draft, stating he would be “unstoppable” and that the league should make a clear statement on the issue.
“It came y’all… My 1st wig! Tomorrow I test it on the court,” White posted on X. “This is my feminine era glow up, did I slay? If y’all don’t “yassss queen” you’re transphobic. I really don’t understand all the hatred, I just want to play some hoops with my fellow ladies.”
“I’m just having a blast in my feminine era. I never thought that I was a woman,” White gushed in an interview on Fox News, Sunday. “I think it’s only fair I get a chance to play with some of my queens here in the twilight of my career, my athletic prime!”
He added: “You know, I’ve always trusted the science and I thought I was a man my entire life, but you know, after further review and strong look at my personal preferences — it would appear that that I am indeed sometimes identifying as a transgender woman.”
White is also running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota as a Republican, seeking the seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Tina Smith.
Freedom and White’s moves are meant to challenge the league’s current transgender athlete eligibility rules amid ongoing debates sparked by Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.
The WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) responded by defending transgender athletes and clarifying that the union does not support Kanter or White’s bids.
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A WNBA task force of team presidents and general managers is scheduled to discuss transgender athlete participation and eligibility rules at a previously planned meeting this week.
Engelbert addressed the issue in an internal memo to WNBA teams on Friday, noting that the topic has drawn significant attention and that the task force would take it up further at the upcoming meeting.
In his letter to the WNBA league office and cc’d to Engelbert, Kanter-Freedom declared that his qualifications to join the WNBA were consistent with the league’s collective bargaining agreement and asked the WNBA League Office to verify receipt of his document.
The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement (Article 13, Section 1) states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but provides no definition of “women,” no reference to gender identity, biological sex, sex assigned at birth, self-identification, hormone levels, or any specific transgender eligibility criteria.
However, multiple WNBA officials, coaches and players have expressed support for “transgender women” (biological men) in women’s sports.
Outkick founder Clay Travis has thrown his support behind Freedom and White’s move, telling Fox News that it forces the WNBA to take a firm position on the issue.
“If [Freedom] is not a woman, then they’re going to have to acknowledge that in some way they CAN determine who a woman is!” he explained. “They have to allow him to be eligible to play in the WNBA. He is basically calling them out on the absurdity of their position and taking it to its logical conclusion.”
Last week, Travis proposed creating an WNBA expansion franchise in Nashville called the “Nashville Balls,” which he claimed would be the “most inclusive team in history” by featuring a 100 percent transgender roster and coaching staff composed of men who identify as women.
He welcomed Kanter-Freedom and White to the WNBA as potential prospects for his team.
“Think this is why the Enes Kanter decision was so brilliant,” he told Fox News. “Because under the definition of woman as accepted by many different coaches and players, as soon as you say you are a woman, you are just as much of a woman as someone else!”
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