{"id":851714,"date":"2026-08-09T10:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/851714\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T10:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:52:31","slug":"16-year-nba-veteran-shares-strong-criticism-of-enes-kanter-royce-white-declaring-for-wnba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/851714\/","title":{"rendered":"16-year NBA veteran shares strong criticism of Enes Kanter, Royce White declaring for WNBA Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMWcxajNfc2h3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Follow us on Google Discover <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>NBA veteran Robin Lopez reacted to former NBA players Enes Kanter and Royce White declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft with a sarcastic takedown.<\/p>\n<p>Lopez recently wrapped up his NBA career in 2024 after getting drafted in 2008 with the No.15 overall pick. While Lopez was never a star, he enjoyed a long career as a serviceable starter and rotational player.<\/p>\n<p>The recent debate over trans women being included in the WNBA led to other former NBA players like Enes Kanter and Royce White to declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft, citing the vague language in the CBA about eligibility.<\/p>\n<p>Robin Lopez slams Enes Kanter and Royce White over WNBA Draft debate<\/p>\n<p>With Kanter and White trying to force the WNBA to exclude trans athletes through their draft declarations, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rolopez42\/status\/2086180079907024901\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lopez criticized his former NBA peers<\/a> heavily with strong comments against both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBiggest issue: If you\u2019re being drafted, people are saying, \u2018We want you around for 4 years,\u2019 and I can\u2019t imagine anybody wants Enes Kanter or Royce White around them for even 4 minutes. We\u2019ve seen this illustrated whenever Enes is near Turkey, or Royce comes close to logic\/reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"851\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-903619246-1024x851.jpg\" alt=\"Chicago Bulls v New York Knicks\" \/>Photo by Elsa\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Lopez directly attacked both Kanter and White personally, referring to the reaction to Kanter\u2019s opposition of the incumbent Turkiye government and White\u2019s switch from mental health advocate to a political conspiracy theorist.<\/p>\n<p>The former Stanford Cardinal Lopez clearly stands against Kanter and White\u2019s attempts at further politicizing a sensitive WNBA issue, which has been a very polarizing sports topic in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA is looking to address the language in the CBA to have stricter wording, but not necessarily an outright ban on future trans athletes potentially playing in the league.<\/p>\n<p>The debate was sparked by Sophie Cunningham, but it has become something else entirely. Hopefully, the WNBA can find a solution that\u2019s satisfactory to all parties.<\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover NBA veteran Robin Lopez reacted to former NBA players Enes Kanter and Royce&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,295803,296177,296178,82,630],"class_list":["post-851714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-enes-kanter-freedom","tag-robin-lopez","tag-royce-white","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}