{"id":863911,"date":"2026-08-19T15:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863911\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T15:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:56:10","slug":"how-many-former-nba-players-want-to-join-the-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863911\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many Former NBA Players Want To Join The WNBA?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24105971\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/enes-kanter-1.jpg\" alt=\"enes kanter\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jared Siskin\/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enes Kanter claims other ex-NBA players are interested in playing in the WNBA<\/p>\n<p>Enes Kanter isn\u2019t the only former NBA player with a fixation on the WNBA. According to Kanter, as many as eight former NBA pros have contacted him about his efforts to join the WNBA.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/brobible.com\/tag\/enes-kanter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Turkish former NBA center<\/a>, who declared his intention to enter the <a href=\"https:\/\/brobible.com\/tag\/wnba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">2027 WNBA Draft<\/a> as part of what he calls a protest against the league\u2019s eligibility rules, claimed on social media this week that eight other professional athletes have told him they are prepared to join the movement.<\/p>\n<p>Enes Kanter claims eight other professional athletes, including two former NBA players, have told him they\u2019re ready to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft<\/p>\n<p>According to Kanter, that group includes two former NBA players, three G League players, and three European players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo far, I have spoken with two former NBA players, three G-League players, and three European players. They have all said that if the WNBA won\u2019t change the rules, we are ready to join the movement, and we are considering coming out as women and putting our names in the 2027 WNBA draft,\u201d Kanter said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NBA G-League pays players $45,000 a year, while the WNBA top players earn $1.4 million. Those \u2018men\u2019 could earn an extra $1,355,000 a year by just identifying as women. Rules are rules,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Now, listen to me very carefully!<\/p>\n<p>So far, I\u2019ve spoken with:<\/p>\n<p>2 Former NBA players<br \/>3 G-League players<br \/>3 European players<\/p>\n<p>They have all said that if the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@WNBA<\/a> doesn\u2019t change the rules, they\u2019re ready to join the movement and are considering coming out as women and putting their\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UduKj1v46Y\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/UduKj1v46Y<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EnesFreedom\/status\/2089724382713196944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Prior to his career as a grifter, Kanter spent 11 seasons as a role player in the NBA with the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics, and averaged 11.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jared Siskin\/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Enes Kanter claims other ex-NBA players are interested in playing in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,71219,82,630],"class_list":["post-863911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-enes-kanter","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863911","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=863911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}