{"id":895020,"date":"2026-10-26T07:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T07:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/895020\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T07:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T07:58:23","slug":"wnba-says-enes-kanter-freedom-royce-white-are-both-men-in-eligibility-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/895020\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA says Enes Kanter Freedom, Royce White are ‘both men’ in eligibility dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told GOP Congress members that former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White are “both men” and therefore ineligible to join the women’s league.<\/p>\n

“With respect to your questions regarding eligibility, only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men,” Engelbert wrote in her response Friday to a congressional letter, OutKick reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Engelbert’s letter was provided to OutKick by the America First Policy Institute, which represents Kanter Freedom.<\/p>\n

Her letter answered a Sept. 17 inquiry<\/a> from Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and fellow Indiana GOP Rep. Erin Houchin, Rep. Sheri Biggs, R-S.C., Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., and Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa. The GOP Congress members sent Engelbert a letter inquiring about WNBA eligibility, player safety, and confrontations with fans.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom and White said they identified as women and planned to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft, appearing to try to force the league to directly address the issue of transgender athletes.<\/p>\n

The Congress members asked how WNBA defines “women” under Article XIII, Section 1(a) of its collective bargaining agreement, and why Kanter Freedom and White had been deemed ineligible. According to the 2026 agreement, “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” The term “women” is not defined in the eligibility provision.<\/p>\n

Stutzman said that Engelbert\u2019s statement was an acknowledgment of a distinction based on biological sex.<\/p>\n

“The WNBA has just taken the first step in defining what a woman is for the sports community,” Stutzman said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“By clearly labeling Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White as men they have acknowledged that identifying as a woman does not change basic human biology.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kanter Freedom told OutKick, “Cathy Engelbert cannot clearly define what a woman is, but she’s absolutely certain that I’m a man. I mean, how does that make sense? Who gets to decide? Who has the authority to determine whether someone is a woman?”<\/p>\n

“So if the league is still working through these questions, how can its commissioner be so certain about my eligibility without explaining the standards that she’s applying?” he added.<\/p>\n

When asked whether he believed Engelbert had misgendered him in her letter to Congress, Kanter Freedom answered, “Yes, 100%.”<\/p>\n

“I just want her to respect my identity because I am telling you that I identify as a woman,” he said.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom said his effort to join the WNBA is intended to push it to adopt an explicit requirement that states only biological females are eligible.<\/p>\n

“This is bigger than one basketball player,” he said. “I mean, who gets to determine someone’s identity? The individual, the commissioner, the medical professional, or a committee or a task force?”<\/p>\n

“And who gets to determine eligibility to compete in women’s category?” Kanter Freedom continued. “So those may be different decisions, but the WNBA needs to explain where it draws the line.”<\/p>\n

The congressional letter to Engelbert was sent after she announced last month that she will retire at the end of the year after more than seven years as commissioner, and the WNBA has already started searching for her successor.<\/p>\n

The Congress members sent the letter after multiple confrontations occurred during WNBA games over whether biological men identifying as women could compete in the league.<\/p>\n

The issue of transgender athletes in the WNBA erupted after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said in July that female athletes should not have to compete<\/a> against biological men.<\/p>\n

In August, a WNBA task force made up of team presidents and general managers discussed transgender athletes but did not announce any new eligibility rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,\u201d the league said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom questioned how the WNBA’s ongoing eligibility discussions fit with Engelbert\u2019s statement about him and White.<\/p>\n

“So what about the task force?” he said. “If the task force itself has not reached a clear definition, why is the commissioner making such a definitive statement?”<\/p>\n

“We are adding the word biological next to the word female, this whole thing will end the next day,” Kanter Freedom said, explaining the announcement he wants the next WNBA commissioner to make. “I will walk to the sunset. They will not hear from me ever again.”<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom said he intends to continue to attempt to join the WNBA unless its rules change.<\/p>\n

“I’m asking for consistency,” he said. “I spent 11 years playing in the NBA. I understand, you know, professional basketball really well.”<\/p>\n

“If they do not change the rules, they better select me in a WNBA draft in 2027,” Kanter Freedom added.<\/p>\n

“You cannot answer an eligibility question simply by declaring what somebody is,” he said. “You need to explain the policy you are enforcing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told GOP Congress members that former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[18116,50157,375247,349819,2839,342665,99,60007,434],"class_list":["post-895020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-cathy-engelbert","tag-collective-bargaining","tag-eligibility-dispute","tag-enes-kanter-freedom","tag-indiana-fever","tag-royce-white","tag-sports","tag-transgender-athletes","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}