Former NBA Players Test WNBA Policies by Declaring for Women’s 2027 Draft

The two men say they seek equal treatment after some players advocated for trans participation in the women’s basketball league.

Enes Kanter (#11) of the Portland Trail Blazers warms up at Moda Center in Portland, Ore., on Feb. 20, 2021. Abbie Parr /Getty Images

Two former NBA players have announced plans to enter the 2027 draft for the top professional women’s basketball league.

Enes Kanter-Freedom and Royce White, who both had significant careers in the professional men’s basketball league, on Aug. 7 announced their intentions to put their names forward for selection for the upcoming Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) draft.

Both said they believe they are eligible to join based on the WNBA’s current policies if they temporarily identify as female.

“My team and I have carefully examined the WNBA’s eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion,” Kanter-Freedom said on social media. “Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in April 2027.”

The 11-season player-turned-human rights advocate said his announcement was not to mock or disrespect transgender-identifying individuals, saying he simply wants the WNBA to apply its stated rules “equally.”

“I am declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft,” White, who is campaigning again as a Republican for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat, said. “I identify as a sometimes identifying transgender woman!”

Their announcement was met with a response from the labor union for league players, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), which released a statement saying it stands for embracing “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

“Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm,” it said, adding that it stands “to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change.”

The WNBA is now under pressure to clarify its policies on whether athletes born male at birth can join the league launched by the NBA for elite female players.

The WNBA has not publicly addressed the issue. The Epoch Times has contacted the league for comment.

What’s in the Agreement?

According to the new 2026 collective bargaining agreement signed between the WNBA and WNBPA in May, which sets the rules for player salaries, free agency, and how the league operates, only players who are women are eligible to play. However, the agreement does not identify who classifies as a woman.

Some WNBA coaches and players have come out in support of transgender-identifying athletes.

The lack of clarity from the WNBA follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling on June 30 on the federal law Title IX that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. The court sided with the biological definition of sex over gender identity.

WNBA star Sophie Cunningham, who waded into the debate for the league when asked to comment on the topic by reporters last month, said she wants women to be protected in women’s sports.

Cunningham told ESPN that her concerns were not over any ill will toward the transgender community, as was spreading online. “I never once said that,” she said. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

The comments from the Indiana Fever guard received both support and backlash, with small numbers of protesters and counter-protesters gathering at recent Indiana Fever games.

There are currently no men playing in the WNBA.

Overseas, France has two known cases of males who identify as transgender playing in a professional women’s basketball league. Australia blocked a male identifying as female from participating in its women’s basketball league in 2023.