WNBA tells Congress former NBA players Freedom, White are ineligible for draft because they’re ‘both men’

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told Republican lawmakers that former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White are ineligible to play in the women’s league because they are “both men,” responding to their months-long effort to challenge the league’s “transgender” eligibility rules.

The declaration came in Engelbert’s Oct. 16 letter responding to a Sept. 17 congressional inquiry led by Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and four other House Republicans. The lawmakers had questioned the league’s eligibility standards after Freedom and White announced plans to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft while saying they identify as women. The letter urged the WNBA to ensure that “the League remains exclusively for biological women.”

“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, according to OutKick, which obtained the letter from the America First Policy Institute, which represents Freedom.

The response stopped short of supplying the definition of “women” that the lawmakers specifically requested. Their congressional letter cited Article XIII, Section 1(a) of the league’s collective bargaining agreement, which states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA” but does not define the term. 

Stutzman said in an X post that the letter was a “clear acknowledgment that simply identifying as a woman does not change basic human biology!”

Still, Freedom argued that the response did not go far enough and left the league’s standards unexplained. He wrote in an X post that the WNBA “still can’t define what a WOMAN is, but they’re absolutely certain they know what a MAN is! How convenient!” 

“WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has declared that I am a man,” Freedom added. “Who gave her the authority to decide who I am? Who gets to define my identity? And how can the WNBA determine who is a man without explaining what qualifies someone as a woman?”

In an interview with OutKick’s Jackson Thompson, Freedom accused Engelbert of “misgendering” him in the letter.

“If in America, right, people wake up, and they identify themselves as a Pikachu, unicorn, dogs, and cats — so the people are okay with that — but I wake up one day, and I identify myself as a woman, but now they’re telling me how to feel,” he said. “This is so disrespectful and shameful, so shame on Cathy Engelbert [who] tells me who I am or what I identify as.”

The former NBA player told OutKick that he wants the league to explicitly restrict participation to true women. 

“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? And who gets to determine eligibility to compete in [the] women’s category?”

Freedom and White declared their intention to enter the 2027 draft in August to challenge the league’s eligibility standards amid a national debate over male participation in women’s sports. 

Freedom said at the time that if all a man needs to do to compete in the WNBA is declare “who you are,” then “I meet every single requirement necessary.” He later invited Engelbert to a public “peace summit” to discuss the league’s eligibility rules after a WNBA task force failed to clarify its rules. 

The congressional letter also raised concerns about player safety, physical play, and confrontations involving fans, including an August incident in which arena personnel ejected Freedom from a Chicago Sky game after a confrontation with guard Natasha Cloud. During the game, Freedom wore a T-shirt with the slogan “WOMAN, noun. adult human female.”

As Zeale News previously reported, Freedom announced he would sue the Chicago Sky over the ejection Sept. 3, alleging they violated his First Amendment rights because of his advocacy for women’s sports. 

>> ‘See you in court!’: Enes Kanter Freedom sues Chicago Sky over ejection from WNBA game << 

Engelbert’s response defended the league’s officiating, disciplinary processes, and code of conduct for fans but did not explain differences in its handling of the incidents lawmakers raised.

“In all instances the League seeks to apply its rules and relevant disciplinary processes consistently for all players, coaches, and officials,” Engelbert wrote.

According to OutKick, Engelbert plans to step down at the end of 2026. Freedom said her successor could easily resolve his eligibility challenge.

Describing the announcement he wants the next commissioner to make, he told OutKick, “We are adding the word biological next to the word female; this whole thing will end the next day. I will walk to the sunset. They will not hear from me ever again.”

“You cannot answer an eligibility question simply by declaring what somebody is,” Freedom added. “You need to explain the policy you are enforcing.”

>> Fans verbally attack women's sports activists at WNBA Finals in San Francisco <<