The WNBA has told an Indiana congressman and four House colleagues that two former NBA players seeking to join the league are ineligible because they are men, but the league stopped short of defining what qualifies someone as a woman under its own rules.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent the response on Oct. 16 to an inquiry led by Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., addressing former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, who had announced plans to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft while saying they identify as 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. The letter was provided to OutKick by the America First Policy Institute, which represents Freedom.
Stutzman and the other lawmakers had written to the league on Sept. 17, asking how it defines “women” under Article XIII, Section 1(a) of its collective bargaining agreement, and why Freedom and White were deemed ineligible. That provision, part of the WNBA’s 2026 agreement, states: “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” It does not define the term.
The lawmakers’ letter also raised questions about player safety and past confrontations with fans involving the two men. Engelbert’s reply did not provide a definition of “woman” to accompany the league’s determination that Freedom and White are men.
Stutzman has characterized Engelbert’s statement as confirmation that the league does recognize a distinction based on biological sex, even without spelling out a formal definition.
Freedom posted the WNBA’s letter on social media, questioning how the league could determine he is a man without defining what makes someone a woman. He has pushed back on the league’s eligibility determination publicly since the letter became public.
The exchange leaves open a question the league has not directly answered in writing: what standard, if any, the WNBA uses to define “woman” for purposes of its own eligibility rule, even as it has clearly stated that Freedom and White do not meet it.
