news-engine

Ex-NBA players, claiming to be transgender, are not eligible to play in Women’s NBA, say sources NEW YORK – Two former NBA players who sought to enter the 2027 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) draft are not eligible to participate in the women’s league, sources said on Aug 24. Enes Freedom, who played in the NBA for more than a decade from 2011, and Royce White, who spent one season in the NBA, had each announced their intention to play in the league, claiming to be transgender women. Reached for comment on Aug 24, Freedom responded on a separate issue regarding a spat between himself and Chicago Sky player Natasha Cloud that saw him ejected from his seat at a game on Aug 23. Reuters was not immediately able to reach White for comment. The sources described the move as an effort to sow division within the WNBA and court attention, amid a nationwide firestorm over US President Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to ban transgender women from women’s sports. There are no active, openly transgender players in the WNBA, which does not currently have a specific, publicly available policy on transgender participation. The league is in ongoing conversations with stakeholders on the issue. Comments made by Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham in an ESPN interview in July lit the fuse for controversy, with the former second-round pick telling the broadcaster: “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 remarks prompted outcry from some longstanding fans of the league, who skew more politically liberal, while others rallied to Cunningham’s side, with demonstrations in her support popping up outside Fever games. The players’ union, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, released a statement in August declaring that it would not be used as “political pawns”. “Hate, abuse, and demonisation of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division and harm,” it said. Freedom said on social media on Aug 23 that he was ejected from a game between the Chicago Sky and the Fever after getting into a verbal spat with Cloud, the 2022 assists leader. The 34-year-old said in an e-mailed response that he was supporting Cunningham when Cloud began “yapping and cursing” at him. REUTERS