{"id":33154,"date":"2026-08-08T20:29:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33154"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:29:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:29:23","slug":"former-nba-pro-comes-out-as-transgender-for-wnba-comeback-stunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33154","title":{"rendered":"Former NBA pro comes out as transgender for WNBA comeback stunt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2024\/08\/08\/Election_2024_Senate_Minnesota_55727_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Retired basketball player Royce White says he is coming out as transgender in a bid to compete in the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of basketball,\u201d Mr. White, 35, told Fox News in an interview published Friday. \u201cSo I\u2019ll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He first stated he was \u201cnow transgender\u201d and seeking to play in the WNBA in a Tuesday social media post.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. White, who stands at 6 feet 8 inches, was selected in the first round of the NBA draft in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>The stunt is an attempt to satirize transgender athletes participating in women\u2019s sports. The WNBA\u2019s collective bargaining agreement states that \u201conly players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,\u201d but does not provide a definition of a woman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I\u2019d be unstoppable,\u201d said Mr. White.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. White was the Republican nominee for Senate in 2024, losing to incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat. In 2026, he is again seeking the Republican nomination to fill the vacant seat of Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, who is not seeking reelection.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to be discriminated against,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a young, Black, hopefully United States senator that would like a fair chance to participate as a sometimes-identifying-as-a-transgender woman athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Enes Kanter Freedom, a retired basketball player who last played center for the Boston Celtics, also declared his eligibility on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf simply declaring who you are is all that\u2019s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA,\u201d said Mr. Freedom in his announcement. \u201cI am simply asking that the current rules be applied equally to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. White says they came up with the idea independently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat minds think alike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The debate over transgender athletes has been reignited after Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever told ESPN, \u201cI want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn\u2019t have to go against biological men.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association, the union for the league\u2019s athletes, released a statement on Friday to address the controversy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>There are no transgender players currently in the WNBA. However, Layshia Clarendon, now retired, identified as transgender and nonbinary and underwent chest surgery.<\/p>\n<section class=\"author-contact-section\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retired basketball player Royce White says he is coming out as transgender in a bid to compete in the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association. \u201cI identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of basketball,\u201d Mr. White, 35, told Fox News in an interview published Friday. \u201cSo I\u2019ll be declaring for the WNBA draft in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2024\/08\/08\/Election_2024_Senate_Minnesota_55727_c0-207-4969-3105_s1200x700.jpg?640d100af90a5bde66ea474e0126de90dcb545d7","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}