Retired basketball player Royce White says he’s coming out as transgender in a bid to compete in the WNBA.
Ditto former Boston Celtic Enes Kanter Freedom, who also declared for the women’s league on Friday.
“I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of basketball,” White, 35, told Fox News. “So I’ll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027.”
He first stated in a Tuesday social media post he was “now transgender.”
White, a 6-foot-8 Minneapolis forward, was selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA draft in 2012 and finally made it to the NBA for three games with the Sacramento Kings in 2014.
His latest declaration could be a stunt to satirize transgender athletes participating in women’s sports. The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but does not provide a definition of a woman.
“I think I’d be unstoppable,” he said.
White, whose college career included stops at Minnesota and Iowa State, was the Republican nominee for the Senate in the North Star State in 2024, losing to Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar.
This year he’s again seeking the Republican nomination to fill the vacant seat of Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, who is not seeking reelection.
“I don’t want to be discriminated against,” he said. “I’m a young, Black, hopefully United States senator that would like a fair chance to participate as a sometimes-identifying-as-a-transgender woman athlete.”
Freedom, 34, last played for the Boston Celtics in 2022.
“If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA,” the 6-foot-10-inch former center said. “I am simply asking that the current rules be applied equally to everyone.”
White says they came up with the idea independently.
“Great minds think alike,” he said.
The debate over transgender athletes has been reignited after Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever told ESPN, “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 Women’s National Basketball Players Association, the union for the league’s athletes, released a statement on Friday to address the issue.
“Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm,” the statement read. “We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.”
There are no transgender players in the WNBA. However, Layshia Clarendon, now retired, identified as transgender and underwent chest surgery.
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