RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro took aim at the WNBA’s ongoing culture wars, mocking the league’s backlash toward Enes Kanter.
Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White recently sparked a massive debate by claiming they’re “declaring” for the 2027 WNBA Draft. They argued that the league’s broad rules on self-identification mean anyone who identifies as a woman should be eligible.
Most fans and commentators immediately called it out as a bad-faith political stunt aimed at mocking transgender inclusion and poking holes in the league’s rulebook.
In response, the WNBA and the players’ union pushed back hard.
The bottom line is that the WNBA has no publicly available policy governing eligibility of transgender or intersex athletes. The 2026 collective bargaining agreement, which was signed in March, states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”
Ben Shapiro gives his support to Enes Kanter
Controversial figure Ben Shapiro gave his views on the situation regarding transgender athletes and the WNBA, jumping to Enes Kanter ‘s side, as he claims that they cannot prove he’s acting in bad faith.
He said on his YouTube channel: “How do they know they’re bad faith? How are they identifying the bad faith? How dare they? How dare they suggest that Enes Kanter is somehow bad faith when he says he wants to play in the WNBA? How do they know that? Can they get inside his head? I mean are they saying that he’s not a woman? Is that what they’re saying right now? And if so, how do they know?
“They should stop womansplaining to the fellow woman. They need to stop that right now. What a disaster area the WNBA is. Truly, it’s amazing. They have a generational chance to get a crowd to watch them. And they’re busy arguing over what a woman is.”
Shapiro’s critique underlines how the WNBA keeps getting pulled into endless crossfire. As critics seize on these publicity stunts, the constant noise threatens to turn what should be a historic era of growth for women’s basketball into an exhausting, political battleground.
And the worst part is that this will drag on for months, with the WNBA task force refusing to give a timeline on their investigation into the matter.
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