The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” However, it does not go into more detail about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.
The discussion grew after former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White said they planned to declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft. Now, for the first time, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has publicly addressed the issue.
Cathy Engelbert’s Recent Comment Regarding the Ongoing Transgender Athletes Debate
Before the Indiana Fever’s 91-85 loss to the Dallas Wings, Engelbert sat down for an interview and made her feelings clear. She said people are trying to use the WNBA to “sow divisiveness.”
According to her, a lot of the loudest voices in this fight have never watched a WNBA game, never written about the league, and never covered it in any real way.
“People are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness. We’re being the center of political football for people who have never watched the WNBA, never have written about the WNBA or reported on the WNBA,” Engelbert said during the interview on Thursday.
This isn’t a new problem for Engelbert. Two weeks back, she said the league would sit down and actually hash out the concerns. That meeting reportedly happened last week, according to ESPN.
But the biggest thing that came out of it was basically a promise to keep talking. The league says it wants to work through the issue, but there’s still no rule, no policy, nothing concrete on the books.
“We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league. There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,” the league’s statement read, as per ESPN.
Engelbert clearly knows what a woman is. If we go back to her very first press conference as commissioner in 2019, and according to Outkick, she said the word “woman” 33 times.
She kept circling back to phrases like “women’s advancement,” “women’s leadership,” and “women’s initiatives” throughout that entire appearance. She was someone who built a huge part of her professional identity, and her pitch as commissioner, around championing women.
So the idea that she can’t offer a straightforward definition now feels off, especially when she had no trouble doing it years ago. That’s really what makes the lack of a clear answer so surprising.
