The WNBA draft-eligibility stunt pulled by former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White has already drawn plenty of pushback from inside basketball circles. But this week it caught the attention of someone from a completely different world.
Six-time Grammy winner Gino Borri used his podcast to rip into both men, saving his sharpest jabs for White, accusing him of simply following Kanter into the controversy.
Gino Borri Rips Royce White for Joining Enes Kanter’s WNBA Push
Kanter, the former New York Knicks center, sparked the latest controversy around the WNBA’s ongoing transgender athlete debate when he announced that he plans to declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft.
The former No. 3 overall NBA pick said he had reviewed the WNBA’s eligibility rules and believes he meets the requirements under its current framework.
It wasn’t long before White — a former first-round pick out of Iowa State followed with a nearly identical declaration after claiming he identifies as transgender for the purpose of playing professional basketball.
Borri mocked the idea and didn’t waste time getting to Kanter Freedom and White on his show:
“The WNBA has somehow become the latest battlefield in America’s never-ending culture war,” Borri said.
Enes Kanter and Royce White want to take the trans disussion to the WNBA, but let’s discuss their careers first 😠pic.twitter.com/VbvGRbMHl0
— Gino The Ghost (@GinoTheGhost) August 10, 2026
He then took a shot at Kanter’s basketball career, joking, “Congrats on transitioning into a woman, Enes. Have you considered transitioning into a good defender? These women would still have you in the spin cycle on the pick and roll. You’re still not making an all-star team.”
But it was White who took the brunt of it.
“Former NBA player Royce White joins Enes Kanter for grifting sloppy seconds,” Borri added. “When I say former NBA player, I’m being extremely generous with the word player.”
Borri went after White’s actual NBA résumé next, and the numbers back him up. Across his brief stint with the Sacramento Kings, White finished his career with zero total points and only a handful of fouls to show for it, a statistical footnote Borri didn’t let slide.
“Every biological male and female watching this video right now has as many points as Royce White,” he said.
From there, the 15-time platinum-certified artist pivoted to White’s off-court history, referencing the 50-year protective order a Hennepin County judge issued earlier this year barring White from contacting his ex-wife, after finding credible evidence of threats and physical abuse.
“Royce has more domestic violence charges than he has NBA field goals,” Borri said, adding that between the restraining order and his brief, injury- and anxiety-shortened NBA tenure, “this guy has a 50-year restraining order from his wife and a permanent lifetime restraining order from the basket.”
He also dredged up White’s well-documented anxiety disorder, which reportedly included a fear of flying severe enough that he traveled to some road games by bus rather than plane during his rookie season, joking that “WNBA coaches won’t need a game plan for Royce White. They just need a road game.”
Borri closed with a more serious point beneath the jokes, arguing the stunt distorts a conversation that deserves to be taken seriously.
“The threat to women’s sports isn’t trans women, it’s loser males,” he said. “You took a legitimate, complicated question about competitive fairness.”
“You’ve manufactured the exact scenario you’re supposedly terrified of because you want to embarrass trans people. You can believe that biological advantages matter without treating transgender people like a punchline. You can protect women’s sports without making women’s sports the joke.”
Borri’s comments come as the WNBA faces growing pressure to clarify its eligibility rules.
Kanter and White have both used the WNBA’s current framework to announce their intentions to pursue WNBA opportunities, turning what began as a debate over Sophie Cunningham’s comments about protecting women’s sports into a much broader fight over the league’s rules.
