NBA Players Identify As WOMEN To Play In The WNBA??

“I am officially declaring myself a WNBA prospect.” Former NBA player and cancer survivor Freedom made the announcement in a video that went viral. He cited the league’s own eligibility guidelines: if self-identification as a woman is all that is required, he meets every criterion. Within 24 hours, another former NBA player, Royce White, followed suit, declaring he “sometimes identifies as a woman for purposes of basketball” and would enter the 2027 WNBA draft. The episode examines what happens when the logic of current inclusion policies is taken literally.

The argument: applying rules equally

The central claim of the episode is that the WNBA’s current eligibility framework, as interpreted by these former NBA players, contains no meaningful barrier to biological men competing in women’s professional basketball. Freedom explicitly states he is not mocking any community but is “simply asking that the current rules be applied equally to everyone.” He argues that the values many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for—inclusion based on gender identity—should apply consistently, without exception. The host, Amala Ekpunobi, frames this as the “natural conclusion” of what many in and around the WNBA are advocating: allowing biological males with distinct biological advantages to compete against women.