Ex-NBA Charlatans Are Lining Up to Dunk on Their Trans Straw Man

This week, a prominent, failed ex-NBA charlatan and recently failed U.S. Senate candidate in Minnesota, Royce White, made good on the threat of a publicity stunt he had been banging on about for the last few weeks. He officially submitted a notice to the WNBA that he wanted to declare for the 2027 WNBA draft. If you want some indication of how seriously one should take the legitimacy and sincerity of that declaration, look no further than who White retained as his legal counsel for this endeavor: Former U.S. congressman and almost-Attorney-General Matt Gaetz! You know, the guy who resigned from the House of Representatives following credible accusations that he paid a 17-year-old for sex, and was likewise accused in a House ethics report of statutory rape and illicit drug use. Sure, this is absolutely the legal move you use to announce to the world that you’re being serious.

“As of the signing of the attached declaration, Ms. White identifies as a transgender woman,” reads a portion of the declaration attributed to Gaetz. “Consistent with Article XIII, Section 1(a) of the 2026–2033 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the WNBA and the WNBPA, Ms. White affirms her eligibility to be considered for selection on that basis.” White then follows up: “As of signing this declaration, I identify as a transgender woman.”

Royce White on Fox News: “I’m just having a blast in my feminine area. I never thought I was a woman. I’ve always trusted science and thought I was a man, but after further review, a strong look at my personal preferences, it would appear I am indeed sometimes identifying as a transgender woman”

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 9:58 AM · Aug 9, 2026

The point, obviously, is trolling—pure and simple. White hopes that by “forcing the hand” of the WNBA into making an official rejection of his candidacy in the draft–because, you know, he’s a (heinous, cruel) guy and all–they would likewise be forced to state or codify why he’s being rejected, relying on the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement that states “only players who are women are eligible.” This would be interpreted as the league being forced to define “woman,” a popular conservative talking point, and a symbolic disavowal of the WNBA ever allowing a future transwoman athlete in the process. It’s a pointless stunt, and one that the WNBA should not even give the dignity of a direct response–particularly given that White has not only indirectly but very directly insulted the league’s women players by simultaneously boasting that he would be “unstoppable” on the court playing against them, and that he would “dominate” them “without batting an eyelash.” One wonders how you can be so stupid as to trash talk the same people you’re pretending to be fighting for.

It’s all especially rich coming from a profoundly disappointing athlete of White’s caliber, a one-time college star who failed utterly to make the transition to the NBA and ultimately appeared in only a few minutes of three regular season games in his entire career in basketball’s top league. His time in the NBA ended without him ever scoring a single point there. So yeah, why wouldn’t this guy want to play in the WNBA, if it’s somewhere he thinks he could finally compete?

It couldn’t be more clear that the real objective here has nothing to do with the WNBA or basketball at all, and is instead an attempt by White to boost his national political profile, following multiple increasingly high-profile election losses. He even became the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate for Minnesota in 2024, somehow managing to perform 12 points worse than Donald Trump in that election while losing to Dem. Sen. Amy Klobuchar by 16 points. Just last week, he failed to secure another nomination for the same position, losing the Republican primary to yet another woman, former sportscaster Michele Tafoya. Immediately after that loss? Well, he said he was running for President in 2028, of course! Now that would certainly demonstrate an impressive knack for failing upward. Oh: He also has a no-contact order between him and his ex-wife and son, following threats against them a judge deemed credible.

“Former NBA star” Royce White never scored a point in the NBA.

This reminds me of everyone in the WWE being a “superstar”.

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— Richard Wayne Bowling (@rchrdwynbwlngk100.bsky.social) 10:07 AM · Aug 10, 2026

Perhaps even more pathetically, though, White is already late to this particular troll party as well. He was merely deciding to copy another ex-NBA player, Enes Kanter Freedom (a guy who admittedly had a real career in the league), who seemingly had this stupid idea first. Earlier this month, Kanter Freedom likewise made his WNBA draft declaration “official” by sending it to the league. We’re only talking about any of this, meanwhile, thanks to the American right’s convenient discovery of Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, a MAGA grifter in training who immediately jumped aboard on the opportunity to become a Fox News talking head when she saw a future career far more lucrative than her own entirely mundane career basketball numbers. She told ESPN that she wanted to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” then doubled down a few times, then immediately started playing the victim and complaining about the fact that members of the media were asking her about the controversy she went out of her way to create rather than the basketball games she played in so lacklusterly. Together, you could say that White, Kanter Freedom, and Cunningham represent three points on the same WNBA-focused scale of political operative/shameless grifter.

Because, lest we allow the very obvious point to go unsaid, as it all too often is: There are currently ZERO TRANS PEOPLE IN THE WNBA, or people who identify as trans. And not only that; there has never been a transwoman in the league, not in the 30 years it has existed. Only two known trans individuals have played WNBA basketball in any fashion, and both of them were assigned female at birth. Asia “AD” Durr merely identified as non-cisgender during her few years in the league, while Layshia Clarendon, who played for 12 seasons (including three with Sophie Cunningham’s Fever!) identified as nonbinary. Not a soul in the league ever suggested that Clarendon, the first person in the WNBA to reveal they had undergone top surgery in 2021, somehow gained an unfair advantage by doing so. Both of them, meanwhile, have been out of the league for several seasons.

The likes of White and Enes Kanter Freedom, then, have dedicated themselves to fighting a purely hypothetical person who has not once existed at any point in the history of the league they’re claiming to defend–some charlatan male individual who decides to do something like undergo gender-affirming surgery specifically so he can play in the WNBA, because he can’t hack it in professional basketball elsewhere. And because this villain doesn’t actually exist to pillory in real life, White and Kanter Freedom were forced to create the very scenario they’re pretending to protect against, play-acting as the male interloper trying to ruin the WNBA. The fact that they can’t point to any real instances of this type of person, meanwhile, demonstrates what should be obvious to them: Sincerely identifying as trans is a deeply personal, serious and trying step for a person, given the societal stigma, violence and targeting that the American right-wing has subjected these people to in the last decade in particular. The WNBA is not filled with trans grifters, because it’s so much easier to grift by doing something else … like what the likes of White or Cunningham are doing.

The WNBA Player’s Association issued an excellent (imo) statement yesterday, stressing the league’s values and stating that they won’t be used as political pawns. The league and its individual teams might want to reach out to whoever is doing comms for the WNBPA. Just sayin.

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— Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social) 11:36 AM · Aug 8, 2026

One wonders, meanwhile, where the much-feared pipeline of transwoman basketball players assigned male at birth is even meant to be coming from, given that the NCAA has already banned every person fitting that description from competing in high-level collegiate sports. It’s much more likely at this point that an American transwoman who is interested in basketball simply has no place or opportunity to even play the game on a competitive level, much less gain the experience needed to go pro.

The league and its union, thankfully, have been more or less having none of this in response to the likes of Cunningham and White. The WNBPA initially responded to Cunningham (although it took its sweet time, no doubt hoping for it to blow by) by saying that its players refused to be “used as political pawns,” and added that “hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm.” At a subsequent meeting of the union and league, the WNBPA discussed its eligibility rules during one of its regularly scheduled meetings, saying that any change would need to be collectively bargained. It emerged from that meeting with no proposed changes to WNBA eligibility rules, effectively rebuffing the idea that challenges/stunts from White and Kanter Freedom would force it to make any change or formal declaration. As the WNBA subsequently put it in a statement: “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 funniest outcome, meanwhile, would no doubt be if the likes of White in particular actually did end up being drafted and forced to compete in the WNBA, only to get his ass repeatedly kicked by legions of younger, faster, more talented women basketball players. That outcome, however, hilarious though it would absolutely be, is not worth having the league debase itself by honestly engaging with the cynical maneuvering of a charlatan attempting to win the favor of the online chud-right in the hopes of finally winning an election one day. We’ll just have to remain contented with the knowledge that Royce White never scored a single point in the NBA, something that it feels safe to say he probably thinks about each and every night before falling asleep. Some hoop dreams just aren’t meant to be.