two ex-nba players told the wnba they're women to make a point. the wnba wrote back "you're men." now one of them says he's been misgendered.

Photo: Enes Kanter Freedom in 2021. Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

via OutKick and the letter itself, as released by Rep. Marlin Stutzman

The answer the internet spent Tuesday screaming about is one sentence long, sitting near the bottom of page one of a letter about fouls and fan conduct.

"With respect to your questions regarding eligibility, only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men."

That is WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, writing on Oct. 16 to Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and four other House Republicans, who had asked her in September to define "women." The individuals are Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, two former NBA players who announced earlier this year that they identify as women and want into the 2027 WNBA draft. We have covered this bit before, and the time Trump gave them a "full pardon" at a rally. It was always a stunt. Freedom has said so, more or less, the whole time.

what the wnba letter says

Not much, which is the point. The lawmakers wanted a definition of "women" under the league's collective bargaining agreement, which says only "players who are women are eligible" and leaves the word undefined, OutKick reports. Engelbert did not give one, and did not announce a new rule. Two paragraphs defend the referees and the fan code of conduct. The letter closes by promising to keep addressing "the significant amount of hate and vitriol directed at WNBA players online and on social media," which reads differently once you know who asked for it.

Freedom's legal team at the America First Policy Institute handed the letter to OutKick, and Stutzman posted it on Tuesday as a win: "The WNBA has just taken the first step in defining what a woman is for the sports community."

and then he got misgendered

Here is where it gets good. Freedom, who is a man, was given the official ruling that he is a man, and was furious about it.

"Cathy Engelbert cannot clearly define what a woman is, but she's absolutely certain that I'm a man," he told OutKick. Asked whether she had misgendered him, he answered, "Yes, 100%." Then: "I just want her to respect my identity because I am telling you that I identify as a woman." His post on X asked, in capitals, whether the WNBA is transphobic. It has 59,000 likes.

Buried in the same interview is the concession that gives the whole game away. OutKick reports that Freedom acknowledged deciding someone's identity and deciding who can play in the women's category "may be different decisions." Correct! That is the distinction a sports league gets to draw, and drawing it about two men doing a bit took Engelbert one sentence. Nobody who is actually trans has to be dragged into it to make that work. Which, to be fair, was never what this was about.

Freedom says it ends the moment the league adds the word "biological." "I will walk to the sunset," he said. "They will not hear from me ever again." We will believe it when we see the sunset.