It turns out, the WNBA isn’t interested in answering the most important question facing its existence as a sports league.
It’s only interested in attacking the people who bring it up.
But that’s a strategy that isn’t likely to last for very long.
After two former NBA players announced their own eligibility for the WNBA draft next year — sparking visions of male behemoths crushing women on the courts of a league specifically created for women — WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced in a memo last week that a task force would address the all-important question of criteria for participation in WNBA play.
“I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention,” the internal league memo stated, according to The Associated Press.
The memo “said the topic will be discussed further by a task force of team presidents and general managers at a previously scheduled meeting next week,” the AP reported.
Apparently, that discussion concluded that there really is no serious question about supposedly “transgender” athletes joining the WNBA, and that the real problem was anyone who raises the issue in the first place.
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“Today’s meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online,” a representative for the league said in a statement, according to the New York Post.
“We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months. We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league.”
So much blah, blah, blah and “stakeholders” and “values” and so forth.
But then there was this disgraceful jab. (It wasn’t in italics. It should have been.)
“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.”
WNBA holds meeting to discuss trans athlete issue; still unable to determine what a woman is.
The women’s basketball league has held committee meetings to determine what a “woman” is and discuss existing eligibility requirements.
The WNBA has also released a statement… pic.twitter.com/segzKYU9UM
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) August 13, 2026
Really? There are no “eligibility matters” affecting the WNBA?
Not one question about who can don an extra, extra, large uniform of the Indiana Fever and start shooting hoops with the much-abused superstar Caitlin Clark or the apparently indefatigable firecracker Sophie Cunningham?
There’s no one at the WNBA who is even debating whether former NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom or NBA -athlete-turned-Republican-politician Royce White can actually play with the women?
Engelbert’s own memo words last week indicated the exact opposite is true.
And considering the league has been rocked by controversy recently about “trans” inclusion — from Cunningham’s public statements aimed at protecting women’s sports to the abominable behavior of a WNBA owner who disagrees with her — it beggars belief that the league is claiming there is no question about eligibility for play confronting the organization.
Right now, as the sports website Outkick has reported, league participation is governed by its collective bargaining agreement, which states that “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”
In a sane world, that would be plain enough.
But in the parts of the world that are run by leftist lunatics who claim that gender is a matter of individual preference, it doesn’t really say anything at all.
What is the WNBA’s definition of “women”? It shouldn’t be a difficult question, seeing that the league’s actual name is “Women’s National Basketball Association.”
After Wednesday’s meeting, though, it’s clear that the league has no interest in answering it. Instead, it’s hoping to end the matter by attacking what it calls “bad-faith” actors for even raising it, claiming their true goal is to “use these topics to demean or marginalize others.”
That might be enough to get the league through this week.
It might be enough to get through the remainder of the season. But there are bound to be serious developments that could force the WNBA’s hand.
If a has-been quarterback like Colin Kaepernick can successfully sue the NFL for “collusion” among owners to keep him off the playing field over politics, former NBA stars and players like Kanter Freedom and Royce — and pretty much any man who’s ever played at the highest levels of basketball — will have grounds to sue the WNBA, claiming that self-identification as “women” makes them eligible to take the court and mix it up with the likes of DiJonai Carrington.
(Don’t put your money on Carrington or her WNBA successors coming out as winners.)
The WNBA can try to dodge the issue all it wants.
It can disgracefully damn its critics.
But it’s going to have to have an answer at some point. And that point is probably coming soon.
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