Enes Kanter makes her WNBA candidacy official: “The rules are the rules!”

The Turkish center Enes Kanter Freedoma player with 11 years of experience in the NBA, made official this Monday his candidacy for the WNBA ‘Draft’, the American women’s league, in the midst of a controversial cultural battle about trans athletes in the competition.

A couple of days ago, the Turk already used his social networks to communicate his desire to participate in the women’s league after “carefully” examining the competition’s eligibility criteria.

In a new message on the social network

“I ask that you accept this formal document as my official written notification to the WNBA of my voluntary decision to register for the 2027 WNBA Draft. In accordance with the current league collective bargaining agreement, I am submitting this notification to exercise my draft rights and to confirm that I am at least 22 years old and have no remaining intercollegiate eligibility, as required by Article XIII, Section 1(b),” the document reads.

“I request that the WNBA League Office confirm receipt of this document and direct any future communications to my personal email address indicated above. Thank you for officially processing my registration in the pool of candidates for the 2027 Draft,” she continued.

In the video Kanter himself appears wearing a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Invest in Women. Pay Women. Hire Women’ (Invest in women. Pay women. Hire women), from the clothing line created by lawyer Kelsey Trainor and which was a global phenomenon.

While the uploaded post reads: “I have officially declared for the 2027 WNBA Draft”, accompanied by the hashtag #LetFreedomPlay.

A new front in the NBA

The WNBA In recent weeks, it has become the new front in the controversial cultural battle over trans athletes, a debate that the league will address next week through a working group made up of presidents and general directors of its teams.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent an internal memo to the teams, obtained by ESPN a few days ago, in which she assured that she is working to guarantee the “integrity” of the league and “fair competition.”

“I know that many of you have received questions in recent weeks about the participation of trans athletes in women’s basketball, and I hope that this topic continues to attract a lot of attention,” Engelbert added.

Enes Kanter and Royce White ask to play in the WNBA

The league’s current rules state that “only players who are women may play in the WNBA,” but do not include anything specific about gender identity or the sex assigned at birth.

Taking advantage of the debate and this ambiguity, former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have declared themselves in recent hours “eligible” to play in the WNBA given that, as they stated, they identify as women.

Now, the Turk has been the first to make his candidacy official.