I've never actually watched the WNBA, the basketball league ostensibly for women that is some type of subsidiary of the actually well-known NBA (which I also don't watch). I have many reasons for not having watched it, most of the "I have to wash my hair" variety.
Now, I suppose, I have even less reason to watch it. That's assuming it is even broadcast; I literally couldn't tell you if the games are televised.
Today, the league shot itself in the foot, having shot itself in the other foot a few times.
Even we non-WNBA fans are aware of the foofaraw caused by the assault and battery (oops, "flagrant foul") committed by a player on the Chicago team against one Sophie Cunningham, a player on the Indiana team.
We've all seen it; Miss Cunningham was driving clear toward the basket for an easy layup when the Chicago player reached her from behind and whacked her across the neck and head as the shot went up. There was no excuse for it, but there was a reason.
The reason is that Miss Cunningham has had the courage to state the obvious, that being that men are men and women are women. Controversial, right? Enough to deserve getting your head whacked on a basketball court, right?
Here's the thing ... for some reason, it matters to the league to maintain some kind of gender ambiguity. That's the only possible explanation for actions of its representatives in the ensuing days.
First, the Indiana coach made a couple public statements, the first of which having been that she "hadn't actually seen the play" at the time. That was so ludicrous, and so lacking in evident support to her player, that she had to make a second statement, this time yelling at the assembled press that how dare they think she doesn't support her players, and something about having ten toes (seriously). She added that they should all go to Heck, or perhaps near-suburban Heck.
In response, and clearly in defense of Miss Cunningham's reasonable position on requiring one to be a good old XX female to participate in women's sports, a couple former NBA stars decided to announce that they felt like women and were declaring for the WNBA draft. Enes Kanter Freedom, the first to do so, is a 34-year-old Turkish-American former NBA star who has always been willing to speak his mind in defense of America and American values.
The WNBA's agreement with its players association states clearly that the league is for women players. Of course, when the agreement was drawn up, they left it at that, as it didn't seem necessary to have to define what it meant to be a woman. It actually still doesn't seem necessary, but the league apparently did ... or not.
Shortly after the men declared their intent for the WNBA draft, the league convened some kind of committee to decide what a woman was. I'm serious.
If that weren't sufficiently nutso, the committee today actually issued a statement that it was some kind of issue too complex for now, and they'd listen to arguments on all sides. My mind immediately flashed back to "Miracle on 34th Street" when the judge declared he was open to arguments on the existence of Santa Claus, whereupon Fred Mertz pointed his cigar toward chambers to tell the judge they needed to talk.
The WNBA draft is in April. The league had better decide what a woman is long before then.
I'll tell you what a woman isn't. That's Enes Kanter Freedom, who is about 6'8" and strong as an ox. If he ("she") had been the Chicago player whacking Sophie Cunningham across the back of the head, she wouldn't be rendering opinions on anything anymore.
And yet ... how many WNBA teams are thinking about tanking their season to give them a top position in the draft to nab him with the first pick?
Think about it. The WNBA salaries are very low, because the league loses a lot of money, and requires heavy subsidies from the NBA even to exist. Their attendance is brutal, because when the players aren't giving each other unwanted chiropractic adjustments, it's still women's basketball, which is pretty much high-school level. You remember how the vaunted US national women's soccer team lost to a 15-year-old boys all-star team? You get the idea.
So anything to get butts in seats, right? Enes, you think you're a woman? Good enough for us, sign here and let's see the turnstiles spin.
Enes Kanter Freedom put the WNBA in a wonderfully impossible position. By applying for the draft, the league had to accept him, or provide a reason not to. And if they rejected him, there had to be a reason, and the reason had to relate to his not being a "woman."
And if they say he is not, he's going to sue, so they have to define a woman. If a Supreme Court justice thought was beyond her ability, it is surely too hard for the WNBA to get right.
And then once they do define "woman", no matter how they do it, they're stuck with it. Plus, they'll have set a precedent for other ostensibly-women's sports leagues.
The WNBA has only one option. They will have to declare that a "woman", for the purpose of playing on its teams, is a human with two X chromosomes.
Which, of course, we've always known, even without a biology degree from M.I.T.
But if it matters, I have one of those.
Copyright 2026 by Robert Sutton. Like what you read here? There are over 1,000 posts from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com and, after four years of writing a new one daily, he still posts thoughts once in a while as "visiting columns", no longer the "prolific essayist" he was through 2018, but still around. Appearance, advertising, sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton.
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