Does the law back Enes Kanter Freedom's WNBA draft bid? - ESPN

The WNBA returned to action Thursday night after a three-week break. Congress welcomed the league back by demanding answers about eligibility and accountability.

In a Sept. 17 letter addressed to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, five members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including two representatives from Indiana, criticized the league for not prioritizing player and fan safety. Among the concerns was how the WNBA determines who is eligible to play.

«As a women's sports league, the WNBA must ensure the League remains exclusively for biological women,» the letter said. «As Sophie Cunningham has commented, women should not have to face biological men playing in the WNBA. Opening eligibility to biological men would not only create an unfair advantage but would also risk player safety for the women playing in the WNBA.»

Debate around who is eligible to play in the WNBA has raged since Cunningham told ESPN in a July 21 article that she supported restrictions on transgender girls and women in girls' and women's sports.

«I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that,'» the Fever guard said in the article. «I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men.»

Demonstrations supporting and criticizing Cunningham popped up at Fever games across the country in July and August. Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom stoked the flames by declaring for the WNBA draft in an Instagram post.

«If simply declaring who you are is all that's required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA,»