Clay Travis Flags WNBA’s Clarendon Problem After White, Kanter Ruling

The WNBA Says No, Without Saying Much

The WNBA reportedly announced this week that former NBA players Royce “Roysha” White and Enes Kanter Freedom are ineligible to play in the women’s league. According to the source article, both had said they intended to play next year after league officials would not condemn males competing against women. The league did not give a detailed public explanation for ruling them out, which is always a bold choice when the whole issue is already sitting in the middle of a cultural bonfire.

Clay Travis Points to Layshia Clarendon

Clay Travis argued that the WNBA may have created a legal problem for itself because the league previously allowed Layshia Clarendon to play. Clarendon played in the WNBA from 2013 to 2024. The source article says Clarendon was born female, later had breast removal surgery, and played while receiving testosterone. Travis questioned how the league could allow a female player identifying as male, while using league language recognizing that identity, yet ban men who say they are women. Bureaucracies do love rules, right up until someone asks them to read the old ones.

Clarendon Was Public About the Transition

Clarendon was not quiet about the matter. In January 2021, while playing in the WNBA, Clarendon publicly posted about having top surgery and said the decision brought freedom and joy. That year, Clarendon played for the New York Liberty and then the Minnesota Lynx, according to the source article. Whatever one thinks of the policy debate, the record described here is not exactly hidden in a dusty file cabinet. It was posted in public, with the kind of clarity public relations departments usually claim to admire.

The Policy Question Is Now Front and Center

The key issue is not whether the WNBA can set eligibility rules. Leagues do that all the time. The issue is whether those rules are being applied in a consistent way. If the league allowed Clarendon to compete under one set of facts, Travis is asking how it can reject White and Kanter Freedom under another without offering a fuller explanation. The WNBA may have an answer. If so, now would be a useful time to share it, before lawyers and activists start doing what lawyers and activists do best.

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