Charles Barkley Tells Adam Silver and Cathy Engelbert to Just Say the WNBA Is for Women

Charles Barkley has had enough of the WNBA dodging a question he thinks has an obvious answer.

Speaking Monday on CNN host Michael Smerconish's podcast, the Hall of Famer said the league should have settled the transgender eligibility question weeks ago instead of letting it turn into an online circus.

"I'm disappointed in Adam Silver and Cathy the commissioner," Barkley said, referring to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. "You can't let stupid stuff go out to the internet, which is one of the worst things that ever happened to the world. They should have come out two weeks ago before all this."

His comments came days after former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom was removed from Sunday night's Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky game following a confrontation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud. Freedom had worn a T-shirt reading "WOMAN noun. adult human female," a stunt critics say was designed to provoke a reaction. Barkley didn't dispute that read on Freedom's motives, but he said the league handed him the opening.

"Enes is trying to get attention," Barkley said. But he added that Freedom "has a point" because Silver and Engelbert "haven't said, 'Hey, it's in the title, WNBA.'"

The eligibility loophole driving the fight

The controversy isn't hypothetical anymore. According to Heavy.com, Freedom and former NBA player Royce White have both declared themselves eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft, identifying as women under what they say is a gray area in the league's collective bargaining agreement.

That CBA states "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA," according to Essentially Sports, but it does not define the term or address gender identity versus sex assigned at birth. There is no indication in any of the reporting that the WNBA has ruled on either player's actual eligibility, and no source confirms either has been added to a training camp roster or draft-eligible list by the league itself. As one report noted, there are no trans players in the league at this point.

Barkley wants that ambiguity gone. He's publicly backed a Change.org petition, launched by Olympic swimming champion Nancy Hogshead, calling on the WNBA to adopt explicit female-only eligibility rules. Barkley wrote that women deserve fair competition and that the issue "shouldn't be complicated," according to Essentially Sports.

Barkley laid out, almost word for word, the statement he thinks Silver and Engelbert should issue: "There's no transgender people going to play in the WNBA. If you don't like it, kick rocks. And we're not going to discuss it anymore. We're not going to turn it over to the fools on the internet. We're not going to turn it over to Congress and things like that. The WNBA is for women only. Period."

Fox News Digital reported it reached out to both the NBA and WNBA for comment; neither league had responded as of that reporting.

Barkley's position isn't new. On a separate appearance on the Andy Beshear podcast, cited by Hardwood Heroics, he said: "I love gay people. I love transgender people. I've been outspoken for years on that subject. But under no circumstances do I think men should play against women." He also argued the media has elevated the story past more urgent issues, pointing to a water crisis in Puerto Rico and wildfires near Spokane as examples of what he thinks deserves more attention instead.

Jennifer Sey, founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, praised Barkley's remarks. "Elite athletes have always known the truth about sex and sports. Charles Barkley is just bold enough to say it out loud," she told Fox News Digital.

Independent Women ambassador Peyton McNabb echoed that take, telling Fox News Digital the WNBA "continue[s] to create this controversy for themselves by refusing to say" the league is for women, period.

This isn't happening in a vacuum. The debate accelerated after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham told ESPN she opposes biological males competing in women's sports, saying she wants "to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport." Cunningham has also publicly questioned whether Engelbert is the right person to lead the league forward, according to Essentially Sports.

None of the sources here report any statement from Freedom or White clarifying their legal or medical status, and none confirm the WNBA has taken a formal position on the CBA's eligibility language beyond the existing text. That silence from the league office is precisely what Barkley is criticizing.

According to Heavy.com, the WNBA has formed a task force to discuss the issue, which Engelbert called a "complex and nuanced topic" in a memo issued after Kanter's draft declaration. The open question is whether Silver and Engelbert follow Barkley's script, amend the CBA's language directly, or continue letting the ambiguity stand ahead of the 2027 WNBA Draft.