Megyn Kelly Reacts to Enes Kanter and Royce White’s WNBA Bid: ‘This Is Just a Game of the Left’

Journalist Megyn Kelly is weighing in on one of the more unusual storylines to hit women’s professional basketball this year.

Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have both said they intend to declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft, identifying as transgender women in what multiple outlets have described as a deliberate test of the league’s eligibility rules, as per Forbes.

The dual announcements came amid a broader debate over transgender participation in women’s sports, one that gained fresh momentum after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham spoke out against trans athletes competing in the league, ESPN reported.

The host of The Megyn Kelly Show argued the declarations have effectively forced the WNBA’s hand.

“The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement states that ‘only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,’ but it does not define what a woman is,” Kelly said on the Monday, August 10 episode of The Megyn Kelly Show. “We know what a woman is. This is just a game of the left that we have to pretend we don’t.”

She continued, framing the moment as one the league can no longer sidestep. “So now they have to actually have a meeting to decide: are men who self-declare as women considered women under their collective bargaining agreement? What is a woman? They’ve got to answer that question now.”

Kelly argued the stakes go beyond a single roster spot. “It might sound like a joke, but the WNBA has to take transgender participation seriously because it keeps telling us that it stands for inclusion and diversity,” she said. “So what choice does it have?”

The pressure appears to be working. According to ESPN, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has since sent a memo to the league’s players association acknowledging the situation, confirming that a task force of team presidents and general managers plans to take up the issue in the coming weeks.

Engelbert’s memo noted that the league’s eligibility rules are collectively bargained, distinguishing the WNBA’s process from that of other sports organizations facing similar questions.

Kelly also had plenty to say about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who told ABC’s This Week host Jonathan Karl this past weekend that “Woke 1 was crazy” while discussing her past support for “defund the police.”

“The excesses of woke, which now she wants to call ‘Woke 1,’ as though it’s separate and distinct and can be something that’s disavowed, unlike ‘Woke 2’ – it’s all woke,” Kelly said, pointing back to Ocasio-Cortez’s own 2020 posts, including one reading, “Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks, funny math.”

“Woke is one thing; it’s been foisted on us by lunatics like AOC for the better part of 10-plus years now, longer really,” the former Fox News anchor added. “And listen to her trying to dismiss it because they’re talking about this Francesca Hong in Wisconsin, the nutcase who wanted to cancel Thanksgiving because it’s, I don’t know, whatever it is, colonialist settlement. We shouldn’t be celebrating it. I can’t keep up with their nutcases… Oh my God!”