Former NBA player and political candidate Royce White has pivoted. But not from his controversial WNBA decision. After a second failed campaign for the Minnesota Senate, White announced his plans to run for the 2028 United States presidency. The 35-year-old’s new declaration follows a publicized move in which he announced his intention to enter the 2027 WNBA draft, even at the cost of a legal battle.

In a public statement outlining his path forward, White revealed his strategy to achieve a WNBA milestone before entering the executive branch of the government.

“Now the real fun begins — I will be starting my campaign for President next week,” White announced on X. “I don’t care how much money they say I need or how much a– I’m supposed to kiss. It ain’t going to happen! We win MVP of the WNBA and then head to the oval office.”

The announcement comes directly on the heels of the Minnesota Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, where former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya won with 52.1% of the vote on August 11. White, who came in third with 11.2%, also name-dropped her in his lengthy statement.

White positioned his upcoming executive run as a direct confrontation with the political establishment, emphasizing a refusal to engage in traditional political fundraising or diplomatic campaigning. He’ll become only the second NBA player to run for the U.S. presidency.

Bill Bradley, who played 10 seasons for the New York Knicks, ran a prominent campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2000, ultimately losing to Al Gore.

White, though, has been in the headlines for a few days now. It all started when he publicly expressed interest in the WNBA draft and announced that he’d be declaring for it. The league’s Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, initially released a statement saying there would be an internal strategic meeting, but a new report might turn this entire scenario on its head.

How the WNBA reportedly feels about Royce White and Enes Freedom Kanter

“Per league source, the WNBA is not taking declarations by former NBA players for the ’27 WNBA Draft seriously,” Forbes’ women’s basketball insider Khristina Williams posted on X. “Source called them attempts to ‘sow division and chaos’ by ‘bad-faith actors.’ Nothing is imminent; league will follow its process and not let outside noise dictate it.”

Now, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have both made it clear they’re open to exhausting all legal means to be a part of the next draft. White even went to the extent of threatening a lawsuit if he wasn’t selected by a team on a discriminatory basis.

“I think it’s going to end up being a huge legal battle, to be honest, and probably a necessary one,” White told Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson. “But I don’t really see what the big deal would be. I think the league would get much better, and certainly I’m the prospective number one pick, right?”

White has even responded to online comments and pushed back against critics questioning the validity of his self-identification.

“Don’t tell me how to be a Black woman! Taking hormones are optional,” White posted in response via X. “The idea that a Trans woman has to subject herself to BIG PHARMA, is just another way for cis normative people to turn us into a commodity. I’m an ALL NATURAL Black trans lesbian with a penil- aesthetic.”

Kanter Freedom and White’s declarations were framed as a challenge to the WNBA’s lack of clarity on player eligibility. Both athletes pointed to specific language in Article XIII of the WNBA’s 2026 Collective Bargaining Agreement, which states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but lacks specific wording for self-identifying participants.

White, who spent a brief stint under contract with the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings, has continued to emphasize the WNBA discourse. His campaigns for the Minnesota Senate also ran with it.

But according to political analysts, while the WNBA matter arose too late to have any impact on his campaign, Tafoya remained a frontrunner for most of the primary race, and White’s chances were reportedly slim. He previously lost to incumbent Amy Klobuchar in 2024.

White, meanwhile, engaged critics like former NBA player Robin Lopez and other social media users online.

“Biggest issue: If you’re being drafted, people are saying ‘we want you around for 4 years & I can’t imagine anybody wants Enes Kanter or Royce White around them for even 4 minutes,’” the 16-year NBA veteran Lopez tweeted while the fanbase waited for an official response from the league itself.

Has Cathy Engelbert responded again?

In response to the growing public and political discourse, the WNBA office and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert issued an internal memo, establishing a panel of franchise executives to outline clearer eligibility criteria for players. The league’s anti-hate task force also convened to evaluate the rules and address the polarizing conversations developing online.

A formal league statement distributed on Wednesday outlined their institutional approach to the matter:

“Today’s meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online. We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months. We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league. There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others.”

As the WNBA deliberates this issue, Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White addressed the ongoing controversy and the heat specifically directed at Sophie Cunningham, who said she supports barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports, and the team.

“The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win,” the Fever coach said.

Meanwhile, Cheryl Miller has told the two former NBA players, “If you want to stir anything, stir your game up,” and labeled their actions as “horrible energy.”

“It’s just more people trying to hijack the narrative for the WNBA players,” Miller told TMZ. “I, Sue Bird and myself and Maria Taylor [sportscaster for NBC Sports], we said the other night that it’s our story. We’ll tell it.”

“We’ll make the adjustments where we need to make the adjustments. But right now, I’m not giving them, those two in particular, a whole lot of thought because it’s outsiders looking to hijack our narrative.”

Layshia Clarendon and AD Durr are the two known non-binary athletes to have played in the WNBA. Both players’ gender at birth was female.