The Republican NBA 'star' targeting the women's league

Doing the rounds of the US political shows at the weekend was Royce White, a former NBA basketball player, Republican Minnesota Senate candidate for the US Senate later this year… and a man who is now planning to enter next year’s draft for the Women’s NBA in an apparent protest against transgender athletes in sport.

White – the highlights of whose previous, unsuccessful bid for the Senate in 2024 was to post what he said was a map of Minneapolis crimes on X only for it to emerge it actually showed the locations of the city’s drinking fountains – told Fox News he was planning to enter the WNBA draft as “it would appear I am indeed sometimes identifying as a transgender woman”.

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“Right now I’m just having a blast in my feminine area,” he told the network. “I never thought that I was a woman. You know, I’ve always trusted the science and I thought that I was a man in my entire life, but after further review I’ve had a strong look at my personal preferences and it would appear I am indeed sometimes identifying as a transgender woman.

“I think it’s only fair that I get a chance to play with some of my queens here in the twilight of my career, right here in my athletic prime.”

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White’s chances of making it in the WNBA may be higher than being elected to the Senate in Minnesota, where his 2024 campaign was dogged by his fringe views, including repeated conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic and “Jewish elites”, together with saying that “women have become too mouthy”.

But perhaps not. Because despite being repeatedly billed as a “former NBA star” during his appearances across the networks at the weekend, there’s a reason non-basketball fans may not know his name. White was on the roster of his only NBA team, the Sacramento Kings, for a single season in 2014 and was used as a substitute in three games, getting just three minutes of court time in his entire NBA career and scoring a grand total of zero points.