Charles Barkley is calling on NBA commissioner Adam Silver and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to take a clearer public position on transgender athlete participation in the WNBA.
During a recent discussion, Barkley criticized the league’s leadership for not addressing the issue directly sooner, arguing that the silence allowed the conversation to become dominated by social media debate.
“I’m disappointed in Adam Silver and Kathy the commissioner,” Barkley said. “They should have come out two weeks ago before all this.”
Barkley argued that the league should have established its position clearly rather than allowing the issue to become an ongoing public controversy.
He also made his own position unmistakable, saying, “Under no circumstances, do I think men should compete against women? Zero!”
Barkley ultimately said Silver and Engelbert should have addressed the issue weeks earlier and made clear that the WNBA would not allow the debate to be driven by online discourse.
His comments come amid a broader conversation surrounding eligibility policies and transgender participation in women’s sports, an issue that has generated significant debate among players, fans and sports officials.
Barkley’s criticism was directed not only at the policy discussion itself, but at what he sees as a failure by league leadership to communicate a definitive position publicly.
