Charles Barkley declares WNBA is 'for women only' after ongoing transgender athlete debate

NBA Hall of Famer and sports commentator Charles Barkley declared Monday that the WNBA is "for women only.

Period." During an interview on CNN host Michael Smerconish's podcast , Barkley commented on former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom being removed from a WNBA game Sunday night after being confronted by Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud.

Critics have accused Freedom of deliberately stirring up controversy by wearing a T-shirt that read "WOMAN noun. adult human female." Barkley responded that while he respects the transgender community, he believes "under no circumstances" should biological men play against biological women and criticized NBA and WNBA leadership for failing to address that.

WNBA HAS 'NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE ABOUT TO FACE,' ENES KANTER FREEDOM SAYS AS LEAGUE TAKES ON TRANS ATHLETE ISSUE "I'm disappointed in [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver and Cathy [Engelbert] the [WNBA] commissioner," Barkley said.

"First of all, 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.

People are looking for attention now...but [Freedom] has a point though, because Cathy and Adam haven't said, 'Hey, it's in the title, WNBA." Barkley urged the commissioners to come out and draw a line in the sand, saying, "'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.'" "And Enes is trying to get attention," Barkley continued.

"'No, we're not doing that either.

The WNBA is for women.

And listen, this is the last time we're going to discuss it.

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.