Later the same day, another former NBA player, Royce White, joined Freedom. I’m a woman. But pissed-off women don’t have the cultural clout of male sporting stars, whose intervention can turn a long-running feminist battle into headline news overnight. The announcements by Freedom and White come weeks after WNBA star Sophie Cunningham spoke up for women-only sport. It is both heartening and depressing that while Cunningham’s female colleagues have largely kept their heads below the hoops, it has taken two enormous former NBA players to lumber over and stand beside her.