CHICAGO — The Women’s National Basketball Association announced Monday that it is formally changing its name to the We’re Not Biologists National Basketball Association, or WNBNBA, effective immediately.
In a brief statement released by League Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, the organization said the new designation better reflects its “core institutional identity” and removes “outdated assumptions about the nature of the competition.”
“For too long the old name carried an implicit claim that we were somehow in the business of defining or verifying biological categories,” the statement read. “We are not. We are a professional basketball league. Biology is outside our remit.”
League officials declined to answer follow-up questions about whether the change would affect eligibility rules, roster construction, or marketing materials that still use the previous initials. A spokesperson referred reporters to the new name itself.
The rebrand arrives amid ongoing public debate over participation standards in women’s sports. The league offered no further comment on those debates, noting only that “the name change is not a policy announcement.”
A short video posted to the league’s social channels showed players practicing while a calm voice-over repeated the new full name three times. No athletes were made available for interviews.
Rival leagues and college conferences had not issued responses by late Monday.
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