Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom was kicked out of the Indiana Fever vs. Chicago Sky game on Sunday, August 23, and his colleagues are not amused by his antics.
“He’s a straight loser,” New York Knicks star Mikal Bridges Jr. wrote via X over a video of Freedom’s altercation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud.
The incident occurred late in the third quarter when Freedom and Cloud, both 34, got into a shouting match. Freedom was seated courtside, wearing a shirt that read, “WOMAN noun adult human female,” which some fans deemed transphobic.
The WNBA has not commented publicly on the incident.
Freedom first made headlines earlier in August when he declared for the WNBA Draft in an attempt to force the league to take a stand on whether trans women are eligible to play in the league. Former player Royce White, who is currently running for Senate in Minnesota, followed suit and declared for the draft as well. Neither player is actually trans.
“Look at the drama queen….. no not Natasha,” Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma wrote via X on Sunday. “Grown man stepping over the baseline at a woman.”
“Enes, What are you doing brother?” former guard Evan Turner added.
The criticism extended beyond the NBA, with former Indianapolis Colts star Darius Butler writing via X, “What a BUM!”
Freedom, for his part, claimed he was only at the game to support his friend, Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.
“Sophie Cunningham shot a three, and I put my hands up to celebrate,” Freedom told Fox News. “Literally, a couple possessions later, Natasha came back and started screaming and yelling and said, ‘She’s not gonna sleep with you.’”
He continued, “And I was like, ‘I am not trying to sleep with her. I’m just here to protect women and support her.’ And then, obviously, after that she started yapping, and she started to walk toward me, and literally I just got up, and then I was like, ‘I’m just here to protect women, and that’s all.’”
The WNBA has stayed quiet on the issue of trans women in the league, even after Cunningham, 30, publicly came out against it. (The WNBA currently has no openly trans players nor are there any trans prospects expected to join the league in the next few years.)
“Our player eligibility rules, unlike the eligibility rules of some other leagues and governing bodies, are collectively bargained,” commissioner Cathy Engelbert wrote in a memo to the WNBA Players’ Association, obtained by ESPN. “Lastly, preserving the integrity of our game and ensuring fair competition will always remain among the league’s highest priorities.”
