Former Utah Jazz player Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from a WNBA game Sunday after a verbal altercation with a player during a game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky.
Fever coach Stephanie White later asked reporters not to cover what happened, saying it was just “a social media thing.”
The media did not comply.
The exchange made headlines nationwide, including at The New York Times.
The ejection was just part of what turned out to be a big weekend for Freedom, who has become a major player in an issue roiling the WNBA: transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Cameras were focused on Freedom even before he entered Chicago’s Wintrust Arena wearing a black T-shirt that said: “Woman, noun. Adult human female.”
Outside, as a Chicago police officer protected him, Freedom was accosted by several people who directed expletives at him and said, “You were sorry in the league,” referencing Freedom’s NBA career.
He later posted a video of the encounter on X.
During the third quarter of the game, he was escorted out of the arena after Natasha Cloud, who had just scored, began shouting at him and Freedom stood up with his arms outstretched and took a step in her direction. He waved to the crowd as he left the building.
Asked about the exchange during a postgame press conference, White, the coach of the Indiana Fever, said, “I mean, I think it’s important that people, like you guys in this room, don’t give it any gas, right? Like it’s a social media thing.”
But podcaster Riley Gaines said on social media that the image of Freedom with his arms outstretched was the “perfect visual” to illustrate why she and others object to transgender athletes playing in women’s sports.
According to ESPN, there are “no known” transgender players in the WNBA, but the issue has become front and center because of Indiana Fever Sophie Cunningham’s remarks on the issue. Cunningham has said that it’s “common sense” that only biological women should be allowed to play in the league.
A majority of Americans agree, according to polling. Pew Research Center reported that 73% of Americans are “uncomfortable with transgender athletes competing on sports teams that do not match their sex at birth.” Other polls have shown that figure approaching 80%.
But the issue is so politically sensitive that expressing this opinion is culturally divisive. A Seattle Times sportswriter recently resigned after his editors declined to run a column about two of Cunningham’s supporters, and he immediately became a hero of the political right.
The same thing is happening to Freedom, 34, who made headlines when he announced on social media that he intended to enter the WNBA draft. (While saying it is only open to women players, the league has declined to formally define what a woman is, and whether biological males who identify as female qualify to play.)
On Saturday, Freedom, who played in the NBA for 11 years, was interviewed by Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of the president, on her Fox News show.
“I love the game; I’m prepared to play,” he told Trump, adding, “I think I will be the best draft pick in WNBA history, literally.”
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court gave states the authority to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports teams in high school and college, but the ruling does not apply to professional or community sports leagues.
Freedom, who legally changed his last name to celebrate becoming a U.S. citizen in 2021, was a first-round draft pick for the Utah Jazz in 2011. He went on to play for NBA teams in Oklahoma City, New York, Portland and Boston before being traded to, and waived by, Houston. He has said that he believes his NBA career ended prematurely because of his outspokenness on human rights issues internationally.