On Sunday night at Wintrust Arena, the Chicago Sky took on the Indiana Fever in a heated game that the Fever took 113-90 — led by Caitlin Clark. The reason this game is on everyone’s timelines is not solely because of the majesty of women’s basketball.
It is because of the antics of former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, who approached the baseline of the court and got into a verbal altercation with Sky’s Natasha Cloud.
Cloud is arguably a popular and talented player who is vocal on many issues of social justice. After the kerfuffle, Freedom was ejected from the building.
One might wonder why a former professional basketball player would engage with a player mid-game. Allegedly, he is wading into a debate about transwomen in the WNBA when, (un)ironically, there are no current players who identify as trans playing in the W.
Freedom was wearing a shirt that read: “Woman 🔊noun. Adult human female.” This is supposed to be a witty commentary on biological females. Freedom, of course, being a self-appointed and self-aggrandized expert on this issue, was all-to-happy to be the centre of this drama.
Cloud, who was awarded player of the game, later worried she was a “distraction” for the team according to head coach, Tyler Marsh. Marsh assured her that was not the case.
“I told her she wasn’t,” he said post-game. “I told her that we all embrace her as someone that protects our team and protects people that need to be protected and so Tash is always going to stand on that, and we stand for Tash.”
Freedom has decided that women’s sports needs protecting and he is the person to do it by facetiously creating a situation that elevates public pressure and social media clicks above reality.
If that includes disruption (not the good kind) and making it about himself while never actually attending a WNBA before this, then we can write it off as tomfoolery.
But is Freedom someone who is a lover and supporter of women’s sports? Did he get a call from women all over the world asking for his assistance? If so, I might have missed that memo.
Freedom declared himself for the 2027 WNBA draft in what could politely be called a social media stunt. He was followed by Royce White, another basketball player whose time in the spotlight has waned. Both men declared themselves “women” for the purposes of the draft.
The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement signed in March 2026 states that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA." What a woman is, is not defined, and there is no further policy about eligibility for transgender or DSD (Difference in Sex Development) athletes.
Monday afternoon it was reported that he would not, in fact, be eligible to play in the WNBA. That Freedom showed up at Wintruist Arena when the Sky was playing the Fever, featuring guard Sophie Cunningham, was convenient.
Cunningham is vocal against inclusion of trans women (under the guise of “protecting young girls”) and her presence while he wore this shirt and argued with Cloud couldn’t have been better choreographed for his performance.
Men wading into discussions about women’s sport is not uncommon. And that he got into an argument by provoking players and the community with his shirt is something we’ve come to expect from disingenuous types parading as saviours of women’s sports.
