While Enes Kanter Freedom claims to support women’s sports and Sophie Cunningham’s stance on trans athletes, for 2023 NBA champion Michael Porter Jr., Freedom’s actions do not reflect his intent. For the Brooklyn Nets small forward, Freedom’s actions – attending the Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky game on August 23 only to be ejected after an altercation with Natasha Cloud – are contradictory.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“Especially what I don’t understand what the whole situation is, from my point of view, it looks like he’s trying to make a point that a woman, that transgenders should not be able to play and, so if he’s trying to protect the WNBA and the sport, of women playing as women, he’s trying to do it by an extreme way of know, that why is he going in kind of like why is he going to the game and kind of getting into it with them and kind of bullying them?” said Porter Jr. on Curious Mike, an interview show he hosts.
Kanter Freedom’s ejection from the Chicago Sky arena added a new layer to the transgender debate in the league. The altercation began after Chicago’s Natasha Cloud scored and immediately turned to yell and point toward Enes Freedom (Kanter), who was seated courtside wearing a shirt that read: ‘WOMAN, noun. Adult human female.‘
Kanter-Freedom quickly rose, stepped toward the floor, and traded verbal jabs with Cloud. Arena security and players promptly intervened to separate them before Kanter was escorted out of the building, capping a scene that immediately went viral.
“I just got kicked out of a @WNBA game for supporting WOMEN! Let that sink in, AMERICA! 🇺🇸,” Kenter-Freedom posted after getting ejected.
Freedom has since filed a lawsuit against being banned from the Chicago Sky arena. However, Michael Porter Jr remains unconvinced of Kanter-Freedom’s tactics to make their point. For Porter Jr, it’s understandable that Freedom wants to make a point. But it’s their methods he is questioning.
“That’s what I don’t understand about the whole situation. I kind of understood that he’s trying to make a point. He’s trolling, but if his point was to protect them and protect the WNBA, or to kind of just show that it’s not fair to have men who transition playing in that sport, then why are you getting into it?”
Porter wasn’t the only one who agreed that the methods used by Freedom were uncalled for. Porter’s guest on Curious Mike, Jason Lee, also elaborated on his thoughts on the matter.
“But watching him mock those women like that… when I saw him at the game the other night, mocking the players as they were playing, the women who were playing. I thought that was being a bully… I thought he I thought it was whack.”
Through the last few weeks of the transgender controversy that has divided the league, Enes Kanter Freedom has maintained that he is a firm supporter of Sophie Cunningham. Freedom has recently revealed that Cunningham shared some texts with them as well.
Freedom appeared on The Big Weekend Show over the last weekend, where Riley Gaines, another prominent voice in the ongoing transgender debate, asked him about any communication with Cunningham.
“I did text her after the game, and she even asked me like, ‘What happened?’ I simply said I got up and open my arms in the air and said, ‘I’m here to protect my friends. She’s inspiring not only people in the WNBA, but the girls from all over the world,” Freedom claimed.
So far, Cunningham has not made a public comment on the matter. Her question to Freedom is the only thing the former NBA player has claimed she said.
“She’s standing for the truth, and then she’s standing for things that are even if it means sacrificing everything. So I think she is an idol now; she’s an American hero. I’m just really happy that finally someone from the WNBA got up and said, ‘Enough is enough. We have to stand for American values,” Freedom added.
The whole transgender saga started with Cunningham’s interview with ESPN on July 21. A short while after that, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declared for the 2027 WNBA draft, insisting that there is nothing in the current eligibility rules that prevents them from doing so.
So while Freedom keeps on insisting that their actions may be to support women or Sophie Cunningham, Jason Lee and Michael Porter Jr remain skeptical of the methods being employed by them.
The whole transgender debate has deeply gripped and divided the basketball community, and now, against the backdrop of a lawsuit filed by Freedom, it looks unlikely to settle anytime soon.