The WNBA has not announced plans to ban or prevent Enes Kanter Freedom from attending games following his ejection at Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Sunday. But league sources told Yahoo Sports neither he nor fellow former NBA player Royce White are eligible to play in the league.
Kanter Freedom and White declared themselves for the 2027 WNBA Draft after saying they identified as women, challenging the league’s eligibility guidelines and positioning themselves in the center of the transgender athletes discussion surrounding the league for the past month.
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Kanter Freedom attended Sunday’s game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever with a T-shirt that read, “WOMAN noun. adult human female.” In the third quarter, he was removed from the arena after a verbal altercation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud. It is unclear what or who sparked the conversation.
TV cameras came out of the break showing Cloud yelling and approaching Kanter Freedom, who stepped toward the court. Sky teammates held Cloud back, and Kanter Freedom was approached to be escorted down the tunnel. Cloud reportedly spoke with team and league security after the game, but did not talk to reporters.
Both individuals took to social media after the incident.
“To every trans kid/person, You are a part of MY community & tribe. You belong. You’re loved. You’re seen. You’re perfect as you are. & you will always be protected by me,” Cloud wrote on Threads.
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“I just got kicked out of a WNBA game for supporting WOMEN!” Kanter Freedom wrote on X. “Let that sink in, AMERICA!”
The discussion around transgender women participating in women’s sports took off after comments made by Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham in an ESPN profile released ahead of the All-Star break. A league source called the declarations made by Kanter Freedom and White “simply publicity stunts” that the league “won’t give oxygen to.”
After a previously scheduled anti-hate task force meeting on Aug. 12 that included a discussion on transgender athletes, the league said via a spokesperson it denounced “bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or to marginalize others.” Earlier that week, the WNBA Players Association released a statement that it “will not be used as political pawns.”
There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, nor are there any known players coming up through the NCAA ranks to make this an immediate issue. No transgender woman has played in the league. The source said the league will not allow outside pressure to determine its decision and will continue to discuss it with various stakeholders and different groups moving forward.
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The new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed in March states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” It does not define it further. The NCAA announced a policy change in February 2015 that only those assigned female at birth are eligible to compete in women’s sports. Other sports organizations use or have used genetic screening or enforced blood testosterone limits.
Kanter Freedom and Cloud, both 11-year veterans of their respective leagues, are both outwardly vocal on politically related issues. They engaged in a heated social media conversation in 2023, as detailed by The Athletic. Cloud and Cunningham played together in Phoenix in 2024.
