Watch: Former NBA Player Who Declared for WNBA Draft Attends Game, Gets Kicked Out After Player Beefs with Him
Let’s think back for a second to the year 2001 — which is remembered primarily for one horrific event in September, but was a rich and deep year otherwise. Specifically, let’s take a closer look at the spring of that annus horribilis.
After the tech stock bubble burst, energy giant Enron was considered one of the safest places to put your money. Steve Jobs was just one year into his tenure as Apple’s permanent CEO and the iPod hadn’t even been released yet. The word “chad” got more attention for its association with American elections than as a country in Africa.
In that environment, WWE impresario Vince McMahon launched a rival football league to the NFL, called the XFL. The league was supposed to be hyper-aggressive, and effective differences between it and the NFL were that 1) it played in the spring, 2) it changed a few rules to make the onset of chronic traumatic encephalopathy just a little bit quicker for players, and 3) the marketing was so aggressive and in-your-face that it was indistinguishable from “Mortal Kombat.”
Anyhow, for those of you who remember those days, the league flopped like a “Waterworld” remake starring Pauly Shore, but that isn’t the point here. What, precisely, did that “X” stand for? Everyone assumed “eXtreme,” but the league denied that. McMahon himself said that since the NFL was called the “No Fun League,” the X meant “eXtra Fun League.”
But eventually, the league settled on an explanation: It meant nothing. It sounded cool, maybe, but it didn’t actually mean anything. (Except for X-tinct; the initial version XFL folded after one season of unwatchable games in front of crowds that could fit in trailer homes. Different versions since haven’t fared much better.)
I mention this all because we now have a league experiencing a surge in popularity called the WNBA. We all assumed it stood for “Women’s National Basketball Association,” because all of the players in it were women. But after a transgender French player announced he would declare for the league draft and two former NBA players followed suit — noting that the terminally woke league’s rules essentially mean that if you define yourself as a woman, you are a woman — the league met to figure out what that W actually meant a few weeks back. They couldn’t actually come to a conclusion.
A WNBA task force of team presidents and general managers met Wednesday and discussed transgender athletes but did not arrive at any eligibility rules, according to a statement sent to ESPN by a league spokesperson.https://t.co/woN41EFRHC
— ESPN (@espn) August 13, 2026
Ergo, the conundrum persists. And on Sunday, it exploded into public view thanks to a WNBA game and the most outspoken of the players who wants to join the WNBA based on the league’s suicidal wokeism: Enes Kanter Freedom, the Turkish-descended American immigrant who got blackballed from the NBA for his views on China and other political issues.
Kanter Freedom has declared himself eligible for the WNBA draft, saying wants to play for the Fever and that he and Clark would be like “Kobe and Shaq.” Cunningham, meanwhile, has been outspoken about her opposition to men wanting to join women’s sports.
Sunday was also a rivalry game, namely between the Caitlin Clark-Sophie Cunningham Indiana Fever and the Kamilla Cardoso-DiJonai Carrington Chicago Sky at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena.
Ergo, it was high time for Kanter Freedom to get some courtside seats and chide his future rivals — if, of course, the WNBA still can’t figure out that pesky “W.” And, wouldn’t you know it, all hell broke loose, thanks to Sky guard Natasha Cloud having a beef with Kanter Freedom:
Natasha Cloud gets into it with Enes Kanter during Fever/Sky.
Kanter was escorted out of the arena.pic.twitter.com/ZKrYxVZVDu
— Underdog WNBA (@UnderdogWNBA) August 24, 2026
Enes Kanter was kicked out of a WNBA game after arguing with players pic.twitter.com/ovT25sgORF
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) August 24, 2026
Kanter Freedom was escorted out of the arena. No way to treat a potential future No. 1 draft pick, in my opinion, but I guess in the absence of the league figuring out what its initials stand for, you’ve got to keep the peace somehow.
According to the sports website Outkick, Kanter Freedom told reporters Cloud objected to his cheering for a Sophie Cunningham three-pointer (and implied he was only interested in Cunningham sexually). It might have also been Kanter Freedom’s shirt that set her off. The two have tussled publicly over politics before — when Clound called the United States “trash.”
Whatever it was, Cloud had to be restrained from hitting the 6’10” former NBA’er.
Enes Kanter showed off his T-Shirt while being escorted out of the arena.
“WOMAN: adult human female” pic.twitter.com/gIFb5ejIQz
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) August 24, 2026
Of course, it wouldn’t have ended well in a one-on-one fight had Kanter Freedom duked it out with Cloud. Sure, he’s a man, and that would be horrific — but the WNBA doesn’t seem to realize this, because again it doesn’t realize what a “W” means unless it’s a win.
This is farcical stuff, of course (although way more entertaining, and closer to pro wrestling, than anything McMahon’s XFL ever produced), but it’s farcical stuff of the league’s own doing. See, sports fans actually want to like the WNBA. The competition has gotten better.
For fans who are into the strategy of the game rather than the barrage of three-point shot attempts and six-step dunks that don’t get called for traveling that characterize the modern NBA, it’s fun. Clark, Kardoso, and a whole new generation of talent has supplanted the sport’s rather spotty distribution of stars before the last few years.
The problem is that we’re being asked to not only buy into liking the league, but liking the league’s politics — which it shoves in your face at every opportunity. And those politics, especially when it comes to the sport itself, are self-contradictory.
Consider the fact that if “trans women are women,” there shouldn’t be any issue with Kanter Freedom being there. Bring the guy out at halftime and celebrate him for his bravery in declaring himself a trans woman … while he’s on the court, of course. But the league’s players know better, which is why we had this lovely spectacle in Chicago. At least this time, the player in question didn’t just go after Clark for no reason.
Oh, by the way, the Sky lost, 113-90, with Clark putting up 37 points. But that’s not what anyone cares about. As long as that’s the case and stunts like this overshadow the marquee games, a league that can’t figure out what the first letter of its initials stands for is doomed to XFL-like irrelevancy, albeit at a much slower pace than the “eXtra Fun League” farce.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
