An organization closely tied to the Trump administration seems to be collaborating with Enes Kanter Freedom, an ex-NBA player who has joined the right-wing, anti-trans crusade against the WNBA and was ejected from a Chicago Sky game Sunday.
Freedom — his chosen name; he affixed Freedom to his birth name in 2021 — has recently begun claiming that he identifies as a woman and will declare for the 2027 WNBA draft. He’ll find it difficult to fit the gimmick into his other ambitions, as he told conservative sports website OutKick that he intends to run for office in 2028, after attending the 2024 State of the Union as one of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) guests.
The stunt comes in the wake of Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s anti-trans comments to ESPN, which prompted small protests and displays at recent WNBA games and endless coverage by right-wing outlets. There are no trans players in the WNBA.
The America First Policy Institute tweeted out footage of Freedom arriving at the Sky’s game against the Fever Sunday, where the few anti-trans protesters cheered him and Sky fans heckled. He wore a t-shirt from his own merch store with a faux dictionary definition of the word “woman” as “adult human female.”
He sat courtside, like the handful of provocateurs who have attended Fever games since Cunningham’s comments. Ashley Hayek, an AFPI executive vice president, tweeted out a picture from a couple rows behind Freedom and tagged the institute. An anti-trans podcaster previously said that the courtside seats of a couple women who protested at the Fever-Seattle game last month were paid for by a “generous donor.”
AFPI — founded by the Trump administration’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Larry Kudlow, a Fox Business News commentator and the National Economic Council director during Trump’s first term — did not respond to TPM’s questions about the nature of its relationship to Freedom, and whether it paid for his courtside seat. But the organization has leaned into the collaboration, selling a $45 orange sweatshirt that says “Let Freedom Play,” with a graphic of the former player mimicking the WNBA logo.
The institute also posted videos of Freedom being ejected from the arena after he stepped onto the court (a violation of the WNBA code of conduct) during a mid-game altercation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud, a veteran of the league well known for her activism, including for trans women.
It has also tweeted out play-by-plays of Freedom’s media circuit, in between fawning paeans to President Donald Trump. The organization said that “over 86%” of its policy recommendations have been “advanced or enacted” in the first 100 days of Trump’s second administration. It also touted that 73 alumni of the Institute now work for Trump.
A few current and former NBA players — and many sports journalists and podcasters — have disavowed the stunt.
“Look at the drama queen….. no not Natasha,” tweeted the Milwaukee Bucks’ Kyle Kuzma.
“Enes,” added former NBA player Evan Turner. “What are you doing brother?”
In the MAGA-sphere space it’s so easy for C-list celebrities, mediocre former athletes (see Gaines, Riley), and attention whores in general to become notorious for 15 minutes, since there’s nothing of substance in that space. I mean, Enes Kanter? Who ever gave a shit about anything Enes Kanter did or said?
The Fever’s new mascot seems a little odd.
It’s the Fever’s throwback uniform.
https://www.wrtv.com/longform/the-ku-klux-klan-ran-indiana-once-could-it-happen-again