{"id":1024984,"date":"2026-08-26T09:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024984\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T09:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:54:19","slug":"enes-kanter-freedom-is-dragging-down-the-wnba-i-have-the-perfect-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024984\/","title":{"rendered":"Enes Kanter Freedom is dragging down the WNBA. I have the perfect fix."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I probably don\u2019t need to remind you that trans panic has become one of the most lucrative hustles within the greater right-wing media sphere. I\u2019m guessing you\u2019re also aware that the WNBA\u2014as in, the top flight of women\u2019s basketball in the United States\u2014has emerged as the crucible for that front in the culture war\u00a0\u2026 despite the fact that there are no trans women competing in the league, nor have there ever been in its 29-year history. But that hardly matters. We know by now that the debate about gender dysphoria and gendered athletics is completely detached from the conditions of our shared reality. Instead, this is a thought experiment that\u2019s gone absolutely berserk, a cudgel to express bitter rage and confusion toward the existence of trans Americans in a way that has completely shattered the facade that these inquiries are rooted in a good-faith effort to \u201cprotect women\u2019s sports\u201d\u2014which, to be clear, was never especially convincing in the first place. You know how I know this? Because Enes Kanter is now involved.<\/p>\n

Kanter was a mediocre professional basketball player who has been retired since 2022. At his peak, he averaged 14 points a game for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and throughout his career, he has happily attached himself to political zeitgeists\u2014of all stripes\u2014in a way that always managed to redirect attention toward himself. (Case in point: He changed his name to \u201cEnes Kanter Freedom,\u201d but forgive me if I go with the original syntax.) Kanter loudly protested the political oppression in his native Turkey; he did a number of empathetic sit-down interviews about the toll it takes to play power forward while fasting for Ramadan; there are videos of him marching at Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020; and he has criticized the NBA\u2019s partnership with China, as well as the association\u2019s feckless response to the Hong Kong protests in 2019. That last point is important, because it earned Kanter some traction on Fox News broadcasts. (There is nothing the Murdoch empire loves more than anyone willing to condemn LeBron James.<\/a>) In that sense, it seems likely that Kanter\u2019s seductive first brush with MAGAdom helped him ideate his latest adopted identity: the guardian and protector of women\u2019s athletics from an alleged horde of trans interlopers\u2014who, again, do not exist.<\/p>\n

In early August, Kanter \u201cdeclared\u201d for the 2027 WNBA draft by claiming to identify as a woman<\/a> and loudly proclaiming the idea that if he were selected for a roster, he\u2019d immediately become the best player in the sport. This was immediately understood to be a publicity stunt masquerading as activism by just about everyone in the WNBA, and even if a franchise took him seriously, it wasn\u2019t immediately clear<\/a> that Kanter passed the eligibility threshold as stated in the league\u2019s collective-bargaining agreement. (Absent in the deal is any language adjudicating rules surrounding gender identity, gender assignment, X or Y chromosomes, genetic makeup, and so on.)<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, the Indiana Fever\u2019s Sophie Cunningham\u2014a basketball player with the aspirations of a podcaster, the saddest thing anyone could say about someone\u2014has turned herself into the loudest voice in the WNBA advocating against the inclusion of trans athletes<\/a>. It was a match made in heaven. Last Sunday, Kanter sat courtside at a game between the Fever and the Chicago Sky, asserting himself a huge Indiana fan while wearing a shirt printed with the dictionary definition of the word Woman. In the third quarter, Sky guard Natasha Cloud started jawing with Kanter, understandably annoyed that this clown show had come home to roost in her own arena. Kanter left his seat and actually stepped toward the court, a huge no-no, to continue the argument. He was escorted from the premises shortly afterward. (The following day, Kanter recounted his side of the story to\u2014who else?\u2014Laura Ingraham. He said that Cloud yelled to him that Cunningham \u201cwasn\u2019t going to sleep\u201d with him. I think I might be a Sky fan now.)<\/p>\n

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\n Julie Kliegman
\n Fifty Years Ago, Tucker Carlson\u2019s Dad Ignited an Obsession That Plagues the Right to This Day. Will It Ever End?
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So it\u2019s a mess. From a public-attention standpoint, we\u2019re in the midst of one of the best WNBA seasons of all time. The league is loaded with talent\u2014go watch the Minnesota Lynx!\u2014but, predictably, all of these extratextual distractions have utterly dominated the narrative thanks to a couple of obsequious doofuses and their partners in the media. And that, my friends, has radicalized me, though maybe not in the way you might think.<\/p>\n

Remember the 2016 NFL season? When Colin Kaepernick started taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence? Remember how that provoked a right-wing freakout, all centered on the idea that Kaepernick needed to, and I quote, \u201cstick to sports\u201d? That the political commentary was encumbering their quiet enjoyment of Sunday Night Football? That athletes, analysts, and talking heads alike should focus on the games and nothing else? I would like to say, at long last, that all of those conservative agitators were totally, totally correct. I am now a stick-to-sports absolutist, and those same MAGA guys who couldn\u2019t shut up about Kaepernick ought to be the first ones to toe the line.<\/p>\n

I need to reiterate this one more time: This eldritch fear and rancor about trans women playing professional basketball is entirely a right-wing media creation. There isn\u2019t a trans player in the WNBA putting up gaudy stats and provoking a heavy conversation about the differences between biological sex and gender identity; the only reason we are not Sticking to Sports here is because Fox News doesn\u2019t want us to. It would prefer to continue to use the WNBA as a conduit for this shabby and hateful campaign, hammering an illusive hypothetical over and over again, in order to mark a discreet minority for delegitimization and destruction. (It is telling, for instance, how rarely the question of trans men is pondered in these equations.) And frankly, after enduring this cruel obsession for so long, I am officially through the looking glass. Stick to sports!<\/p>\n

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    It Was One of the Most Surreal Moments in Oscars History. It\u2019s Often Still Misunderstood.
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    Some MAGA types might say I\u2019m being hypocritical here. That surely I was all in for Kaepernick\u2019s protests, which gained extra salience during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. No, man! That also got annoying and way too overheated! But that was never because of Kaepernick. Remember, he detailed the reasons for his kneeling only after a reporter asked him about the ritual. What followed was a strain of discourse that grew genuinely unhinged. Donald Trump started bird-dogging Kaepernick at rallies. When Nike filmed a commercial with him\u2014after he was blackballed by the NFL, mind you\u2014chuds destroyed their swoosh-laden socks in effigy<\/a>. Perhaps someday the monolith of professional sports, America\u2019s last monoculture, will be able to commingle with political action in a way that doesn\u2019t make everyone lose their minds. But take a look at the state of our nation. We\u2019re a long way from that.<\/p>\n

    The Indiana Fever were actually in New York a few days ago. The team was playing the Liberty, just before the Enes Kanter incident. As is common now, a few right-wing organizers put together a demonstration outside the Barclays Center to express solidarity with Sophie Cunningham\u2019s trans exclusion. Sportico reported from the scene<\/a>. They had one question for the protesters: Could they name five WNBA players? The answer, across the board, was no. It sounds like someone needs to stick to sports. And for the first time in my life, I don\u2019t mean the liberals.<\/p>\n