When a weirdly thirsty instigator with a savior complex is banned from one WNBA arena, he probably should be banned from all WNBA arenas. This is not hard. Locking the gate solves a lot of problems. Such as, say, that same individual announcing he’ll attend a finals game in Atlanta, an event everyone would like to be about basketball, as his toadies follow along to film the scene he almost certainly intends to make.
Instead, all the milk will spill and everyone will wonder why there’s a mess to clean up. Here comes Enes Kanter Freedom, again, on his way to Wednesday’s Game 3 of the league’s championship series between the Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream. Somehow it’s not the most ridiculous part. The true absurdity is holding your breath and hoping for a least-worst outcome from a known provocateur with a code-of-conduct history and an agenda.
It is a gift-wrapped chance to steel-reinforce the WNBA’s standards, and standing, with absolutely zero downside. It’s a layup to stand up. But by the sound of it, everyone would rather have security personnel standing by.
Nothing can be done until something is done. That’s the line. It’s like leaving the barn door open because, hey, what if this coyote drooling by it turns out to be pretty chill?
Less than two months ago, Freedom, the former NBA nomad-turned-agitator whose cause celebre is opposition to transgender athletes, traveled to Chicago, had an in-game shouting match with a player he’d previously provoked, got kicked out of that arena and then barred indefinitely. Exactly three days ago, the same guy mocked two other players on social media and told everyone he’d be in the same building as them on Wednesday night.
There is nothing wrong with protecting your product and your personnel, even if it requires some organizational agility and improvisation, and maybe a billable hour or two to scribble fresh policy on a hotel memo pad. There is no downside in this case. No one will care, except people who the WNBA can afford to not care about.
The league cannot and should not police what people believe, nor what they wear to demonstrate those beliefs. In fact, the crowd for the WNBA Finals opener — played in one of the most inhospitable cities on the planet for exclusionary views — included some folks wearing XX-XY T-shirts in support of banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. It probably annoyed a lot of ticket holders in the vicinity at Chase Center. Too bad. As long as those people sit there and don’t behave badly or break rules, that’s the choice they get to make every time.
This is not that. This is a person who attended a game at a league arena and, at one point, was part of an in-game confrontation with an athlete that required team security to intervene. The franchise concluded his conduct warranted an indefinite ban. Who started it is irrelevant, because it’s adorably naive to believe it wasn’t exactly how this man wanted the night to end. He came in the name of a cause, but he really came out of desperation for attention and something like a fight, and here he comes again.
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom was escorted out of Wintrust Arena on Sunday evening after Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted him at his courtside baseline seat.
Late in the third quarter of a game between the Sky and the Indiana Fever, Cloud scored on a driving layup, prompting a timeout from the Fever. The veteran guard then approached Freedom, who has gained notoriety for his vocal opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
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— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 24, 2026
I’ve spent time around the Atlanta Dream this season. I’ve seen the player security crew up close. They’re guys who make you instinctively feel like you should walk the other way. I would guess there’s a not-small amount of fans who would pay just to see Freedom’s “I fear God and God alone” mantra put to the test on State Farm Arena on Wednesday.
We’re in favor of civility here, of course, and even then there’s no reason to rely on deterrents. There’s no reason to decide a good plan is good enough. And while their respective teams will remind Angel Reese and Gabby Williams — the two players called out in Freedom’s social media post earlier this week — to turn the other cheek, the responsibility and burden shouldn’t ever be theirs.
This is again an opportunity for the WNBA to reset its own expectations for itself. To definitively enter into its Proactive Era. Too often, the league or its teams haven’t or wouldn’t or couldn’t see the very obvious problem on the way. So everyone cleans up the rubble, when a little evasive action might’ve saved the trouble.
It’s impossible to miss what’s on the way this time, because that’s the entire point. It makes things easy, though. Too easy. Mind-blowingly easy. Have a call. Adjust a policy: A ban on one gym is a ban in all gyms. Staple it to whatever appendix it needs to be stapled to by Wednesday afternoon. Dare the guy to find better lawyers.
And take care of your players. Take care of the pinnacle event of your season. Take control of yourself, and choose to ignore the backlash instead of the threat once again priming for a direct hit. The goodwill alone is worth it.
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, the great woman once said.
There’s a lot to gain by choosing not to deal with that.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Atlanta Dream, Golden State Valkyries, NBA, WNBA, Opinion
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