Key Takeaways
- Enes Kanter Freedom says he plans to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft and claims the first player he’ll dunk on is Angel Reese, calling her the Paul George of the league and mocking her after a missed game-winner against Caitlin Clark.
- Freedom, whose 11-year NBA career ended in 2022, is using his high-profile declaration to challenge the WNBA’s women-only eligibility rules while insisting his move isn’t meant to mock trans people but to force clarity on participation policies.
- Former NBA player and Senate candidate Royce White has joined Freedom in threatening a legal fight over WNBA access, while the league has publicly denounced their efforts as bad-faith attempts to demean and marginalize others.
Enes Kanter Freedom hasn't played an NBA game in more than four years, but he's already picking out his first WNBA target. The former NBA center, who says he intends to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft, took aim at Angel Reese, declaring that he plans to dunk on the Atlanta Dream star once he gets into the league.
“Once I go No. 1 pick in the 2027 @WNBA Draft, the first player I’m dunking on is Angel Reese,” Freedom wrote on X. “She’s the Paul George of the #WNBA.”
Freedom went after Reese after she missed a potential game-winning layup against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on Sunday. He didn't stop with the Paul George comparison, either. “Just lean into the podcast already,” he added, referencing Reese's media career away from basketball.
It's big talk from a player whose own NBA career ended in 2022. Freedom averaged 11.2 points over 748 regular-season games and never made an All-Star team during his 11 seasons in the league. He last played for the Boston Celtics before being traded to Houston and waived in February 2022.
The Reese jab is the latest escalation in Freedom's campaign to challenge the WNBA's eligibility rules. Earlier this month, the 6-foot-10 former center announced that he intends to declare for the 2027 draft while invoking transgender identity as part of his argument over who should be eligible to compete in women's professional basketball.
Former NBA player Royce White, who was then running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, soon joined him. White said he's prepared to push his own WNBA declaration “all the way” and predicted that the effort could result in a major legal battle.
“I should get a chance to play, don’t you think?” White told ScoopB.com.
He also claimed he'd be a prospective No. 1 pick and said he expected WNBA stars to recruit him.
White's return to the spotlight comes months after a Minnesota judge found that he abused his ex-wife and teenage son and imposed lengthy no-contact protections. White has appealed that civil ruling.
The WNBA, however, isn't treating the declarations as harmless trolling. Its collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play,” although the league does not currently publish detailed medical or identity guidelines governing transgender participation. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said the issue remains under discussion, and league officials have reportedly been examining the existing framework.
The league has also directly condemned what Freedom and White are doing. “We strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,” the WNBA said after their declarations, according to TMZ.
