Budding Fox News star and former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom believes he can average 60 points and 30 rebounds per game by donning a woman’s wig, changing his name to “Eneshia” and joining the WNBA.
Touching on one of the network’s favorite topics — trans women in sports — Freedom told hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that he could prove that the two sexes are on an unequal playing field.
“I’m 7 feet, 270 pounds,” said the 6-foot-10 Freedom. “And if I decided to identify myself as a woman and decided to play in the WNBA…would that be fair to all the women who have been chasing their dreams since they were a little kid?”
Freedom went on to refine his argument: “If I get in, I’ll average 60 points and 30 rebounds. I’m going to break records.’
“Men don’t belong in women’s spaces,” he added. ‘Toilet rooms, changing rooms or sports.
Freedom believes he can average 60 points and 30 rebounds per game by joining the WNBA
“Everyone knows that we are bigger, stronger, taller and more muscular. It’s just not fair. It’s just not fair, period.’
During his 11-year NBA career, Freedom averaged 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, and in 2019 was named the league’s worst defensive center by Bleacher Report. A year earlier, The Athletic named Freedom in its annual “No-Defense Team.”
Freedom is not the first NBA player to say that trans women are not allowed in the NBA.
“I don’t like that,” retired NBA forward and podcaster Matt Barnes told Vlad TV. ‘You want to be what you want to be… I’m pro-take your pick. Do you do this, but exercising is different, you know what I mean? Sports are a different beast.
Freedom wears a WNBA sweatshirt in 2020
‘If you were born as a woman, I think you should practice women’s sports. And if you were born a man, you should play men’s sports. But if you want to be — if you want to do what you want with your life, I respect that. That’s none of my business. But I just think that the sporting event is slightly different.’
But several players within the league are open to trans women playing in the WNBA.
For example, Phoenix Mercury forward Brianna Turner has labeled critics of trans athletes as “transphobes,” who only pretend to care about women’s sports.
“I just get annoyed when people disguise their transphobia as a concern for women’s athleticism because in reality a lot of you could care less about the future of women in sports, you just don’t like the idea of trans women,” Turner tweeted.
“I don’t support this bogus outrage against the minuscule percentage of trans athletes. What about making policy that would actually be useful?’
Freedom has become a cause célèbre for conservative Americans who decry the NBA’s business ties with China.
The Turkish-born center added ‘Freedom’ to his name when he became a US citizen in 2021
In his native Turkey, Freedom has been considered an enemy of the state since 2017, when he criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the ‘Hitler of our century’. In response, the country revoked his passport, jailed his father for two years on terrorism charges, and attempted to arrange Freedom’s arrest through Interpol.
More recently, the draft’s former first-round draft hit the headlines by attacking Michael Jordan and LeBron James for its business ties to Nike and, by extension, China — a country accused of targeting the Uyghur minority and defrauding civilians. forced into labor camps for slaves.
He added “Freedom” to his name when he became a US citizen in 2021, but has since dropped out of the NBA, which he says is a result of his political attacks on China.
The US State Department estimates that as many as two million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities have been trapped in internment camps in China since 2017. The country denies human rights violations and claims the camps are designed to prevent terrorism among the majority Muslim Uyghurs.
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