FORMER NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White will not be eligible for the WNBA Draft after both publicly declared their intention to enter next year’s selection.
According to a person familiar with the decision, the two former NBA players were ruled ineligible, although no specific reason for the decision was disclosed. The WNBA has yet to publicly address their eligibility.
Freedom, who played 11 seasons in the NBA, and White, who appeared in three NBA games, had previously said they identified themselves as women amid the ongoing debate surrounding transgender participation in women’s sports.
The development comes just a day after Freedom made headlines following his ejection from the Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky game at Wintrust Arena.
Freedom was seated courtside wearing a shirt that read, “WOMAN noun. adult human female,” when he got into a heated exchange with Sky guard Natasha Cloud late in the third quarter.
Cloud approached Freedom while yelling and pointing in his direction. Freedom stood up and stepped toward the court before security and several players intervened and escorted him out of the arena.
“I just got kicked out of a WNBA game for supporting WOMEN! Let that sink in, AMERICA!” Freedom later posted on social media.
Now, just days after his controversial appearance at a WNBA game and his declaration to enter the draft, Freedom’s bid to take his basketball career to the women’s league appears to be over before it could even begin.
White’s planned entry into the draft has also hit the same wall, with both former NBA players officially deemed ineligible. (Jesus Nathaniel Valdez)
