{"id":836677,"date":"2026-09-04T22:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T22:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836677\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T22:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T22:40:09","slug":"make-the-wnba-female-again-enes-kanter-freedom-offers-to-replace-cathy-engelbert-as-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836677\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Make the WNBA female again\u2019: Enes Kanter Freedom offers to replace Cathy Engelbert as commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enes Kanter Freedom has thrown his name into the WNBA\u2019s <\/a>commissioner search, offering to replace Cathy Engelbert<\/a> after she announced that she\u2019ll step down following the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Engelbert, who became the WNBA\u2019s first commissioner in 2019, announced Friday that she\u2019ll leave the position after more than seven years.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark\u2019s growing problem with WNBA cameramen is going viral<\/p>\n

Her tenure has overseen a period of substantial growth for the league, with increased attendance, television audiences, commercial interest and expansion plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll remain involved during the transition as the league searches for her successor.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom, meanwhile, sees the leadership change as an opportunity to promote his long-running views on women\u2019s sports. The former NBA center posted a video on social media making his case for the job, accompanying it with the slogan, \u201cMAKE @WNBA FEMALE AGAIN.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old has become one of the most vocal figures outside the WNBA regarding the debate over transgender athletes competing in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

In his video, he argued that the league needs to establish clearer rules surrounding eligibility and said he\u2019d bring \u201ccommon sense,\u201d \u201cfairness\u201d and, humorously, \u201ca dictionary\u201d if appointed commissioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the WNBA is unable to define what a woman is, then I, Enes Kanter Freedom, would be more than happy to step in as commissioner and lead this league back to greatness and restore fairness for all women. I\u2019ll bring common sense. I\u2019ll bring fairness. And yes, I\u2019ll bring a dictionary,\u201d said Kanter Freedom.<\/p>\n

Kanter\u2019s commissioner pitch follows federal lawsuit<\/p>\n

Just one day before putting himself forward as Engelbert\u2019s potential replacement, Kanter Freedom filed a federal lawsuit involving his removal from a WNBA game in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Northern District of Illinois, names the Chicago Sky, the city of Chicago and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which operates Wintrust Arena.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom alleges that his constitutional rights were violated when he was removed from the arena during the Sky\u2019s Aug. 23 game against the Indiana Fever.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom was sitting courtside while wearing a T-shirt that defined a woman as an \u201cadult human female.\u201d During the third quarter, he became involved in a heated exchange with Sky guard Natasha Cloud.<\/p>\n

Video from the incident showed Cloud approaching Kanter Freedom while teammates attempted to hold her back. Kanter Freedom was subsequently escorted from the venue by security.<\/p>\n

Two days later, the Sky announced that Kanter Freedom was banned from Wintrust Arena. Sky owner Michael Alter said the organization believed the former NBA player could potentially pose a threat to player safety and questioned whether he could control himself around the court.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom has strongly disputed that characterization. He has described his removal as an infringement of his First Amendment rights and said he\u2019ll continue speaking publicly about women\u2019s sports and free speech.<\/p>\n

The former Boston Celtics center has previously gone even further, publicly expressing an interest in playing in the WNBA himself amid the transgender-athlete debate.<\/p>\n

His proposal to become commissioner appears to be another extension of that campaign rather than a realistic bid for a major sports executive position.<\/p>\n

Still, with Engelbert preparing to leave and the league entering a new era, Kanter Freedom clearly intends to keep himself at the center of the conversation surrounding the WNBA\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enes Kanter Freedom has thrown his name into the WNBA\u2019s commissioner search, offering to replace Cathy Engelbert after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-836677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}