{"id":840745,"date":"2026-09-08T16:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840745\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:08:09","slug":"donald-trump-named-in-enes-kanter-wnba-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840745\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump named in Enes Kanter WNBA controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Lee has become one of the latest public figures to challenge Enes Kanter Freedom<\/a>\u2019s increasingly confrontational campaign around the WNBA<\/a>, openly suggesting that US President Donald Trump may be part of the former NBA player\u2019s broader motivation.<\/p>\n

Appearing on Michael Porter Jr.\u2019s Curious Mike podcast, Lee said he was less interested in debating Kanter Freedom\u2019s stated position on transgender athletes than in examining how he has treated the women he claims to be supporting.<\/p>\n

Enes Kanter Freedom gets kicked out of WNBA game after heated clash with Natasha Cloud<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching him mock those women like that\u2026 I feel like when I saw him at the game the other night, mocking the players as they were playing, the women that he was playing, I thought he was being a bully,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI thought it was whack. It was weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee then questioned whether Kanter Freedom\u2019s tactics actually matched his argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat man goes to a WNBA game and heckles and taunts female players?\u201d Lee asked.<\/p>\n

Is Trump part of the equation?<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom has made his opposition to transgender participation in women\u2019s sports a central part of his recent public campaign.<\/p>\n

His actions have included a mock declaration for the 2027 WNBA Draft, courtside demonstrations and a heated confrontation with Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud.<\/p>\n

Lee said that combination made him question the underlying motive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wonder, like, what are people\u2019s intentions, right?\u201d Lee said. \u201cHe just became a citizen\u2026 Maybe he\u2019s trying to get some people over here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Maybe he\u2019s trying to kiss up to daddy Trump, \u2019cause that\u2019s Trump\u2019s thing. Maybe he\u2019s trying to prove something to somebody, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter agreed that the former NBA center\u2019s behavior appeared inconsistent with an effort to protect WNBA players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s trying to protect the WNBA and the sport of women playing against women, and he\u2019s doing it by an extreme way, then why is he going and getting into it with them and kind of bullying them, right?\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n

WNBA fight moves beyond social media<\/p>\n

The dispute intensified after Kanter Freedom was removed from an August 23 game between Chicago and Indiana following his exchange with Cloud.<\/p>\n

The Sky subsequently banned him from the arena, and Kanter Freedom has since filed a federal lawsuit against the franchise, the city of Chicago and arena management, alleging violations of his First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

Lee argued that Kanter Freedom could be using his platform in very different ways if supporting WNBA players were truly the priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have an opinion about trans women not participating in female sports,\u201d Lee said. \u201cBut when you start attacking the very people you\u2019re acting like you\u2019re an ally to, you\u2019re not aligned with them in their cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also questioned why Kanter Freedom wasn’t focusing on issues such as player salaries, sponsorship opportunities and growing the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you not advocating for higher pay? Why are you not advocating for better brand deals?\u201d Lee said. \u201cYou\u2019re just being an a**hole. You\u2019re just being a bully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter reached a similar conclusion, saying the spectacle \u201calmost kind of seems like it\u2019s for attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

That’s now the question hanging over Kanter Freedom\u2019s campaign: whether the controversy is primarily about policy, publicity, politics, or some combination of all three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Lee has become one of the latest public figures to challenge Enes Kanter Freedom\u2019s increasingly confrontational campaign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-840745","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\/840745","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=840745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}