Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom may not be playing anymore, but he’s still making headlines. After coming to Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s defense in the WNBA’s battle over women's sports, Freedom is reportedly getting death threats — even as recently as Wednesday when he was denied the seats he paid thousands of dollars for. 

Freedom was targeted after taking a stand for biblical truth as he battles transgender ideology. The former professional athlete made headlines in August when he and another former basketball player, Royce White, publicly declared their intentions to enter the April 2027 WNBA draft as an ironic way of protesting the league’s refusal to issue a clear policy barring biological men from playing.

Prior to attending the WNBA Atlanta Dream vs. Golden State Valkyries Finals game on Wednesday, Freedom told OutKick he received thousands of threats over his wanting to attend the sporting event. One message even suggested that he would be “the next Charlie Kirk” if he showed his face at the arena. 

Despite the threats, Freedom was determined to attend the game. Freedom told OutKick he reported the unnerving messages to the FBI, and that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) agreed to provide him with security for the game. When Freedom arrived at the sporting event wearing a “What is a Woman?” shirt, he was directed by police to sit in a private suite with additional security rather than the seats he had purchased. After an argument, Freedom ultimately left the premises after being repeatedly blocked from sitting in his courtside seats. 

Freedom was previously ejected from a Chicago Sky vs. Indiana Fever game in August, after Sky player Natasha Cloud became angry that the shirt he was wearing defined a “woman” as an “adult human female.”

The WNBA has once again reiterated its muddled stance, failing to offer clarity in an October 16 letter to Congress. Republicans asked Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to outline the WNBA’s eligibility rules. She replied, “With respect to your questions regarding eligibility, only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men,” reported OutKick. “By clearly labeling Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White as men they have acknowledged that identifying as a woman does not change basic human biology,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) noted.

Freedom insists the WNBA “still can’t define what a WOMAN is. But they’re absolutely certain they know what a MAN is! How convenient!” he posted. 

The former NBA center told The Washington Stand in an emailed statement that his strongly-held conviction when it comes to gender identity is rooted in biblical truth. 

“A while ago, after one of my speeches in California, a pastor walked up to me and handed me a Bible. He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Enes, I want you to promise me one thing. Promise me that you will read this Bible.’ I smiled, nodded my head, and made him that promise,” Freedom shared.

“But life got busy, and to be honest, I didn’t think much about it afterward. Then one day, shortly after watching a WNBA game on television, I was sitting at home, bored, flipping through channels. I looked across the room and noticed that Bible sitting there. Something inside me told me to pick it up,” he recalled. “So, I turned off the television, grabbed the Bible, and started flipping through the pages. I opened it to the Book of Genesis.”

Freedom shared that the verse he read, Genesis 1:27, made him stop: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

“I sat there for a moment, reading those words over and over again,” Freedom remembers. “I couldn’t stop thinking about them. Here I was, holding a Bible that a pastor had asked me to read, thinking about the basketball game I had just watched, and suddenly those words felt deeply personal. I thought about my own journey, the sacrifices I’ve made, and the times I’ve had to stand alone for what I believe is right. And I realized something: standing up for what you believe is right isn’t always comfortable. It isn’t always popular. And sometimes, it comes at a tremendous personal cost. But that doesn’t mean you should remain silent.” 

He insisted that the unique way the Lord designed humanity is important.

“I believe God created men and women with equal dignity and worth. Recognizing their biological differences should never take away from the respect and compassion every human being deserves. That verse inspired me to continue speaking up for fairness, clarity, and consistently applied rules in women’s sports. And to this day, I still think about that pastor in California and the promise I made to him. He probably thought he was simply giving me a Bible. But he had no idea how much that one moment would mean to me. I believe this is God’s work, and for that reason, nothing will stop me, nothing will silence me, and nothing will make me back down.”