Ex-Lakers player backs Kanter's WNBA ejection, escalates trans sports debate

Enes Kanter Freedom was escorted out of Wintrust Arena during a WNBA game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky on Sunday night, and by Monday morning, a former NBA player was making sure the world knew exactly why that mattered. Matt Ryan, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers, didn't wait long to weigh in on Freedom's ejection, posting in the comments section of Freedom's Instagram account with a message that cut straight to what he saw as the league's central failure: the inability to articulate what it exists to protect.

Freedom had been sitting courtside in support of Sophie Cunningham, a Fever guard known for her public advocacy around women's sports protections. The ejection came late in the third quarter following what Freedom described as a heated exchange with Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud. According to Freedom's account to Fox News Digital, the confrontation began simply enough—he raised his hands to celebrate after Cunningham made a three-pointer. A few possessions later, Cloud turned toward him and made a comment he characterized as sexually suggestive. When he tried to clarify that he was there to support women's sports, the exchange escalated. Cloud, he said, responded with profanity loud enough for families and teenagers in the arena to hear.

Ryan's Instagram comment was measured but pointed. He called the situation "insane," saying it was "unreal and sad" that someone would be "demonized for trying to protect women's sports." He urged the WNBA to "be real leaders" and actually define what the league stands for. But Ryan didn't stop there. When his words gained traction online, he moved to X and expanded his argument into something more systematic. He framed the issue as an "80-20" question—claiming that more than eighty percent of Americans hold what he called "basic common sense" about biological sex and sports participation. He was explicit that this position, in his view, had nothing to do with transphobia. "Every human in the US is free to live as they choose," he wrote. "However, others should not be forced to adhere to absurdity for the sake of feelings."

Ryan's post made another point worth noting: Kanter Freedom has no intention of playing in the WNBA. He's not an athlete trying to compete in women's sports. He's a spectator and advocate making a public argument about league policy. That distinction, Ryan suggested, should be obvious to anyone paying attention. The real issue, as he framed it, was whether the WNBA would use this moment to clarify its own rules and protect the integrity of women's competition.

The game itself—a 113-90 Indiana victory—became almost secondary to the courtside drama. Caitlin Clark, the Fever's superstar, said she hadn't witnessed the incident and deferred comment. Fever coach Stephanie White called it a "social media thing." Azura Stevens of the Sky characterized it as a routine fan incident. These attempts to minimize what happened didn't gain much traction. Freedom himself made clear he saw this as a watershed moment. "The WNBA has no idea what they're about to face," he said. "They're still trying to figure out what a woman is."

What made Ryan's public backing significant was that it signaled something larger than one ejection at one game. Here was a former professional athlete, someone with standing in the sports world, not just defending Freedom's right to speak but actively amplifying the argument that the league faced a reckoning it could no longer avoid. The WNBA's attempt to treat the arena incident as a minor disturbance was colliding with a growing chorus of voices—some from inside professional sports itself—insisting that the league needed to answer fundamental questions about its own purpose and rules. Whether the league would respond, and how, remained an open question.