Enes Kanter Freedom didn’t get an invite to Sunday’s Chicago Sky game. His ticket was bought under a different name, and his agent sent Sky GM Jeff Pagliocca, someone Freedom hadn’t spoken to in three or four years, a text with a heads-up just hours before tip-off. He showed up anyway, sat courtside in a black T-shirt reading “WOMAN noun. adult human female,” and by the third quarter was involved in an altercation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud that got him thrown out of the building.

Just like that, the WNBA transgender athletes’ eligibility debate reached a new stage, making its way to the U.S. Senate. Ted Cruz, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and chairs its subcommittee on federal courts, wants to bring WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert before that same committee, seated next to the man who caused it.

“The WNBA are utter and complete hypocrites,” he said, discussing the entire debate during an appearance on The Benny Show with host Benny Johnson,

“They’re leftists who don’t know what to do with themselves. I am very, very glad you have people like Enes Freedom Kanter who’s saying, all right, if you can’t tell what a woman is, I’m a woman, let me play… Look, the WNBA is not going to let them play. You asked, are they discriminating? No, they’re not discriminating because they’re not women. Everybody knows that. The reason this is so valuable is the leadership of the WNBA claims, oh, we don’t know what a woman is. And Enes says, OK, am I one? Like, no. Well, tell me why. And it is the incoherence and hypocrisy.”

Asked directly by Johnson whether he’d actually push for Engelbert to testify before the Judiciary Committee, Cruz didn’t hesitate. “I think it is an excellent idea,” he said. “I think I’d kind of enjoy seeing her testify next to Enes Freedom Kanter.”

The ban Cruz referenced came two days after the ejection, when Sky owner Michael Alter addressed reporters. “He has demonstrated to us, unequivocally, that he has the potential to be a threat,” Alter said, adding that Freedom would stay barred from Wintrust Arena “unless sometime in the future, he’s able to prove to us that he’s able to abide by our rules without being a potential threat.” Alter said Freedom had spent the third quarter “chirping” at Cloud in what he believed was a deliberate attempt to provoke her.

Freedom has disputed that characterization. Speaking to OutKick, he said the confrontation started after he celebrated a Sophie Cunningham three-pointer: “Sophie Cunningham shot a three, and I put my hands up to celebrate. Literally, a couple of possessions later, Natasha came back and started screaming and yelling and said, ‘She’s not gonna sleep with you.'” Freedom is still permitted to attend games involving other teams, including the Indiana Fever.

Freedom is one of two former pro athletes pushing this challenge, announcing intentions to enter the WNBA draft in 2027. Royce White has made a similar declaration. However, per ESPN, multiple sources have indicated that neither man is actually eligible to play in the league.

Still, the circus around the eligibility fight has kept expanding. Days before the Sky game, Freedom publicly offered the WNBA a “peace summit” moderated by Caitlyn Jenner, who has separately backed his position, telling Engelbert on Fox News that the standard should be as simple as “XX, you’re in; XY, you’re out.”