The WNBA transgender athlete debate has already put Enes Kanter Freedom in the spotlight, but he is now trying to take the conversation a step further. After declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft and repeatedly challenging the league over its eligibility rules, the former NBA center has now brought in another high-profile voice he believes could help settle the issue: Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner.
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The former NBA player said that he wants peace and was making efforts to achieve it.
“I’m a Peacemaker! I don’t want to cause no troubles. People obviously might get the wrong idea because of some of the things that they see on the internet. But I’m a peacemaker,” Freedom said in an exclusive interview with Benny Johnson.
“If the NBA and task force and, obviously, the Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, are okay with it, I am offering them a peace summit that is moderated by one of the best female athletes ever, Caitlyn Jenner. I think she’ll be the best person to understand what’s going on and moderate the whole thing. So if they’re okay with it, I’m here to talk. I’m not a difficult person to sit down or have some kind of deal with or talk to. So I am offering a peace deal to WNBA.”
Enes Kanter Freedom also revealed that Jenner is already aware of his idea and is willing to take part if it moves forward.
“I actually had a conversation with her last night. She said, ‘Listen, I love what you’re doing, just whatever you’re doing. Just count me in. I will do anything to help it.’ I was like, ‘Listen, we might offer them a peace summit. Would you be okay to moderate it?’ She said, ‘I’m in,'” Enes Kanter Freedom further revealed.
Caitlyn Jenner’s involvement would add another major name to a debate that has already attracted plenty of attention across women’s sports. Jenner won a gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Olympic held at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. Jenner later came out as transgender in 2015 and has since become one of the most prominent voices arguing against transgender women competing in women’s sports. And that background appears to be exactly why Freedom believes she could help lead the conversation.
The WNBA condemned “bad-faith efforts” to use the topic to “demean or marginalize others” when a task force met on August 12.
So whether the WNBA is willing to accept that “peace deal” is another question. But for now, there is no indication that the league or Engelbert has any intention of sitting down with the former NBA player. And while he is asking for a seat at the table, Enes Kanter Freedom has already found himself on the wrong side of the Chicago Sky after his recent confrontation with Natasha Cloud.
Two days after the August 23 clash between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky, Freedom has been banned from Wintrust Arena, with Sky owner Michael Alter saying he had demonstrated “the potential to be a threat.”
So while Enes Kanter Freedom is asking the WNBA to sit down and talk, his relationship with one of its franchises has already taken a very different turn. Whether Jenner can actually help bring the two sides to the same table remains to be seen, but Freedom is clearly not planning to let the conversation disappear any time soon.