Former WWE star Lars Sullivan jumped into the fallout from Enes Kanter Freedom’s WNBA ejection, and he didn’t just defend the former NBA player — he unleashed a string of racist, transphobic and offensive comments while going after anyone who criticized him.
Kanter was kicked out of Sunday’s game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky after getting into a heated verbal exchange with Chicago guard Natasha Cloud. He was sitting courtside wearing a shirt that read, “Woman: noun. Adult human female,” when Cloud confronted him late in the third quarter.
Video showed the two shouting at each other before security escorted Kanter out of the arena. That incident lit up social media, and Sullivan spent August 24 diving into the replies. When wrestling personality Jon Alba called the entire situation an “absolute clown show” and said Kanter should be kept away from WNBA games, Sullivan immediately defended Kanter while using racist language to describe Cloud.
“He just stood there as some lady chimped out at him for no reason. Why should he be banned?”
That wasn’t the only time Sullivan used that kind of language. Shantelle Chand joked that she would bet on Cloud knocking Kanter out, prompting Sullivan to again compare Cloud’s behavior to a chimp while bringing up the physical differences between men and women.
“Idk, he’s much bigger and stronger than the lady chimping out. Do you understand that men and women are different?”
Sullivan went right back to the same rhetoric when former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III criticized Kanter, writing that the former NBA player was “causing more harm and damage to the women he claims he is trying to protect.” Sullivan responded by specifically bringing Cloud’s race into it.
“Why is the black woman chimping out at him?”
Things got even uglier when Sullivan started responding to people attacking Kanter directly. One user called Kanter a “bitch” and said anyone supporting him was one too. Sullivan fired back with a transphobic slur.
“You sound like a tranny lover lol.”
He also went after comedian KevOnStage after KevOnStage called Kanter “a special kind of loser,” this time using an ableist slur while trying to make his point about biological differences between men and women.
“Do you think men and women are different? Are you retarded?”
Kanter has said the confrontation with Cloud started after he celebrated Indiana Fever wing Sophie Cunningham hitting a three-pointer. According to Kanter, he put his hands up to celebrate before Cloud came back toward him and started yelling.
“I put my hands up to celebrate. … Natasha came back and started screaming and yelling and said, ‘[Cunningham is] not going to sleep with you.’”
Kanter had already drawn attention before the game by posting about his appearance outside Wintrust Arena and later sharing a photo of himself courtside in the shirt.
“Careful what you wish for, @WNBA. Freedom of speech never looked this good. Somehow controversial.”
Whatever anyone thinks about Kanter’s WNBA stunt, Sullivan took the conversation somewhere else entirely. His defense of Kanter quickly turned into repeated racist comparisons, a transphobic slur and other offensive attacks aimed at people criticizing the former NBA player.
Sullivan has been largely removed from the WWE spotlight for years, but his latest social media tirade has put his name back in the conversation in a big way — and not because of anything happening inside a wrestling ring.
What do you make of Lars Sullivan using racist and transphobic language while defending Enes Kanter Freedom? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
