Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom ejected from Sky-Fever game after confrontation

CHICAGO — Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom was escorted out of Wintrust Arena on Sunday evening after Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted him at his courtside baseline seat.

Late in the third quarter of a game between the Sky and the Indiana Fever, Cloud scored on a driving layup, prompting a timeout from the Fever. The veteran guard the approached Freedom, who has gained notoriety for his vocal opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

A member of Indiana team security restrained Cloud — the incident occurred across from the Fever team bench — while multiple security officials walked Freedom out of the arena bowl and into the lobby.

As Freedom walked out, he tugged at a shirt that read “WOMAN noun adult human female” and egged on jeers from the crowd.

“I’m supporting women, and that is the reason they’re kicking me out,” Freedom told a group of arena officials and law enforcement officers in the Wintrust Arena lobby. “It’s unacceptable.”

In early August, Freedom announced his intention to declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft to challenge the support of transgender women playing in the league.

Freedom, 34, played 748 games across 11 NBA seasons before being waived by the Houston Rockets in February of 2022, effectively ending his career in the league. He claimed at the time that he was waived for his views about the Chinese government, an accusation NBA commissioner Adam Silver denied.

Tricia Smith, a fan who said she sat next to Freedom for the entire game to that point, said Cloud instigated the confrontation.

“Natasha Cloud scored,” said Smith, a Boise, Ida., native, who said she didn’t know Freedom before the game. “She came over and threw her hands up and was talking s— to his face. So he stood up and said like, What? What do you want? He didn’t do a thing. I’ve sat next to him the whole game. He’s a great guy. He’s taken probably 50 pictures tonight.”

He was heckled outside of the arena as well after he left the building.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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