CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter says a lawsuit filed by former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom is “meritless and frivolous.”
Freedom is alleging that his First Amendment rights were violated when he was ejected from the Sky’s WNBA game against the Indiana Fever on Aug. 23. He is seeking damages and the removal of his ban when it comes to attending games at Wintrust Arena.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Illinois, names Chicago Women’s Basketball Operations, LLC, which runs the Sky, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the corporation that owns the arena, and the city of Chicago as defendants.
“Freedom was removed for his conduct, not his speech,” Alter said Friday in a statement released by the Sky. “We look forward to the truth prevailing in court.”
The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Freedom was removed from the game after he was confronted by Sky guard Natasha Cloud late in the third quarter.
Freedom was sitting along the baseline wearing a black shirt that read “WOMAN noun. adult human female.”
The Fever called for a timeout after Cloud scored inside with 1:22 left in the period. Cloud then did a chest bump with teammate Aicha Coulibaly before turning around and walking in Freedom’s direction.
Cloud, 34, started yelling and pointing at Freedom, 34, as she approached him. A standing Freedom held his arms out and stepped onto the court as security and a handful of Sky players moved in between the two.
Freedom stopped near the basket to plead his case to security as he was escorted from the court area. He spun around while holding his shirt out and encouraged the crowd to respond as he walked toward the front lobby.
He had a conversation with a group of police officers before departing the arena.
“The Defendants combined and conspired, and acted jointly to execute their conspiracy, to discriminate against Plaintiff based on Plaintiff’s verbal and demonstrable expression of viewpoint and gender identity when they wrongfully ejected Plaintiff from a recent WNBA game,” Freedom’s lawsuit reads. “Defendants compounded and exacerbated Plaintiff’s injuries when they subsequently banned Plaintiff indefinitely from attendance.”
Alter announced on Aug. 25 that Freedom was banned from Sky games at Wintrust Arena until he is “able to prove to us to our satisfaction that he is able to abide by our rules without being a potential threat.”
In Friday’s statement, Alter said Freedom’s assertion that he was removed because of his speech was false.
“As his own complaint acknowledges, he wore the shirt in question for multiple hours without any contact with security,” Alter said. “Security removed Freedom only after he violated fan code of conduct by rising from his seat, gesturing at a player, and stepping toward the court.”
The WNBA has been the subject of recent debates on whether transgender women — people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity — should be allowed to participate in the league. There has never been such a player in the WNBA.
Although the league’s collective bargaining agreement says the WNBA is restricted to women, it contains no more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.
Freedom and Royce White, another former NBA player, have declared for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women. But a person familiar with the decision told the AP that they are not eligible. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.
“You don’t have to agree with my speech but you don’t get to silence me for it,” Freedom posted on social media on Thursday. “I will not be intimidated. I will not be silenced. I will continue to stand for women and defend free speech.”
See AP’s full WNBA coverage here
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