{"id":1020240,"date":"2026-08-24T03:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020240\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T03:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:28:15","slug":"chicago-sky-enes-kanter-freedom-former-nba-player-ejected-from-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020240\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Sky: Enes Kanter Freedom, former NBA player, ejected from game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from Sunday night\u2019s WNBA game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky at Wintrust Arena after he was confronted by Sky guard Natasha Cloud<\/a> late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Kanter Freedom was sitting along the baseline. He had on a black shirt that read \u201cWOMAN noun. adult human female.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fever called for a timeout after Cloud scored inside with 1:22 left in the third. Cloud then did a chest bump with teammate Aicha Coulibaly before turning around and walking in Kanter Freedom\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud argues with former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, right, during the second half of a game against the Indiana Fever, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

Cloud, 34, started yelling and pointing at Kanter Freedom, 34, as she approached him. Kanter Freedom, standing, held his arms out and took one step on the court as security and a handful of Sky players moved in between the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just a fan incident and the security handled it, and we\u2019re just going to focus on the game,\u201d Sky forward Azur\u00e1 Stevens said after the Sky\u2019s 113-90 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sky coach Tyler Marsh said Cloud was concerned about being a distraction for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her she wasn\u2019t,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cI told her that we all embrace her as someone that protects our team and protects people that need to be protected and so Tash is always going to stand on that, and we stand for Tash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kanter 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.<\/p>\n

He had a conversation with a group of police officers before departing Wintrust Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see it, we were talking about the next play in our huddle,\u201d Fever guard Caitlin Clark said, \u201cso I think that\u2019s probably a question for Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom greets a friend before a game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

Cloud met with team and league security after the game. She did not speak with the media.<\/p>\n

The WNBA has been the subject of recent debates on whether transgender women \u2014 people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity \u2014 should be allowed to participate in the league. There has never been such a player in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Although the league\u2019s collective bargaining agreement says the WNBA is restricted to women, it contains no more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.<\/p>\n

Fever guard Sophie Cunningham<\/a> said in an ESPN profile published last month that she was opposed to transgender girls and women competing in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports. Kanter Freedom and Royce White, another former NBA player, have declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.<\/p>\n

Kanter joined a small rally in support of Cunningham outside the arena before the game.<\/p>\n

Asked if he had a message for Kanter Freedom, Marsh praised the league and its players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you come to a game you should probably come to enjoy the basketball,\u201d he said, \u201cand that seems pretty simple to me. I think these players deserve that and have earned that. Being a former basketball player, you should probably understand and feel that too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from Sunday night\u2019s WNBA game between the Indiana Fever and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1020241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[9777,233,960,1497,396561,5386,1818,234,19713,8345,39496,232,3357],"class_list":["post-1020240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-azura-stevens","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-sky","tag-enes-kanter-freedom","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-indiana-fever","tag-natasha-cloud","tag-tyler-marsh","tag-wintrust-arena","tag-wnba","tag-womens-basketball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117148368167018923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}