CHICAGO — Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, wearing a shirt that read “WOMAN noun adult human female,” was escorted out of Wintrust Arena on Sunday night after Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted him at his courtside baseline seat.
Cloud scored on a driving layup late in the third quarter of the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever, prompting a timeout from the Fever. The veteran guard then 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, while multiple security officials walked Freedom out of the arena bowl and into the lobby. As Freedom walked out, he tugged at his shirt 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.”
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… pic.twitter.com/2CA4Awv6wO
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 24, 2026
Freedom, 34, played 748 games across 11 NBA seasons before being waived by the Houston Rockets in February 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.
Born in Switzerland to Turkish immigrants and raised in Turkey before moving to the U.S. as a teen, Freedom has been involved in activism for years. He’s frequently spoken out on national and international politics and human rights, publicly defied President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and called out the NBA for doing business with China despite human rights abuses. He similarly had called for the U.S. to boycott the 2022 Olympics in China, and added “Freedom” to his name during the same year.
In early August, he announced his intention to declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft to challenge support of transgender women playing in the league.
Tricia Smith, a fan who said she sat next to Freedom, said Cloud instigated the confrontation on Sunday night.
“Natasha Cloud scored. She came over and threw her hands up and was talking s— to his face,” said Smith, a Boise, Idaho, native, who said she didn’t know Freedom before the game. “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.”
No transgender athletes compete in the WNBA, but the topic has hovered over the league since an ESPN article in July in which Fever guard Sophie Cunningham came out against transgender participation in women’s sports. Small rallies have since popped up outside arenas at Fever road games in support of Cunningham, and have been met with counter demonstrations in support of trans athletes.
There was another rally before Sunday’s game in Chicago, and Freedom was seen getting heckled outside of the arena before tip-off.
Cloud met with team and league security after the game. She did not speak with reporters, but Sky coach Tyler Marsh supported her while speaking to reporters.
“Tash didn’t want to feel like she was a distraction; I told her she wasn’t,” Marsh said. “I told her that we all embrace her as someone that protects our team and protects the people that need to be protected. And so Tash is always going to stand on that, and then we stand for Tash.”
Asked after the game if he had any message for the groups rallying against transgender athletes in women’s sports, Marsh referred to statements he made in past weeks. Marsh then alluded to Kanter’s intentions in attending the game without naming him.
“There’s so much good things about this league and so many good things about the play of these players. And if you come to a game, you should probably come to enjoy the basketball, and that seems pretty simple to me,” Marsh said. “I think these players deserve that and have earned that. And being a former basketball player, you should probably understand and feel that, too.”
For their part, the Fever contingent that appeared for a postgame news conference — head coach Stephanie White and players Caitlin Clark and Lexie Hull — said they didn’t see the incident transpire.
“We were talking about the next play in our huddle,” Clark said after putting up 37 points and 10 assists — her fourth 30-point, 10-assist performance of the season — in the 113-90 Fever victory that helped eliminate the Sky from playoff contention.
Still, for Indiana, it was another non-basketball controversy that distracted from its on-floor production — and a much-needed win Sunday to stop a two-game losing skid. Of this latest episode, White said it was “important” that the media and general public “don’t give it any gas.”
“It’s a social media thing,” White said.
Freedom and Cloud have a history of antagonization dating to at least 2023. After the Supreme Court rejected the use of race in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Amendment and ruled in favor of a Colorado graphic designer who did not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, Cloud took to X — then Twitter — and wrote that “our country is trash in so many ways.”
“And instead of using our resources to make it better we continue to oppress Marginalized groups that we have targeted since the beginning of times,” she continued.
Two days later, Kanter responded to Cloud’s criticism with his own post on the platform.
“Calling America trash huh?” Freedom wrote. “Let me know when your season is over, I’ll buy your ticket and we can go together to counties like China, Russia, IRAN, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, & Turkey. Forget about calling them trash, I would like to see if you can even criticize those regimes!! … People have NO idea how lucky and blessed they are to be in a country like America. I’m not saying America is perfect, but trust me, you don’t wanna see the other side.”
Sabreena Merchant contributed to this story.