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Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from Wintrust Arena on Sunday after a verbal altercation with Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud during the third quarter of the Sky’s 113-90 loss to the visiting Indiana Fever.
Kanter Freedom, 34, was seated courtside wearing a black T-shirt that read: “WOMAN noun. Adult human female.” At the start of an Indiana timeout, Cloud began pointing and yelling in his direction. Kanter Freedom stood up, took a few steps toward the court with his arms outstretched, and a game official along with security personnel moved between them. Her teammates pulled Cloud away. The official gestured for Kanter Freedom’s removal, and he was escorted from his seat by team and arena security.
Cloud, 34, spoke with team and league security following the game but did not address the media. She posted a statement on social media:
“To every trans kid/person, You are apart of MY community & tribe. You belong. You’re loved. You’re seen. You’re perfect as you are. & you will always be protected by me.”
Kanter Freedom, after a conversation with police officers before leaving the arena, wrote on his X account:
“I just got kicked out of a @WNBA game for supporting WOMEN! Let that sink in, America.”
Sky coach Tyler Marsh addressed the incident at his postgame press conference, saying Cloud did not want to be a distraction.
“I told her she wasn’t,” Marsh said. “I told her we all embrace her as someone who protects our team and people who need to be protected. Tash is always gonna stand on that and we stand for Tash.”
Marsh also directed a pointed message toward spectators.
“There’s so many good things about this league and so many good things about the play of these players, that if you come to a game, you should probably come to enjoy the basketball. 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.”
Kanter Freedom, formerly known as Enes Kanter, played center for 11 seasons in the NBA across five teams from 2011-12 to 2021-22, averaging 11.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 21.5 minutes across 748 regular-season games with 259 starts.
The broader context includes the WNBA’s ongoing entanglement in the transgender athlete debate. The league has never had a known transgender player, but the issue intensified when Fever guard Sophie Cunningham stated publicly in an ESPN profile that “girls should never have to compete with biological men.” Cunningham later clarified on July 22 that she doesn’t “dislike anyone” and that there’s “room to love everyone,” adding:
“I’m also there to love biological women, and I think that there are rights that need to be protected. And, like I said, I’m gonna stand true to that. I’ll never falter in my beliefs in that. But I have never once stated that I hated the trans community.”
Rallies have taken place outside WNBA arenas both in support of and against Cunningham’s remarks. Kanter Freedom and former NBA player Royce White have publicly claimed to identify as women and stated they are targeting eligibility for the 2027 WNBA Draft, according to media reports. The league has no public policy on transgender participation, though the collective bargaining agreement signed in March states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”
Cloud is in her 11th WNBA season and first with Chicago. She entered Sunday averaging 11.4 points, 5.0 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 29.1 minutes across 36 games with 23 starts. Her career includes stints with the Washington Mystics (2015-19, 2021-23), the Phoenix Mercury (2024), and the New York Liberty (2025).
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