‘See you in court!’: Enes Kanter Freedom sues Chicago Sky over ejection from WNBA game

Former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Enes Kanter Freedom sued the Chicago Sky Sept. 3, alleging that the team violated his First Amendment rights by ejecting him from a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) game last month and indefinitely barring him from its home games because of his advocacy for women’s sports.

Freedom’s 15-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, also names as defendants the City of Chicago and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the public agency that owns and operates Wintrust Arena. 

At the Sky’s home game against the Indiana Fever Aug. 23, Freedom sat courtside wearing a T-shirt that read, “WOMAN noun. Adult human female.” Late in the third quarter, after Sky guard Natasha Cloud scored, the two exchanged words. Video showed Cloud approaching Freedom while yelling and pointing at him, while Freedom stood, extended his arms, and stepped onto the edge of the court before security intervened, as Zeale News previously reported. 

Freedom, who has become increasingly vocal about protecting women’s sports in recent weeks, said the confrontation followed his celebration of a play by Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, another outspoken athlete who has publicly opposed allowing men to play in women’s sports. Freedom suggested at the time that the message on his shirt had “triggered” Cloud and prompted the confrontation.

Security personnel and Chicago police then escorted Freedom from the arena. Two days later, Sky owner Michael Alter announced that the team had indefinitely barred Freedom from its home games at Wintrust Arena, according to AP News.

Alter said five security groups — including arena, team, league, Fever, and police personnel — agreed to remove Freedom, saying he is barred from future Sky games at the arena “unless sometime in the future he’s able to prove to us to our satisfaction that he is able to abide by our rules without being a potential threat,” the outlet reported. He accused Freedom of attending the game to provoke a confrontation and attract attention.

“I’m taking legal action over my ejection from the [Chicago Sky] game while peacefully exercising my First Amendment rights,” Freedom said in a Sept. 3 X post announcing the suit. “My T-shirt did what the whole WNBA apparently couldn’t: define a woman. No threats. No violence. Just biology. And somehow, that required a security escort.”

“You don’t have to agree with my speech,” he added, “but you don’t get to silence me for it. I will not be intimidated. I will not be silenced. I will continue to stand for women and defend free speech.”

In the lawsuit, Freedom contends that he was peacefully exercising protected speech through his clothing and presence, that Cloud initiated a verbal confrontation without provocation, and that the defendants acted jointly to eject and ban him based on his viewpoint regarding women’s sports, according to OutKick.

Freedom has repeatedly spoken out against men competing in women’s sports. He announced Aug. 7 that he planned to enter the 2027 WNBA draft in a bid to highlight the need to protect women’s sports, saying at the time that if all a man needs to do to compete in the league is declare “who you are,” then “I meet every single requirement necessary.” 

He has since called on the WNBA to clarify its eligibility policies for male athletes, inviting WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Aug. 31 to join him in a public, moderated “peace summit” to “give the public a clear answer.” 

The WNBA faced similar criticism Aug. 16 after security at an Indiana Fever game in Atlanta ordered a mother and her teenage daughter to cover their XX-XY Athletics shirts or face ejection from the game. The clothing brand advocates for preserving women’s sports exclusively for female athletes. The league later acknowledged that the incident “should have not have happened.” 

>> Mom and teen daughter asked to cover XX-XY T-shirts at WNBA game; league admits error <<