Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter called a former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom filed a lawsuit against his teama vocal opponent of transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports, “undeserved and frivolous” as he vowed Friday to fight the lawsuit in court.
Freedom’s lawsuit, filed Thursday by attorneys for the America First Policy Institute in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, states The sky threw him out while “peacefully exercising” his right to free speech at the Aug. 23 game between the Sky and the Indiana Fever.
Sloboda was sitting on the field at the game wearing a t-shirt that said “WOMAN noun. grown human female.” In the third quarter, guard Sjaja Nataša Cloud approached him and the two exchanged words. As Freedom stepped towards the court, security intervened and took him away before throwing him out of the building.
“Freedom’s claim that he was removed from Wintrust Arena because of his speech is false,” Alter said in a statement released Friday. “As he himself admits, he wore that shirt for hours without any contact with security. Security only removed Freedom after he broke the fan code of conduct by getting up from his seat, gesturing to a player and striding onto the pitch.
“His freedom was revoked because of his behavior, not his speech. We look forward to the truth prevailing in court.”
Sky’s fan code of conduct states that the team and the arena “reserve the right to eject any patron who poses a threat to them or other guests. This includes but is not limited to profanity, racial or ethnic comments, drinking, disorderly conduct, drug use, sexual harassment or other intimidating actions directed at officials, players, spectators.”
The sky banned Freedom indefinitely shortly after the Aug. 23 incident, though Alter later said the franchise might reconsider Freedom’s ban “if one day he’s able to show that he’s able to be at a game and play by our rules and not be a threat to people.”
Freedom recently attempted to declare for the 2027 WNBA draft in protest of trans women competing in the league, claiming in an X post that his actions “stand up for women and defend free speech.” League confirmed that he does not meet the requirements play in the league, stating, “There are no current eligibility issues affecting the WNBA, and we strongly condemn bad faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others.”
In its lawsuit, Freedom seeks a declaration that his First Amendment rights have been violated, an indefinite ban from playing at Wintrust Arena, and legal fees, as well as “an award of nominal and compensatory damages.”
Cloud, co called freedom “irrelevant” in her first media availability since the controversy, she said the WNBA and women’s sports are bigger issues than trans athletes.
“The guys who are now like, ‘Oh, we have to protect the WNBA,’ you were all the same ones who said we shouldn’t get paid,” Cloud said at the time. “You were all the same people who said we shouldn’t have invested in us, you said we were a joke, the same people who don’t respect black women.
“So if you’re going to protect women, that means all women. That includes black women, trans women, and the list goes on.”