Enes Kanter Freedom, the former NBA player who recently became known for his vocal opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, has been banned indefinitely from Chicago Sky home games after recent verbal altercation with the player and ejection from the arena, team owner Michael Alter said The Athletic.
The WNBA will not ban the Freedom league-wide, according to a source with knowledge of the decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Freedom, wearing a T-shirt that read: “WOMAN noun. full grown human female,” sat courtside at Wintrust Arena for the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever. Alter said Freedom turned into a “potential threat” by stepping toward Cloud after she chirped when she made a basket in the third quarter. Security restrained Cloud and then removed Freedom from the arena.
Alter said Sky might reconsider the ban “if one day he is able to show that he is fit to be at a game and behave according to our rules and not be a threat to people”.
Earlier this month, Freedom, who played 11 seasons in the NBA before being waived by the Houston Rockets in 2022, announced her intention to declare for the 2027 WNBA draft in protest of transgender women competing in the league. Royce White, who was drafted 16th overall by the Rockets in the 2012 NBA draft but played just three games in the league, followed with his own statement.
The WNBA CBA does not list specific eligibility requirements as it pertains to transgender women competing in the league, but states that “only female players are eligible to play in the WNBA.” There are no transgender women playing in the WNBA. Both Kanter and White are ineligible to compete in the WNBA, according to the CBA and confirmed by league sources The Athletic.
The topic of transgender athlete inclusion has sparked small demonstrations — both pro and con — outside of Fever road games since Indiana guard Sophie Cunningham’s anti-trans athletes in women’s sports came out in an ESPN article. There was another rally before Sunday’s game in Chicago, and it was clear that the Freedom won heckled outside the arena before tip-off.
Freedom appeared with conservative Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” Monday night and said he texted Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca before the game to alert the team of his planned arrival. Alter said after hearing from Freedom managers (not Freedom directly), Pagliocca immediately alerted Sky ownership and security.
Pagliocca, who became the Sky’s general manager after a long career coaching professional athletes in the NBA and WNBA, previously coached the Freedom. Alter said the two hadn’t spoken in “three or four years.” Alter said he regretted not notifying the players of Freedom’s arrival before the game, but was concerned it would be a distraction. Heaven did not know where his seat was.
Alter said he was pleased that arena and league security worked with Chicago Police Department officials to take swift action to remove Freedom.
“Everything changed when he decided to stand up,” Alter said. “I heard him say, ‘I got up and took a step, but I never crossed the baseline.’ The security guard’s job is not to wait to see how far they get before doing something. You need to get there before it happens and avoid it. He should know that as well as anyone who played in the NBA.”
Sky decided to add a third keeper for this game especially after the Fever contest on August 8 which featured the controversial sacking of the Sky guard DiJonai Carrington. A Sky spokesman said security measures would be decided on a match-by-match basis.
Sloboda has a long history of speaking out on political and social issues.
When the Rockets waived him, he claimed it was because of his views on the Chinese government — a charge that NBA commissioner Adam Silver denied. Born in Switzerland to Turkish immigrants and raised in Turkey before moving to the US as a teenager, he has publicly criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and called out the NBA for doing business with China despite human rights abuses. He called for the US to boycott the 2022 China Olympics and added “Freedom” to his name that same year.
The ejection of the Freedom from the Sky game is the second incident of the weekend in which a match at Wintrust Arena was interrupted. The first came on Friday during the Sky’s game against the Golden State Valkyries when a few sex toys were thrown onto the field in the third quarter. Alter said the team visually identified the perpetrators using security images, but they did not have their names.
“Our intention is to continue until we find them,” Alter said. “We’ll crush them when we do.”