CHICAGO – Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, wearing a T-shirt that read “WOMAN noun grown human female,” was escorted out of Wintrust Arena Sunday night after Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted him at his courtside spot.
Cloud scored on a drive late in the third quarter of the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever, prompting a Fever timeout. The veteran guard then addressed Freedom, who has become known for his vocal opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
A member of Team Indiana’s security restrained Cloud while more security escorted Freedom out of the arena bowl and into the lobby. As Freedom walked out, he was tugging on his shirt and drawing jeers from the crowd.
“I support women and that’s why I’m being kicked out,” Freedom told a group of arena officials and law enforcement officials in the lobby of Wintrust Arena. “That is unacceptable.”
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom was escorted out of Wintrust Arena on Sunday night after Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted him in his seat on the court.
Late in the third quarter of the game between the Sky and the Indiana Fever, Cloud scored on a drive… pic.twitter.com/2CA4Awv6wO
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 24, 2026
Freedom, 34, played 748 games in 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 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, Freedom has been involved in activism for years. He has spoken frequently about national and international politics and human rights, publicly defied Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and called out the NBA for doing business with China despite human rights abuses. He similarly called for the US to boycott the 2022 China Olympics and added “Freedom” to his name during the same year.
In early August, she announced her intention to declare for the 2027 WNBA draft to challenge the league’s support for transgender women playing.
Tricia Smith, a fan who said she was sitting next to Freedom, said Cloud instigated the confrontation Sunday night.
“Natasha Cloud scored. She came over and put her hands up and told him in his face,” said Smith, a native of Boise, Idaho, who said she didn’t know Freedom before the game. “So he stood up and said, ‘What? What do you want?’ He didn’t do anything. I sat next to him the whole game. He’s a great guy. He took probably 50 pictures tonight.”
No transgender athletes compete in the WNBA, but the topic has loomed over the league since an ESPN article in July guarding the Fever Sophie Cunningham was against transgender participation in women’s sports. Since then, small gatherings have sprung up outside the arena at the Fever Road Games in support of Cunningham, and were met with counter-demonstrations in support of trans athletes.
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.
Cloud met with the team and league security after the game. She did not speak to reporters, but Sky coach Tyler Marsh supported her as he spoke to reporters.
“Tash didn’t want to feel like she was a nuisance; I told her she wasn’t,” Marsh said. “I told her that we all accept her as someone who protects our team and protects the people who need to be protected. And so Tash will always stand on that, and then we stand up for Tash.”
Asked after the game if he had a message for groups rallying against transgender athletes in women’s sports, Marsh reflected on statements he’s made in recent weeks. Marsh then alluded to Kanter’s intentions to attend the game without naming him.
“There are so many good things about this league and so many good things about these players’ game. And if you come to a game, you should probably come to enjoy basketball, and that seems pretty simple to me,” Marsh said. “I think these players deserve it and they’ve earned it. And being a former basketball player, you should probably understand and feel that.”
For their part, the Fever contingent that appeared at the postgame press conference — head coach Stephanie White and players Caitlin Clark and Lexie Hull — said they did not see the incident happen.
“We talked about the next game in our huddle,” Clark said after she had 37 points and 10 assists — her fourth 30-point, 10-assist performance of the season — in the Fever’s 113-90 victory that helped eliminate the Sky from the playoffs.
Still, for Indiana, it was another non-basketball controversy that took away from production on the floor — and a much-needed win Sunday to stop a two-game skid. White said of this latest episode that it was “important” that the media and the general public “don’t give anything away”.
“It’s a social media thing,” White said.
Freedom and Cloud have a history of antagonism dating back to at least 2023. After the Supreme Court struck down the use of race in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Amendment and ruled in favor of a Colorado graphic designer who didn’t want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, Cloud took to X — then Twitter — and wrote thatour country is trash in many ways.”
“And instead of using our resources to improve it, we continue to oppress the marginalized groups we’ve targeted since the beginning of time,” she continued.
Two days later, Kanter responded to Cloud’s criticism with your post on the platform.
“Calling America trash huh?” Sloboda wrote. “Let me know when your season is over, I’ll buy you a ticket and we can go together to countries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and Turkey. Forget calling them trash, I’d like to see if you can even criticize those regimes!!… People have no idea how lucky and blessed they are to be in such a country, and I don’t believe in a perfect America, I don’t believe in me. I want to see the other side.”
Sabreena Merchant contributed to this story.