Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from Sunday night’s WNBA game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky at Wintrust Arena after Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted him late in the third quarter.
Kanter Freedom was sitting along the baseline. He had on a black shirt that read: “WOMAN noun. adult human female.”
The Fever called a timeout after Cloud scored inside with 1:22 left in the third. Cloud then did a chest bump with teammate Aicha Coulibaly before turning and walking in Kanter Freedom’s direction.
Cloud, 34, started yelling and pointing at Kanter Freedom, 34, as she approached him. Kanter Freedom, standing, held out his arms and took one step on the court as security and a handful of Sky players moved between the two.
“There was just a fan incident and the security handled it, and we’re just going to focus on the game,” Sky forward Azurá Stevens said after her tean’s 113-90 loss.
Sky coach Tyler Marsh said Cloud was concerned about being a distraction for the team.
“I told her she wasn’t,” Marsh said. “I told her that we all embrace her as someone that protects our team and protects people that need to be protected, and so Tash is always going to stand on that and we stand for Tash.”
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Kanter Freedom stopped near the basket to plead his case to security as he was escorted from the court area. He spun around while holding his shirt out and encouraged the crowd to respond as he walked toward the front lobby.
He had a conversation with a group of police officers before departing Wintrust Arena.
“I didn’t see it,” Fever guard Caitlin Clark said. “We were talking about the next play in our huddle, so that’s probably a question for Chicago.”
Cloud met with team and league security after the game. She did not speak with the media.
The WNBA has been the subject of recent debates on whether transgender women — people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity — should be allowed to participate in the league. There never has been such a player in the WNBA.
Although the league’s collective bargaining agreement says the WNBA is restricted to women, it contains no more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.
Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said in an ESPN profile published last month that she was opposed to transgender girls and women competing in girls’ and women’s sports. Kanter Freedom and Royce White, another former NBA player, have declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.
Kanter Freedom joined a small rally in support of Cunningham outside the arena before the game.
Asked if he had a message for Kanter Freedom, Marsh praised the league and its players.
“If you come to a game, you should probably come to enjoy the basketball,” he said, “and that seems pretty simple to me. These players deserve that and have earned that. Being a former basketball player, you should probably understand and feel that too.”