Add The New York Post on Google If Enes Kanter Freedom wants to keep making his point, he’ll have to do it someplace else.
The former NBA center, who has fashioned himself into a major voice in the debate around the WNBA’s transgender policies, has been banned from Chicago’s Wintrust Arena after getting into a mid-game altercation with Sky star Natasha Cloud on Sunday.
Freedom was removed from the premises, and according to Sky owner Michael Alter, the one-time Knick is not allowed back “unless sometime in the future, he’s able to prove to us that he’s able to abide by our rules without being a potential threat.”
Former basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom and Natasha Cloud of the Chicago Sky yell at one another during the second half of a game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, August 23, 2026. (2026 Getty Images) Getty Images “It was pretty clear to us that his purpose of coming here was trying to be provocative and just see how much attention he could get,” Alter told Front Office Sports, noting that he was aware Freedom was going to attend the game against the Fever, but did not alert his players to his presence beforehand.
While Freedom, wearing a shirt that read, “WOMAN noun. adult human female,” portrayed his actions as simply cheering on Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham — whose quotes to ESPN about wanting “to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men” touched off the discourse around the league — Alter says his dive into the situation proved otherwise.
Fans and security personnel placed to blame on the Freedom, he noted.
“They each confirmed that the dialogue between Cloud and Kanter started with Kanter,” he told FOS. “He began to chirp with her sometime in the third quarter. I would characterize it as trash-talking, nothing personal. Basketball-related, but enough to get her attention and to engage her, and in my opinion, to try to provoke her.
“He portrays as this victimless person who did nothing, said nothing. Just wearing a t-shirt … We have five different security authorities that all agreed very quickly to throw him out because he made himself into a threat.
Former basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom looks on during the second half between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever at Wintrust Arena. Getty Images Freedom and former Rockets first-round pick Royce White inserted themselves into the culture war around the WNBA’s policies by declaring themselves women and seeking entry into the league’s draft. According to multiple reports on Monday, the WNBA isn’t entertaining their eligibility — though Freedom said he’d yet to hear that himself.
“I haven’t heard anything from the WNBA officials yet,” he told The Post’s Stefan Bondy. “Fake News!”
