Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from the WNBA game between Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky on Sunday (Aug. 23) after he got into a heated argument with Natasha Cloud.
Kanter was sat courtside during the game, wearing a deliberately provocative t-shirt that directly inserted him into the ongoing non-debate surrounding trans athletes despite the WNBA not having a single trans player. “WOMAN. Noun. Adult human female,” read the black t-shirt, as seen in videos circulating on social media. Cloud approached Kanter during a timeout in the third quarter, and allegedly called him out for his t-shirt.
She directly pointed at Kanter and started to yell at him, and he responded by approaching the court and yelling back. Shortly after the argument kicked off, Kanter was escorted out of the venue by security guards.
In an interview after the game, Chicago Sky forward Azura Stevens was asked about the incident. “There was just a fan incident, and the security handled it, and we’re just going to focus on the game,” said Stevens, per Forbes.
Sky coach Tyler Marsh also backed Cloud and insisted that she didn’t cause a disruption to the game. “I told her that we all embrace her as someone that protects our team and protects people that need to be protected,” Marsh said. “If you come to a game, you should probably come to enjoy the basketball.”
In a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, Kanter celebrated the disruption he caused. “I just got kicked out of a @WNBA game for supporting WOMEN!” he wrote. “Let that sink in, AMERICA!”
Kanter, who previously changed his legal name to incorporate “Freedom” after becoming a U.S. citizen, recently suggested that he would declare himself for the 2027 WNBA draft. “If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA,” Kanter said in a statement he claimed was intended to “mock, make fun of, or disrespect any community or personal choices.
