Former NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom has escalated his feud with the WNBA by filing a federal lawsuit in response to his ejection from a game last month.
The former New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder center announced on Thursday that he is suing the Chicago Sky, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and the City of Chicago.
Kanter is alleging in his lawsuit, filed in Illinois, those three entities unjustly ejected him from the Sky’s game with the Indiana Fever on August 23 at the Wintrust Arena.
He has thrown himself into the heart of the trans athletes debate that has engulfed the WNBA in recent months by trying to take advantage of eligibility rules to enter next year’s draft.
Kanter then had an ugly altercation with Sky star Natasha Cloud while sat courtside for the Sky’s game against Sophie Cunningham, Caitlin Clark and the Fever.
He claims the trio of defendants mistreated him that night and he did nothing wrong before they ‘combined and conspired to eject’ him from the arena.
Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from a Chicago Sky game after his spat with Natasha Cloud
The ex-NBA player also wore a provocative t-shirt with a definition of a woman at the game
In a post on X announcing his lawsuit on Thursday, Kanter wrote: ‘SEE YOU IN COURT!!!’
That night, Kanter chose to wear a provocative T-shirt that included a definition of the word woman. ‘Woman. Noun,’ it read. ‘Adult human female.’ The words woman and female were highlighted in red. He insists that did not violate the WNBA’s Fan Code of Conduct.
While he admits to standing up and raising his arms during the game, Kanter claims that was just to celebrate a Cunningham three-pointer. He has previously alleged that Cloud told him: ‘She’s not going to sleep with you.’
In the lawsuit, Kanter claims Cloud ‘without provocation, initiated a vulgar, profanity-laced verbal tirade’ at him.
It also alleges Cloud ‘charged nearly half the length of the court toward where Plaintiff Freedom was sitting courtside’ before she ‘cursed and yelled at Plaintiff saying that Ms. Cunningham was not going to sleep with Plaintiff Freedom.’
‘Plaintiff Freedom believes that Cloud’s attack was motivated and triggered by the message on Plaintiff’s shirt and Plaintiff’s widely publicized viewpoint on protecting the integrity of women only sports,’ it continued.
Kanter is suing all three bodies and is demanding a permanent injunction lifting the ban on him that was imposed by Sky owner Michael Alter.
‘The Chicago Sky; MPEA, through Wintrust Arena Security; and the City of Chicago, by its Police Department, worked together to eject Plaintiff in retaliation for protected expression, and continue to work together to enforce the ongoing, unconstitutional ban of Plaintiff from Wintrust Arena, which is public property owned by MPEA,’ the lawsuit stated.
Kanter has alleged that Cloud told him Sophie Cunningham is ‘not going to sleep with you’
The WNBA’s trans war was first sparked by comments from Fever star Cunningham
In a post on X announcing his lawsuit, Kanter wrote: ‘SEE YOU IN COURT!!! Just filed a federal complaint. I’m taking legal action over my ejection from the @ChicagoSky game while peacefully exercising my First Amendment rights.
‘My T-shirt did what the whole @WNBA apparently couldn’t: define a woman. No threats. No violence. Just biology. And somehow, that required a security escort. You don’t have to agree with my speech but you don’t get to silence me for it.
‘I will not be intimidated. I will not be silenced. I will continue to stand for women and defend free speech.’
Kanter’s efforts to play in the WNBA were dealt a blow last month when league bosses ruled him ineligible for the 2027 draft.
A league source said it is ‘not going to give oxygen to efforts designed to mock the league or use this topic to demean and marginalize others,’ calling it a ‘publicity stunt’, per Front Office Sports.
Last week, Cloud shared her thoughts on the explosive courtside clash with Kanter.
‘I won’t be talking about anything that happened with an irrelevant person,’ she told reporters. ‘What I will focus on is what actually affects women and children.’
‘I will talk about real issues that face women, and it’s not our trans human beings,’ she continued. ‘It’s not our drag queens. It’s not our gay community. There is a certain demographic of people that you can generally search.
‘It’s a simple Google search of what is the greatest threat to women and children in 2026 in the United States of America, and it’s not going to be trans people.’
