Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom has intensified his clash with the WNBA, filing a federal lawsuit after he was removed from a game last month.
Kanter, who previously played center for teams including the New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder, said Thursday that he is taking legal action against the Chicago Sky, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and the City of Chicago.
In the lawsuit, filed in Illinois, Kanter claims the three defendants wrongfully ejected him from the Sky’s August 23 matchup with the Indiana Fever at Wintrust Arena.
The case comes as Kanter has placed himself at the center of the WNBA’s growing debate over transgender athlete participation, including by attempting to use the league’s eligibility rules to enter next year’s draft.
The dispute escalated during the Sky’s game against the Fever, featuring Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark, when Kanter, seated courtside, became involved in a tense confrontation with Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud.
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.
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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.’