Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Sky, the city of Chicago and the operators of Wintrust Arena over his removal from a game and subsequent ban from future games, he announced on social media.
The 15-page lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, alleges the defendants violated his First Amendment rights while taking action against him.
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The incident in question occurred during the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever on Aug. 23. Kanter Freedom sat courtside while wearing a shirt reading “WOMAN, noun. adult human female,” a clear poke at the league over the transgender debate that Fever guard Sophie Cunningham ignited with comments the previous month.
Kanter Freedom had already attempted to garner attention and force action from the WNBA by announcing his eligibility for next year’s draft.
It’s unclear what was exactly said, but Kanter Freedom got into a heated exchange of words with Sky guard Natasha Cloud, who was held back by teammates and staff while Kanter Freedom began walking toward the court.
He was soon escorted away by security.
Kanter Freedom was later seen arguing with security and police before being escorted out of the arena.
Cloud, one the WNBA’s most socially outspoken players, posted a statement of support to the transgender community on Threads later that night:
“To every trans kid/person, you are apart of MY community and tribe,” she wrote. “You belong. You’re loved. You’re seen. You’re perfect as you are, and you will always be protected by me.”
Sky owner Michael Alter later announced that Kanter Freedom was no longer welcome at Sky home games until “he’s able to prove to us that he’s able to abide by our rules without being a potential threat.“
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Via ESPN, Alter also went through the sequence of events that led to Kanter Freedom’s ejection:
“I heard him last night, he said, ‘Well, I didn’t cross the baseline,’ as if though that’s some magical threshold,” Alter said last week. “One reason he didn’t cross the baseline was because he was prevented from doing so. But regardless of that, the security people’s job is not to wait until a threat intensifies. It’s to avoid the threat from happening when [a] perceived threat occurs, and that’s exactly what they did.
Kanter Freedom had claimed in a Fox News interview that he gave Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca, his former trainer a heads up he would be in attendance, alleging that Pagliocca told him to “enjoy the game.”
Alter denied Pagliocca said anything of the sort and that the team did not know Kanter Freedom was attending the game until three-and-a-half hours prior, as the purchased tickets were not in his name. He said Kanter Freedom’s manager texted Pagliocca and read out the exchange to reporters:
“You’ve always been fair to me, so I figured you deserved a heads up in advance,” Alter read. “Enes and I will be at the Sky Game tonight. Hope you are all well.”
Pagliocca’s response was, “appreciate the text,” according to Alter. The suggestion, as the Sky took it, was that they were coming to do more than just watch a game or there would be no need for a “heads up.”
Cloud has also called for a WNBA-wide ban of Kanter Freedom.