On Sunday, WNBA officials threw former Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter Freedom out of the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky game after Sky guard Natasha Cloud began taunting him. Now Kanter is speaking out about the incident.
The incident that spurred Kanter’s ouster occurred during the third quarter when Cloud was seen yelling at Freedom, who was sitting courtside. When Freedom stepped toward the floor, security intervened and escorted him out amid a wave of boos.
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Afterward, Kanter told OutKick that he does not understand why he was ejected.
“Sophie Cunningham shot a three, and I put my hands up to celebrate,” Freedom explained. “Literally, a couple of possessions later, Natasha came back and started screaming and yelling and said, ‘She’s not gonna sleep with you.’”
“And I was like, ‘I am not trying to sleep with her. I’m just here to protect women and support her.’ And then, obviously, after that she started yapping, and she started to walk towards me, and literally I just got up, and then I was like, ‘I’m just here to protect women, and that’s all.’”
He also noted that Cloud, who he calls “an excellent player,” began yelling expletives with young fans sitting in the stands.
“She started to yell. She started to use some very heavy language. She started actually to cuss, and I was very shocked that there were a lot of kids and that there were a lot of teenagers at that game,” Freedom said.
“I just cannot believe that she was just cussing and using those F-bombs in front of all these kids. I’m sure she’s loved in Chicago, and many kids are idolizing her and stuff, but that’s not how a WNBA athlete should react,” he continued.
He noted that a mother and her little girl approached him during the game and thanked him for what he was doing.
“One of those little girls came with her mother, and then her mother said, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing for my little daughter,’” Freedom said. “I think that was the most emotional part of the whole night.”
He also said he thinks his shirt helped trigger Cloud.
“I was cheering for my friend Sophie because when she shot that three, I put my hands in the air,” Freedom said. “A couple possessions later, she came back and said, ‘She’s not gonna sleep with you.’ And I was shocked. I was like, ‘Listen, I’m not trying to sleep with her. I think she’s awesome. She’s a good friend.’ But I think it has a lot to do with my shirt.”
He added, “I was obviously wearing a shirt explaining what a woman is, and I think that had a lot to do with what she thinks about women. I think it triggered her a lot.”
Still, Freedom said that his confrontation had nothing to do with transgender people, and he also is not making any political point. He was unclear on why he was removed and said that they never really gave him a solid reason.
“I was like, ‘Can you please tell me why I need to leave?’ They said, ‘Look, you just need to leave,’” Freedom told OutKick.
Freedom says he warned stadium security not to grab at him as he left, as well.
“I told her, ‘First of all, please don’t touch me because I didn’t do anything wrong. I can get myself out of the game,’” he said. “And the second, I was like, ‘Do you guys realize that you guys are only kicking me out of this game because I support women and I try to protect women?’”
They still refused to give him a reason for the ejection, but he also said he didn’t want to make the job of the security people harder,
“They were like, ‘Listen, we can’t give you any reason right now. Just leave, please,’” he said. “I played 11 years of basketball in the NBA, and I know how tough the security’s job can get. So I didn’t want to make their job even tougher.”
Freedom explained that he did not show up unannounced. He gave the Chicago Sky and WinTrust Arena advanced notice that he planned to attend Sunday’s game. But he also attended a rally in support of Sophie Cunningham outside the arena ahead of the game.
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