Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter said Tuesday that the franchise is banning Enes Kanter Freedom from its arena after the former NBA center was ejected from his courtside seat Sunday following a verbal altercation with Sky vet Natasha Cloud.
Freedom won't be allowed to return to Wintrust Arena "unless sometime in the future, he's able to prove to us that he's able to abide by our rules without being a potential threat," Alter told reporters, according to Colin Salao of Front Office Sports.
Freedom, 34, was seated along the baseline Sunday when Cloud scored a basket inside late in the third quarter, prompting the opposing Indiana Fever to call a timeout. During the pause in play, Cloud appeared to yell something at Freedom and began to confront the former NBAer, who was wearing a shirt that read "WOMAN, noun. Adult human female."
With his arms spread wide, he then stepped past photographers to move toward Cloud before being escorted out by security.
Alter said Tuesday that people who were seated nearby informed him that Freedom had begun to direct basketball-related trash talk to Cloud earlier in the quarter.
"He portrays as this victimless person who did nothing, said nothing. Just wearing a T-shirt. ... We have five different security authorities that all agreed very quickly to throw him out because he made himself into a threat," Alter added.
Freedom said earlier in August that he was officially declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft. The league has since reportedly determined that he's ineligible to do so.
