Former NBA star and human-rights activist Enes Kanter Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit after he was ejected from a Chicago Sky game for daring to wear a shirt stating a basic biological fact.
The 15-page complaint was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Freedom named Chicago Women’s Basketball Operations, LLC, the company operating the Chicago Sky, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, and the City of Chicago as defendants.
The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief and damages and demands a jury trial.
Freedom announced the legal action on X:
“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.”
🚨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.… pic.twitter.com/LqQO6x4z0X
— Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) September 3, 2026
The complaint alleges that Freedom was punished because of his constitutionally protected viewpoint and seeks to hold the defendants accountable for his removal and subsequent ban from Chicago Sky games.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Freedom was escorted out of Wintrust Arena during the August 23 game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever.
Freedom was seated courtside wearing a black shirt that read:
“WOMAN — noun. adult human female.”
During the third quarter, Sky guard Natasha Cloud walked toward Freedom’s seat while pointing and shouting in his direction. Freedom stood, extended his arms, and stepped toward the court as security personnel, officials, and Chicago players moved between them.
An official then ordered Freedom removed from his courtside seat.
Freedom said he never threatened anyone and was merely responding after Cloud confronted him.
As security escorted him from the arena, Freedom turned around and displayed the message on his shirt while hostile spectators booed and made obscene gestures.
Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter later banned Freedom from future Sky home games, claiming the former NBA center had demonstrated the “potential to be a threat.”
Alter also defended the decision not to give Freedom a warning, using the bizarre analogy that someone who shoots a gun at another person would not receive a warning first.
Freedom blasted the comparison as “unacceptable” and vowed that his legal team would take action.
The First Amendment question is especially significant because Wintrust Arena is owned by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, a municipal corporation created by the Illinois General Assembly. Its board members are appointed by the Illinois governor and Chicago mayor.
Before the lawsuit was filed, the authority claimed that the Chicago Sky, not MPEA employees, made the decisions to remove Freedom and ban him from future Sky events. MPEA also said it “honor[s] and respect[s] the First Amendment.”
Now a federal jury could be asked to determine whether the private basketball organization and government-connected defendants crossed the constitutional line by ejecting and banning a paying customer because of his political viewpoint.
As The Gateway Pundit also reported, Freedom previously sent a formal letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert demanding an investigation, identification of the person who ordered his removal, preservation of all videos and communications, accountability for Cloud, and a complete refund for his courtside tickets.
Freedom noted that the WNBA’s fan code allegedly calls for spectators to receive a warning before they are removed. He said he received no warning.
Meanwhile, Cloud, who walked toward a paying spectator while shouting and using profanity, faced no publicly announced discipline.
Freedom accused the league of selectively enforcing its rules against spectators who challenge radical gender ideology.
The latest incident follows several other controversies involving fans supporting women’s sports.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, teenage girls supporting female athletics were allegedly harassed outside a Seattle Storm game. At an Atlanta Dream game, a mother and her teenage daughter were ordered to conceal shirts supporting biological women or leave. The WNBA later admitted that the Atlanta incident “should not have happened.”
Now the league’s culture-war double standard may finally face scrutiny inside a federal courtroom.
Freedom’s message could not have been clearer: disagreement does not give government-connected institutions the right to silence Americans.
His shirt contained no threat, profanity, or call for violence.
It simply defined a woman.
And in today’s increasingly unhinged WNBA, apparently that was enough to bring in security.
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