Enes Kanter Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit in Illinois following his removal from a Chicago Sky game last month.
Freedom is suing the Sky, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and the City of Chicago, alleging the parties violated his First Amendment rights when he was escorted out of the Aug. 23 game against the Indiana Fever at Wintrust Arena.
The former Celtics big man attended the game wearing a shirt that read, “WOMAN noun, adult human female.” Freedom maintains that the message did not violate the WNBA Fan Code of Conduct and says his behavior inside the arena did not warrant his removal.
According to the lawsuit, the situation escalated during the third quarter when Sky guard Natasha Cloud “without provocation, initiated a vulgar, profanity-laced verbal tirade” toward Freedom.
The lawsuit claims Cloud “charged nearly half the length of the court toward where Plaintiff Freedom was sitting courtside” and yelled that Sophie Cunningham was not going to sleep with him.
Freedom said his only response was, “I’m not trying to sleep with her. I’m just here to protect women and support her.”
He alleges officials from the Sky, MPEA and City of Chicago then “combined and conspired to eject” him and were also involved in imposing an indefinite ban preventing him from returning to Wintrust Arena.
“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.
Freedom is seeking unspecified damages and wants the court to permanently lift the prohibition preventing him from attending events at the arena.
“You don’t have to agree with my speech,” Freedom wrote while announcing the lawsuit, “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.”
