{"id":869972,"date":"2026-08-24T18:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/869972\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:20:11","slug":"wnba-star-natasha-cloud-confronts-enes-kanter-freedom-over-anti-trans-shirt-at-fever-sky-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/869972\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA star Natasha Cloud confronts Enes Kanter Freedom over anti-trans shirt at Fever-Sky game"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former NBA centre Enes Kanter Freedom<\/a> was ejected from Sunday night\u2019s Indiana-Chicago WNBA game after he was confronted by Sky guard Natasha Cloud late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Freedom was sitting along the baseline. He had on a black shirt that read \u201cWOMAN noun. adult human female.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fever called for a timeout after Cloud scored inside with 1:22 left in the third. Cloud then did a chest bump with teammate Aicha Coulibaly before turning around and walking in Kanter\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

Cloud, 34, started yelling and pointing at Kanter, also 34, as she approached him. A standing Kanter held his arms out and took one step on the court as security and a handful of Sky players moved in between the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just a fan incident and the security handled it, and we\u2019re just going to focus on the game,\u201d Chicago forward Azura Stevens said after\u00a0the Sky\u2019s 113-90 loss<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"AFormer NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom greets a friend before the game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky on Sunday. (Nam Y. Huh\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Chicago coach Tyler Marsh said Cloud was concerned about being a distraction for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her she wasn\u2019t,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cI told her that we all embrace her as someone that protects our team and protects people that need to be protected, and so Tash is always going to stand on that, and we stand for Tash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freedom stopped near the basket to plead his case to security as he was escorted from the court area. He spun around while holding his shirt out and encouraged the crowd to respond as he walked toward the front lobby. <\/p>\n

He had a conversation with a group of police officers before departing Wintrust Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see it, we were talking about the next play in our huddle,\u201d Indiana star Caitlin Clark said, \u201cso I think that\u2019s probably a question for Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cloud met with team and league security after the game. She did not speak with the media.<\/p>\n

But she posted a message on Threads Sunday<\/a> after the game directed “to every trans kid\/person.”<\/p>\n

“You are a part of MY community and tribe. You belong. You\u2019re loved. You\u2019re seen. You\u2019re perfect as you are and you will always be protected by me,” Cloud wrote.<\/p>\n

WNBA subject of debate on transgender women<\/p>\n

There have been public debates about whether transgender women\u00a0assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity should be allowed to participate in the WNBA. There has never been a trans woman player in the league.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Sparks guard\u00a0Layshia Clarendon<\/a>, who was the WNBA\u2019s first openly transgender and non-binary player, retired in 2024.\u00a0Clarendon was assigned female at birth.<\/p>\n

Although the league\u2019s collective bargaining agreement says the WNBA is restricted to women, it contains no more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. <\/p>\n

In an ESPN profile published last month, Fever guard\u00a0Sophie Cunningham\u00a0said she was opposed to transgender girls and women competing in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports. <\/p>\n

Freedom and Royce White, another former NBA player, have mockingly declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they now identify as women.<\/p>\n

Kanter joined a small rally in support of Cunningham outside the arena before the game.<\/p>\n

Asked if he had a message for Kanter, Marsh praised the league and its players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you come to a game, you should probably come to enjoy the basketball,\u201d he said. \u201cThat seems pretty simple to me. I think these players deserve that and have earned that. Being a former basketball player, you should probably understand and feel that, too.\u201d <\/p>\n

WATCH | How the WNBA got sucked into America’s culture war:\"\"<\/p>\n

How the WNBA got sucked into America\u2019s culture war<\/p>\n

Basketball superstar Caitlin Clark has brought more eyeballs to the WNBA than ever before, but the spotlight hasn\u2019t always been about the wins and losses. For The National, CBC\u2019s Jamie Strashin breaks down how the league got sucked into America\u2019s culture war this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-869972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}