Enes Freedom vs Natasha Cloud: The opposing activists at the center of the WNBA's latest signature moment
· Fox News
Enes Kanter Freedom and Natasha Cloud just couldn't help themselves.
The duo gave the WNBA its closest equivalent to the "Malice in The Palace" incident on Sunday night, and the Chicago Sky turned it into a week of news with a ban and an interview.
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Here's how activism set both Freedom and Cloud on a collision course into sports hysteria:
ENES KANTER FREEDOM OPENS UP ON CONFRONTATION WITH NATASHA CLOUD THAT LED TO EJECTION, WNBA PURSUIT
They came from opposite ends of the world.
Freedom built his public identity fighting governments abroad. Cloud built hers challenging institutions here in the U.S. Both came to see an athlete’s platform as an obligation. Both became comfortable with confrontation. But they developed nearly opposite definitions of who needed protection and what posed the threat.
Freedom’s activism came first, and it came with consequences.
Born in Switzerland and raised in Turkey, Freedom moved to the United States as a teenager and became the third overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Basketball gave him a career. Turkey gave him a cause.
Freedom traces his political awakening to 2013, when corruption allegations engulfed the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He became an outspoken Erdoğan critic and a prominent supporter of Fethullah Gülen, the U.S.-based cleric whom Turkey blamed for the failed 2016 coup attempt. Freedom accused Erdoğan’s government of crushing dissent, jailing journalists and using terrorism charges against political opponents. His criticism eventually made a return to Turkey unsafe.
Then the conflict reached his family.
Freedom’s relatives publicly disowned him as pressure mounted. His father lost his university job, faced prosecution on terrorism charges and was eventually acquitted. Turkish authorities canceled Freedom’s passport in 2017, leaving him temporarily detained at a Romanian airport during an international charity tour. He later skipped NBA travel outside the United States because he feared detention or forced return to Turkey.
Freedom received U.S. citizenship in 2021 and legally added Freedom to his name. His advocated for speech without government retaliation, religion without persecution and dissent without prison. America, in his telling, was special to him because it allowed the criticism that authoritarian countries punished.
Then during the 2021-22 NBA season, Freedom wore custom shoes highlighting China’s treatment of Tibetans and Uyghur Muslims.
He promoted Hong Kong and Taiwanese autonomy, attacked forced labor and accused the NBA, Nike and prominent players of muting criticism to protect business interests in China. A Chinese streaming service stopped showing Boston Celtics games after his first Free Tibet demonstration. Freedom continued anyway.
Meanwhile, Cloud, during her upbringing, enjoyed many of the American liberties that Freedom did not when he was growing up.
She was raised in a predominantly White family in Broomall, Pennsylvania.
Cloud entered the WNBA in 2015 and joined a league already more politically outspoken than most American sports institutions. By 2016, she was participating in the Washington Mystics’ protest of the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
The Mystics wore "Black Lives Matter" shirts and joined a media blackout intended to pressure the league.
WNBA PLAYER NATASHA CLOUD FIRES OFF PRO-TRANS MESSAGE FOLLOWING ALTERCATION WITH ENES KANTER FREEDOM
In 2019, two shootings near Hendley Elementary School forced children into lockdown twice in two weeks. The school sat less than two miles from the Mystics’ arena in Southeast Washington. Cloud responded by pressing city leaders for action and temporarily refusing to discuss basketball with reporters. She turned the team’s media availability into a campaign for school safety and sustained investment in Ward 8. Her advocacy expanded into a broader effort against gun violence.
The Mystics won the WNBA championship later that year. But Cloud walked away from the title defense.
After George Floyd’s death in 2020, Cloud opted out of the entire WNBA season to work on racial-justice initiatives. She helped lead marches, promoted voter registration and pushed for the Mystics’ arena to serve as a polling location. Converse supported the decision and covered the salary she forfeited. The WNBA later presented the choice as the defining turn in her development as an activist.
Cloud’s cause became broad but consistent. Racial justice. Police accountability. Gun control. Voting access. LGBTQ rights. Investment in women’s sports.
Thus, they naturally ended up on opposite sides of the transgender debate.
Freedom sees the female category as a protected boundary that gender ideology threatens to dissolve. Cloud sees transgender people as part of a broader community that political movements have targeted. He frames his campaign as a defense of women. She frames opposition to transgender inclusion as another attack on a vulnerable group.
Freedom and Cloud did not need a courtside seat to find each other the first time.
Their first major public clash came in July 2023, when Cloud criticized the United States against the backdrop of Supreme Court rulings affecting affirmative action and LGBTQ rights.
"Our country is trash in so many ways and instead of using our resources to make it better we continue to oppress Marginalized groups that we have targeted since the beginning of times. Black/brown communities & LGBTQ+ man we are too powerful to still be attacking issues separate," Cloud wrote on social media at the time.
Freedom responded, writing "Just ask your colleague Brittney Griner how ‘trash’ America is. Calling America trash huh? Let me know when your season is over…" as Griner's detention in a Russian prison had been a national storyline that year.
Cloud responded more diplomatically then than she did on Sunday.
"I have respect for @EnesFreedom lived experience in his country," Cloud wrote. "I would expect him to have the same respect for MY lived experience as a black gay woman in my country."
Freedom recalled the incident in a recent interview with OutKick.
"Me and Natasha Cloud got into it back in 2023, and not many people know about it, when she called America trash," Freedom said.
"When people have no idea what the other side looks like, they can call America anything that they want, but it was unacceptable, so I checked her on that one."
At 2:31 p.m on Sunday., Freedom’s manager, Hank Fetic, texted Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca to say they would be at the game.
The message, obtained by OutKick, said Pagliocca had "always been fair" and "deserved a heads up in advance."
"Enes and I will be at the sky game tonight," Fetic wrote.
Pagliocca responded at 5:30 p.m., approximately 30 minutes before tipoff: "Appreciate the text, hope you are well too."
Sky principal owner Michael Alter told OutKick that he and his team considered the phrase "deserved a heads up" a warning that Freedom planned to do more than watch basketball.
"When you say you deserve to know, why would you say you deserve to know?" Alter said. "That’s a clear, direct indication that be ready, trouble’s coming."
Alter said organization alerted security but allowed Freedom inside. Alter said staff members were instructed to ignore him and not "take the bait." But Alter said the players were not told he was coming, a decision he admitted he regretted.
That decision resulted in consequences in the third quarter, when Cloud initiated a now-infamous altercation.
Freedom said Cloud first turned toward him and said, "She’s not going to sleep with you," in response to him cheering for Sophie Cunningham. Freedom said he responded that he was not trying to sleep with Cunningham and was there to support her and "protect women." According to Freedom, Cloud answered with repeated profanity.
"She started to drop a lot of F-bombs, and she started to curse a lot, and she started to bark at me," Freedom said. "I’m like, ‘There are lots of kids and teenage girls in the stands idolizing you. This is unacceptable.’"
With 1:22 remaining in the third quarter, Cloud scored inside before a timeout, chest-bumped teammate Aicha Coulibaly and walked in Freedom’s direction. Video shows Cloud yelling and pointing as she approached the baseline. Freedom stood, extended his arms, gestured toward Cloud and stepped forward. Security arrived almost immediately while teammates and staff restrained Cloud.
Freedom was ejected. Cloud remained in the game and there is no public knowledge of any discipline assigned to her.
The Sky said Wintrust Arena security, NBA Security and Chicago police determined that Freedom became a potential threat when he opened his arms, pointed at Cloud and moved toward the playing surface. In a written response obtained by OutKick, the organization said WNBA officials agreed with the decision and would have demanded Freedom’s removal if security had returned him to his seat.
Alter said the response was remarkably fast.
"It was the quickest decision I’ve ever seen in someone being ejected from a game," he said.
But Alter acknowledged that he did not know whether Freedom crossed the baseline. He had not reviewed the officials’ written report and did not possess documentation showing that Chicago police made a separate threat assessment. No report or direct statement from the security entities identified by the Sky has been publicly released.
"I can’t tell you what his intent was beyond his actions," Alter said. "I don’t know what was in his head."
Freedom insisted there was nothing more in his head—or in his feet.
"That was my last step," he said. "I’m telling you right now, I was not gonna take another step. I was gonna stop there."
Freedom argued that 11 years in the NBA had taught him where a spectator could and could not stand.
"If I step over the baseline, yes, they have every right to throw me out of the game," he said. "I literally simply opened my arms and said, ‘I’m here to protect women.’"
The written rules settle more of the warning dispute.
Freedom repeatedly argued that security was required to warn him before ejecting him. The WNBA Fan Code of Conduct, however, says guests who fight, throw objects or attempt to enter the court will be "immediately ejected." It does not require a warning for that offense and expressly permits future-game bans.
A warning provision does appear in the 2026 WNBA Official Rule Book, but under the narrower category of "Verbal Fan Interference." It applies when verbal abuse interferes with a coach’s ability to communicate with players during a game or huddle.
Freedom would have been entitled to a warning under that provision before an ejection for continued verbal interference. If security reasonably determined that he attempted to enter the court, immediate removal was permitted.
Alter defended that distinction with the interview’s most incendiary line.
"He wasn’t given a warning because certain threats don’t get warnings," Alter said. "To use an extreme example, when you shoot a gun at someone, you don’t get a warning, ‘Don’t do that again.’"
Meanwhile, the WNBA rulebook identifies profanity and taunting as unsportsmanlike conduct that can warrant a technical foul. The available evidence does not establish Cloud’s exact language, whether officials heard the alleged profanity or whether her actions required any automatic penalty.
But Freedom thinks she should be fined and required to review the league’s player-conduct rules.
"Of course, obviously, as an owner, he’s gonna try to do whatever he can to protect his player," Freedom said. "But she should be disciplined for sure."
Alter repeatedly declined to say whether Cloud will be penalized while speaking to OutKick.
Cloud did not give reporters a detailed account. She instead returned to the political subject online, posting a message of support for transgender people after the game. Sky coach Tyler Marsh defended her as someone who protects her teammates and "people that need to be protected."
The Fever won 113-90. Freedom displayed his shirt to the crowd while security escorted him away, spoke with police in the arena lobby and posted that he had been ejected "for supporting WOMEN." Cloud remained with the Sky and spoke with team and league security after the game.
Then the organization extended the incident beyond Sunday.
Alter announced Tuesday that Freedom was banned from future Sky games at Wintrust Arena unless he could prove that he understood the rules and would no longer present a potential threat. Alter did not identify a formal reinstatement process or explain exactly what Freedom would need to do.
"I’m not going to give him a roadmap," Alter said.
On Wednesday, Freedom sent a formal letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert that OutKick obtained. He requested an explanation for his ejection, a review of Cloud’s conduct, a refund for his tickets and preservation of arena video, security reports and internal communications. He also asked whether his shirt, advocacy or announced effort to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft influenced the decision.
The letter accused the league of selective enforcement and cited other recent security controversies involving messages about transgender participation in women’s sports. One week before the Chicago game, the WNBA acknowledged that security at an Atlanta Dream game acted improperly by directing fans to cover shirts carrying messages on both sides of that debate.
"This should not have happened," the league said afterward.
The Sky denied that Freedom’s viewpoint or clothing caused his removal. That explanation is supported by the fact that the organization knew he was coming, admitted him in the shirt and allowed him to remain courtside for more than two quarters. Its stated line was the step toward the court.
Freedom’s letter nevertheless demanded a written response within five business days.
A day later, after hearing Alter’s gun analogy, Freedom raised the stakes again.
"Me and my legal team will definitely be taking actions against Chicago Sky and Michael Alter," Freedom said in Wednesday's interview with OutKick.
Freedom did not identify a legal claim or provide a filing timeline.
The incident and its fallout may have yielded the WNBA and the Sky another PR headache, but also profit.
The game averaged 3.31 million viewers across NBC and Peacock and peaked at 3.82 million, making it the most-watched WNBA regular-season game since the league’s opening weekend in 1997 and the third-most watched ever.