The Sky have banned former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom from attending their games.
Principal owner Michael Alter spoke to local Chicago media to give his account of Sunday’s incident at the Fever game, when Natasha Cloud and Kanter Freedom got into a verbal altercation which ended in his ejection.
Alter’s view, summed up, was this: the Sky are no fan of Kanter Freedom’s, Kanter Freedom has been lying publicly about what happened, and he’s not welcome back until he can prove to the Sky’s satisfaction that he will abide by their rules and not pose a potential threat.
“It was pretty clear to us that his purpose of coming here was trying to be provocative and see how much attention he could get,” Alter said.
Kanter Freedom mocked the league and the queer community in recent weeks by claiming to be a woman and declaring for the WNBA draft. He showed up at the Fever game Sunday wearing a shirt that defined women by biological sex, and later claimed to be supporting his friend, Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, whose profile has risen since she opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
Since being thrown out, he has tried to give two somewhat contradictory impressions: that he was a victim who did nothing wrong — he was just supporting women! — and that the Sky were happy to have him there.
“All that is completely false,” Alter said.
Alter said the Sky only learned Kanter Freedom was coming a few hours before the game and immediately got arena security, team security and the league involved. The fact that Kanter Freedom had not purchased the ticket in his own name was, in Alter’s view, further evidence that he came with bad intentions.
Overall, Alter was proud of how security handled the situation. Sky staff members were instructed to ignore Kanter Freedom and not “take the bait.”
According to Alter, everything changed when Kanter Freedom responded to Cloud by standing up from his seat, extending his arms, pointing a finger and taking a step toward the court.
“He went from being a fan, an obnoxious fan but a fan, to being a potential threat,” Alter said.
In a Fox News segment Monday, Kanter Freedom claimed Cloud’s outburst was entirely unprovoked. Alter said otherwise. He said he interviewed fans seated next to Kanter Freedom who told him the former NBA player had started chirping at Cloud — basketball-related trash talk — in the third quarter. The two went back and forth from there.
His only regret, Alter said, was not informing the players ahead of time that Kanter Freedom would be there.
He also emphasized that Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca is no fan of Kanter Freedom’s, either.
Kanter Freedom implied that he had been welcomed to the game by Pagliocca, his former trainer.
Alter said Kanter Freedom and Pagliocca haven’t spoken in years. Kanter Freedom’s manager was the one who texted Pagliocca a strange message about attending the game, and Pagliocca simply replied, “Appreciate the text.”