CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter says a lawsuit filed by former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom is “meritless and frivolous.”
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CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter says a lawsuit filed by former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom is “meritless and frivolous.”
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter says a lawsuit filed by former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom is “meritless and frivolous.”
Freedom is alleging that his First Amendment rights were violated when he was ejected from the Sky’s WNBA game against the Indiana Fever on Aug. 23. He is seeking damages and the removal of his ban when it comes to attending games at Wintrust Arena.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Illinois, names Chicago Women’s Basketball Operations, LLC, which runs the Sky, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the corporation that owns the arena, and the city of Chicago as defendants.
“Freedom was removed for his conduct, not his speech,” Alter said Friday in a statement released by the Sky. “We look forward to the truth prevailing in court.”
The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Freedom was removed from the game after he was confronted by Sky guard Natasha Cloud late in the third quarter.
Freedom was sitting along the baseline wearing a black shirt that read “WOMAN noun. adult human female.”
The Fever called for a timeout after Cloud scored inside with 1:22 left in the period. Cloud then did a chest bump with teammate Aicha Coulibaly before turning around and walking in Freedom’s direction.
Cloud, 34, started yelling and pointing at Freedom, 34, as she approached him. A standing Freedom held his arms out and stepped onto the court as security and a handful of Sky players moved in between the two.
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.
He had a conversation with a group of police officers before departing the arena.
“The Defendants combined and conspired, and acted jointly to execute their conspiracy, to discriminate against Plaintiff based on Plaintiff’s verbal and demonstrable expression of viewpoint and gender identity when they wrongfully ejected Plaintiff from a recent WNBA game,” Freedom’s lawsuit reads. “Defendants compounded and exacerbated Plaintiff’s injuries when they subsequently banned Plaintiff indefinitely from attendance.”
Source: Read the original article on www.winnipegfreepress.com
