Enes Freedom vs Natasha Cloud: The opposing activists at the center of the WNBA's latest signature moment

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.

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.