Speaking for the first time Saturday since her verbal altercation with Enes Kanter Freedom, Sky guard Natasha Cloud refused to give the situation additional attention.
Instead, Cloud used her pregame availability to bring attention to greater threats to women and children, including domestic violence, sexual assault, ongoing food insecurity and access to health care.
“I will not talk about any irrelevant threat to women because that’s exactly what it is,” Cloud said before the Sky played the Liberty. “I want to talk about real issues that face women and it’s not our trans human beings, and it’s not our drag queens, it’s not our gay community. There is a certain demographic of people that you can general search — it’s a simple, good search of ‘What is the greatest threat to women and children currently in 2026 in the United States of America’ — and it’s not going to be trans.”
Freedom has inserted himself into the debate around the WNBA’s eligibility policies that’s caught fire since Fever guard Sophie Cunningham was quoted in an ESPN article last month saying she wanted “to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
Freedom wore a shirt that read, “WOMAN noun. Adult human female,” as he sat courtside at the Fever’s 113-90 win in Chicago earlier this week to, in his words, support Cunningham.
He was removed, though, after getting into it with Cloud in the third quarter.
Sky owner Michael Alter has since indefinitely barred Freedom from Chicago’s Wintrust Arena.
Cloud expressed gratitude for Alter’s “immediate action” while also calling on the WNBA to follow suit by implementing a league-wide ban of Freedom.
“We’re asking for protection, and that’s what protection looks like from a man,” Cloud said before Saturday’s Liberty-Sky game in Brooklyn. “We [cannot] allow [Freedom] into the arena before the game, but after the game, we can make solutions and bring solutions to the table that best benefits putting our players first and protecting our players.”
Cloud is among the choir of WNBA players, coaches and executives who’ve expressed frustration with the league becoming a major flashpoint in the country’s culture war.
Cloud said the ongoing narratives regarding trans participation in the WNBA is an “intentional distraction.”
She blamed men — whom she identified as the major demographic that talks about sports and invests in and manages sports — as being the problem.
“Even the men now that are like, ‘Oh, we need to protect the WNBA.’ Y’all were the same ones saying we shouldn’t have been paid. Y’all were the same ones saying that we shouldn’t have been invested into. Y’all were the same ones saying that we’re a joke. Y’all are the same ones that don’t respect black women,” Cloud said. “So if you’re gonna protect women, that means all women. That includes black women, trans women, and the list goes on and on and on. So the root of the issue is men.”
Cloud has been a fierce, outspoken social justice advocate for years as she’s used her platform to champion LGBTQ+ rights, racial equality and gun violence prevention.
She said she would “love” for the WNBA to be celebrated this season for its new historic collective bargaining agreement, the league’s booming viewership numbers and the booming talent.
“You have so many players playing at such an elite level of play that we don’t even talk about it because we are a microcosm of a bigger issue that is our society, right?” Cloud said. “We won’t allow our league to be used as a pawn for any political or cultural wars that right side wants to. We’re absolutely not going to.”
Cloud believes the WNBA’s three-week break for the FIBA World Cup next month may allow for the narratives around the league to get back to basketball.
But she also doubled down that the debate around trans athlete participation in the WNBA is an “intentional” distraction.
“I hope that this break does give everyone some time to go touch some f–king grass,” she said. “But with the midterm elections coming up, I want everyone to know this is intentional. It is intentional, and stop being played for a puppet. We’re not puppets.”
