Natasha Cloud spoke for the primary time since her highly-publicized encounter with Enes Kanter Freedom.
BROOKLYN—Within the transient time she addressed her position in one of the vital talked-about moments of the 2026 WNBA season, the ideas of Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud had been removed from foggy.
The lead-up to the Sky’s Saturday matinee with the New York Liberty marked the primary time Cloud spoke to media because the Indiana Fever and Enes Kanter Freedom visited the Windy Metropolis final weekend. Cloud was annoyed not by the scenario however as a result of the Kanter Freedom conundrum takes away from what she believes are greater points each on and off the WNBA flooring.
„I will not be speaking about something that occurred with an irrelevant particular person,“ Cloud mentioned. „What I will focus on is what really impacts ladies and kids.“
Cloud approached a courtside Kanter Freedom in the course of the third quarter of final Sunday’s sport and shouted on the NBA veteran that has declared for the 2027 WNBA Draft in an illustration that has continued the continued debate surrounding transgender athlete participation in ladies’s basketball.
Cloud Will get Loud On Additional Points
The veteran guard and activist listed a number of points that she felt deserved higher consideration as an alternative of the participation debate: she led off with home violence and sexual assault towards ladies and included different happenings corresponding to meals recollects, the ladies’s mortality charge, and „a genocide/struggle that we had been promised that we would not be in.“
With all that in thoughts, Cloud opted to dedicate no additional consideration to the Kanter Freedom encounter, which led to the latter’s ejection from Wintrust Enviornment.
„There’s so many different issues that we will give attention to that truly have quick affect on ladies and kids that we are saying we’re attempting to guard proper now. We’re being distracted, and that’s an intentional distraction,“ Cloud mentioned. „The extra that we hate one another, the extra that we’ve got bias towards one another, the extra we will be distracted from actual life points which can be plaguing our communities, plaguing these communities that we are saying that we’re right here to help and we’re right here to guard.“
„It is hypocrisy from high to complete, particularly those that cover behind that religion. It’s hypocrisy to a T. So I cannot discuss any irrelevant risk to ladies, as a result of that is precisely what it’s. I wish to discuss actual points that face ladies, and it isn’t our trans human beings, and it isn’t our drag queens, it isn’t our homosexual group. There’s a sure demographic of individuals that you may usually search. It is a easy Google search of what’s the best risk to ladies and kids at the moment in 2026 in america of America, and it isn’t going to be trans individuals.“
Whereas Cloud refused to consult with Kanter Freedom by title, she took intention at these towards transgender participation, claiming that the identical social gathering was towards present WNBA gamers touchdown raises introduced concerning the collective bargaining settlement reached over the winter.
„The boys now which can be like, ‚oh, we have to defend the WNBA,‘ you all had been the identical ones saying we should not have been paid,“ Cloud mentioned. „You all had been the identical ones saying that we should not have been invested into, the identical ones saying that we’re a joke, the identical ones that do not respect black ladies. So if you are going to defend ladies, meaning all ladies. That features black ladies, trans ladies, and the checklist goes on and on and on.“
Sky Denies Kanter Freedom
Since Sunday, Cloud performed 16 minutes in Chicago’s Tuesday win over Connecticut earlier than leaving with a knee harm. She was again within the Sky’s beginning lineup in her newest return to New York, the place she stays a fan favourite after spending final season in seafoam. Cloud scored a team-best 14 factors because the Sky fell to the Liberty by an 85-66 last.
Along with the on-court happenings, Sky administration led by majority proprietor Michael Alter introduced that Kanter Freedom can be banned from future Sky video games at Wintrust Enviornment. Cloud hoped the league would observe go well with with a wider prohibition and appreciated the help from Alter and different Chicago brass corresponding to head coach Tyler Marsh and normal supervisor Jeff Pagliocca.
„That is quick motion. We’re asking for defense and that is what safety seems like from a person. I would like everybody to listen to that is what safety seems like from them … We will make options and produce options to the desk that finest advantages placing our gamers first and defending our gamers. I believe that Jeff, Tyler, and Michael have actually completed a great job of that.“
Cloud hopes that the upcoming break within the WNBA season to account for the FIBA World Cup break permits for a remainder of kinds, one which turns the dialog again to the historic happenings on the basketball courtroom. She nonetheless continued to put up warnings for those who supposedly wish to flip the gamers into political pawns, believing that detractors are stepping their rhetoric up with the mid-term elections developing.
„I’d love for our leagues to be celebrated for the superb 12 months that we’re having,“ Cloud mentioned. „You have got so many gamers enjoying at such an elite degree of play that we do not even discuss it as a result of we’re a microcosm of an even bigger concern that’s our our society. We can’t permit our league for use as a pawn for any political or cultural wars that the best aspect needs to [start].“
„This league has all the time stood on precept. This league has all the time stood on our humanitarian efforts. Our league has all the time stood up for each social concern, whether or not it impacts us or not. This league, the ladies of this league, have all the time stood for what is true, and that may by no means draw back. I hope that this break does give everybody a while to go contact some f***ing grass.“
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
