NEW YORK (AP) — Natasha Cloud didn’t want to waste time and energy talking about Enes Kanter Freedom on Saturday as she prepared for the Chicago Sky’s game against the New York Liberty.
To Cloud, he is unimportant.
“I won’t be talking about anything that happened with an irrelevant person,” Cloud said. “What I will focus on is what actually affects women and children currently in 2026.”
Cloud then went on to name domestic violence, sexual assault and food insecurities as three things that women are most affected by.
Cloud got into a confrontation with Freedom at last Sunday’s Chicago home game against the Indiana Fever. The former NBA player 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 third. Cloud then chest bumped with teammate Aicha Coulibaly before turning around and walking in Freedom’s direction.
The 34-year-old Cloud started yelling and pointing at Freedom as she approached him. He stood, held his arms out and stepped onto the court as security and a handful of Sky players moved between the two.
“I will not talk about an irrelevant threat to our lives because that’s exactly what it is,” she said. “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 generally search. It’s a simple Google search of what is the greatest threat to women and children currently in 2026, in the United States of America.”
Freedom has been banned by Sky owner Michael Alter from attending any future Chicago home games.
Cloud applauded the move by the front office to “protect the players.”
“That’s what protection looks like on the whole. I want everyone to hear that,” she said. “That’s what protection looks like from the right.”
Freedom and Royce White, another former NBA player, have declared for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women. But a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Monday that they are not eligible. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.
The WNBA has been the subject of recent debates on whether transgender women — people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity — should be allowed to participate in the league. There has never been such a player in the WNBA.
Although the league’s collective bargaining agreement says the WNBA is restricted to women, it contains no more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.
“We won’t allow our league to be used as a pawn for any political or cultural wars that the right wants,” Cloud said. “We’re absolutely not going to. This league has always stood on principle and on our humanitarian efforts.”
Cloud wished the talk was about the amazing season the WNBA has been having on the court with strong ratings — that game against Indiana drew 3.3 million viewers, which was the most since the league’s inaugural season in 1997.
“I just had a fan who identifies as trans cry to me in here and this is why I do what I do,” Cloud said. “None of this is performative. I don’t want to put myself in front of fires all the time. I don’t want to be the one that always has to speak up. But somebody (expletive) has to do it.”
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