Calling him only an “unimportant person,” Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud declined to name Enes Kanter Freedom while speaking to reporters for the first time since the pair got into a verbal altercation during an Aug. 23 game.
“I’m not going to talk about anything that happened with an irrelevant person,” Cloud said ahead of the Sky’s game against the New York Liberty on Saturday afternoon. “What I’m going to focus on is what actually affects women and children.”
Over the next two minutes, Cloud detailed three issues affecting women that she believes deserve more attention than freedom: domestic violence, sexual assault, and food insecurity.
“I’m going to talk about real issues that women face, and it’s not us trans human beings,” Cloud said. “It’s not our drag queens. It’s not our gay community. There’s a certain demographic of people that you can generally search; it’s a simple Google search of what’s the biggest threat to women and children in the United States in 2026, and it’s not going to be trans people.”
Freedom, who wore a shirt that read “WOMAN noun. grown human female,” has since been unlimited ban on Sky home games as he turned into a “potential threat” when he stepped toward Oblak and the court before security removed him from the arena.
The former NBA player, who recently returned to the spotlight for his opposition to transgender athletes in women’s sports, attended the Sky game against the Indiana Fever after declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft in protest of trans women competing in the league. His statement followed comments made by Fever keeper Sophie Cunningham to ESPN against the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports. Small demonstrations have sprung up across the country at Fever road games since Cunningham’s views were detailed.
Earlier this week, Sky owner Michael Alter said the franchise could reconsider Freedom’s ban “if one day he is able to show that he is able to be at a game and behave according to our rules and not be a threat to people”.
The WNBA will not implement a league-wide ban on Freedom, but Cloud pleaded with the league to reconsider.
“We’re looking for protection, and that’s what protection from the man looks like,” Cloud said of Sky’s ban on Freedom. “We can’t not let him into the arena before the game, but after the game we can bring solutions to the table that work best to put our players first and protect our players. Jeff (Pagliocca), Tyler (Marsh) and Michael (Alter) have done a good job of that. I hope the WNBA follows their lead.”
Although no transgender women compete in the WNBA, this latest culture war continues to roil the league in a season of crises and controversial discourse ranging from the trial to sex toys being thrown onto WNBA courts.
Multiple sex toys were thrown onto the field during the Sky’s win over the Golden State Valkyries on Aug. 21, after which Cloud shared an impassioned postgame speech. Alter said Sky is still working to identify and prosecute those responsible.
Asked why the WNBA continues to experience these heightened distractions, Cloud said, “Men.”
“The guys that are now like, ‘Oh, we have to protect the WNBA,’ you were all the same ones that said we shouldn’t get paid,” Cloud continued. “You were all the same ones who said we shouldn’t have invested in us, you said we were a joke, the same ones who don’t respect black women. So if you’re going to protect women, that means all women. That includes black women, trans women and the list goes on.”
