Referring to him only as “an irrelevant person,” Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud declined to say Enes Kanter Freedom’s name while talking to reporters for the first time since the pair got into a verbal altercation during a game on Aug. 23.
“I won’t be talking about anything that happened with an irrelevant person,” Cloud said ahead of the Sky’s game against the New York Liberty Saturday afternoon. “What I will focus on is what actually affects women and children.”
For the next two minutes, Cloud detailed three issues impacting women that she believes deserve more attention than Freedom: domestic violence, sexual assault and food insecurity.
“I will talk about real issues that face women, and it’s not our trans human beings,” Cloud said. “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 in 2026 in the United States of America, and it’s not going to be trans people.”
Freedom, who wore a shirt that read “WOMAN noun. adult human female,” has since been indefinitely banned from Sky home games for turning himself into a “potential threat” when he stepped towards Cloud and the court before security removed him from the arena.
The former NBA player, who recently popped back into the spotlight for his opposition to transgender athletes in women’s sports, attended the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever after declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft to protest trans women competing in the league. His declaration followed comments Fever guard Sophie Cunningham made to ESPN against the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports. Small demonstrations have popped up around the country at Fever road games since Cunningham’s views were detailed.
Earlier this week, Sky owner Michael Alter said the franchise might reconsider Freedom’s ban “if someday he’s able to demonstrate he’s capable of being at a game and conducting himself in compliance with our rules and not be a threat to people.”
The WNBA will not implement a league-wide ban on Freedom, but Cloud implored the league to reconsider.
“We’re asking for protection, and that’s what protection looks like from a man,” Cloud said of the Sky’s ban on Freedom. “We can’t not allow him in the arena before the game, but after the game we can bring solutions to the table that best benefit putting our players first and protecting 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 are competing in the WNBA, this latest culture war continues to hijack the league in a season of crises and controversial discourse ranging from officiating to sex toys being thrown on WNBA courts.
Multiple sex toys were thrown on the court during the Sky’s win over the Golden State Valkyries on Aug. 21, after which Cloud shared an impassioned post-game speech. Alter said the Sky are still working to identify and prosecute the people responsible.
Asked why the WNBA continues to experience these heightened distractions, Cloud said, “Men.”
“The men now that are like ‘Oh, we need to protect the WNBA,’ y’all were the same ones saying we shouldn’t be paid,” Cloud continued. “Y’all were the same ones saying we shouldn’t have been invested in, saying we’re a joke, the same ones that 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.”