Referring to him only as \u201can irrelevant person,\u201d Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud declined to say Enes Kanter Freedom\u2019s name while talking to reporters for the first time since the pair got into a verbal altercation during a game on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t be talking about anything that happened with an irrelevant person,\u201d Cloud said ahead of the Sky\u2019s game against the New York Liberty Saturday afternoon. \u201cWhat I will focus on is what actually affects women and children.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will talk about real issues that face women, and it\u2019s not our trans human beings,\u201d Cloud said. \u201cIt\u2019s not our drag queens. It\u2019s not our gay community. There is a certain demographic of people that you can generally search; it\u2019s a simple Google search of what is the greatest threat to women and children in 2026 in the United States of America, and it\u2019s not going to be trans people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freedom, who wore a shirt that read \u201cWOMAN noun. adult human female,\u201d has since been indefinitely banned from Sky home games<\/a> for turning himself into a \u201cpotential threat\u201d when he stepped towards Cloud and the court before security removed him from the arena.<\/p>\n The former NBA player, who recently popped back into the spotlight for his opposition to transgender athletes in women\u2019s sports, attended the Sky\u2019s 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<\/a> in women\u2019s sports. Small demonstrations have popped up around the country at Fever road games since Cunningham\u2019s views were detailed.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Sky owner Michael Alter said the franchise might reconsider Freedom\u2019s ban \u201cif someday he\u2019s able to demonstrate he\u2019s capable of being at a game and conducting himself in compliance with our rules and not be a threat to people.\u201d<\/p>\n The WNBA will not implement a league-wide ban on Freedom, but Cloud implored the league to reconsider.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re asking for protection, and that\u2019s what protection looks like from a man,\u201d Cloud said of the Sky\u2019s ban on Freedom. \u201cWe can\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n