As the final days of WNBA free agency dragged to a close in April, one question began to increase in volume: Why hasn’t Tash been signed?
Natasha Cloud wishes she had an answer. Weeks after signing with the Chicago Sky, the guard still doesn’t understand why she was the last free agent signed this spring.
Cloud feels confident in her resume. She averaged 10.1 points and 5.1 assists for a 27-win New York Liberty team last year. She led the league in assists in 2022 and won a ring in 2019. She was named to three All-Defensive teams (one first- and two second-team selections) in the last seven seasons. Sure, she turned 34 in February, but Cloud believes she’s still in her physical prime.
Still, the offers didn’t come.
When the Sky finally made the call to offer Cloud a one-year, $555,000 deal barely a week before the season opener, it felt like a lifeline. Cloud made sense in Chicago as a secondary facilitator for a team looking to revamp its system and culture quickly. But the final fit didn’t soften the blow of those days spent on the outside looking in.
“I just have extra fuel behind me this year,” Cloud told the Tribune. “This is the place that I feel like is ready to pour gasoline on that — in the best way.”
At first, Cloud’s omission from free agency appeared to be a byproduct of a rushed period of negotiations. But as Cloud remained unsigned, speculation began to swirl that the guard’s lack of a contract was driven by off-the-court concerns — a suggestion repeatedly stoked by fellow WNBA players.
An aggregator account on X made a post citing a Front Office Sports report that sources within the league “negated social media rumors that Cloud is being blackballed because of her activism.” Within minutes, Cloud’s longtime girlfriend and Toronto Tempo forward Isabelle Harrison responded: “This isn’t true.”
Harrison later deleted the post, but her statement sparked further speculation from fans. During a livestream on Twitch, Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams and Seattle Storm guard Natisha Hiedeman echoed the same concern.
“You know that it ain’t got nothing to do with her basketball ability,” Williams said. “It gotta be because of the other (stuff).”
Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud shoots around during practice on May 20, 2026, at Wintrust Arena. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Speculation varied, however, about what exactly the “other stuff” might entail. Cloud often voiced significant criticisms of the league, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and some team owners during recent negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement. The guard’s willingness to articulate her political beliefs also has earned backlash from detractors.
Cloud is a vocal advocate for Palestinian liberation, writing slogans such as “Feed Gaza” on her sneakers for every game she plays. She held up a sign reading “Abolish ICE” during player introductions for an Unrivaled game this winter and made endorsement advertisements with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani during last year’s campaign.
The timing of Cloud’s free-agency vacuum drove concern that the guard was being blackballed from the league for her political beliefs. Despite acknowledging the risks taken with vocal advocacy, Cloud said no team or agent ever communicated an explicit concern about her activism or political beliefs.
“No one’s ever going to admit if that was the case,” Cloud said Wednesday during a news conference before the Sky’s home opener against the Dallas Wings at Wintrust Arena. “I’m sure there are certain organizations that, yeah, I’m not the player for you. I will say what I feel on my heart when it comes to my morals and my values. I am a Christian, so that’s what I stand on and I won’t shy away from it. So it does take a certain organization. … When you have that ability (to speak out) not only from your organization, from your front office and ownership, it really does make a difference.”
“Y’all can villainize me all you want, but I just want love and peace. I want people to be able to live a dignified life, no matter where they came from. … If I’m villainized for that, I don’t think that says a lot about me. I think that’s just a lot about the people villainizing me.”
The root of Cloud’s confusion surrounding free agency is planted in the lack of an offer from the Liberty.
Cloud said that she understood the Liberty’s need to pay the Big Three of Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart — each of whom landed maximum deals — but never felt she received an explanation of why she wasn’t offered a deal.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Cloud said. “I still haven’t gotten an answer. … I appreciate all the kind words said about me. I know who I was for that organization, I know who I was for that community, but I still don’t have an answer. Everyone here has been in a relationship where there’s no closure and you just move on. … I’m in this next relationship and I’m loving life.”
Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud brings the ball upcourt against the Phoenix Mercury on Friday, May 15, 2026, in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)
While the lack of interest from the Liberty was confusing, the following weeks of inactivity were baffling to Cloud.
This year’s free-agency period was uniquely truncated, essentially lasting only 13 days because of the duration of CBA negotiations — and creating a flurry of activity as a result. Cloud acknowledged how “binding” the new salary cap can be for front offices, forcing teams such as the Golden State Valkyries to offload their draft picks entirely simply to navigate their current salaries. This put the squeeze on veteran players such as Cloud who have put in more than a decade of service in the league.
And a player won’t make sense to every team. Teams such as the Lynx and Las Vegas Aces already had locked down high-level point guard options. Cloud already had a few no-go teams — she previously pushed hard for a trade out of Connecticut following a trade last spring, and league sources believed she also burned bridges with the Phoenix Mercury, who traded her to the Sun in February 2025.
In addition to these hurdles, Cloud said she was dropped by her agency two days before the WNBA draft — and days into free agency — before signing with Fabio Jardine of FirstPick Management, which only added to the tumult of the process.
Cloud was angry. She was hurt. And she was afraid she wouldn’t get a chance to play in the WNBA this season. But through the process, the guard said she tried her best to stay offline and avoid speaking out until she found a new home in the league.
“Everyone thinks I’m a crashout,” Cloud said. “So I think everyone was expecting me to jaw off and kind of go crazy with the predicament that I was in. If I’m being honest, some of it would have validity for me even being in that position. But that just wasn’t the case. … A lot of my silence was understanding that I know my value, that I know my worth, I know who I am and I don’t have to speak on it because my game speaks for itself. When it comes down to it, it never made sense to me because my play on the court — y’all not gonna keep undervaluing what I bring to it.”
For the Sky, Cloud wasn’t on the front office’s early list of free-agent targets for one simple reason — they didn’t think they needed another point guard.
General manager Jeff Pagliocca entered free agency with a clear-cut priority of signing seven-time All-Star Skylar Diggins to take the helm of starting point guard. With Courtney Vandersloot set to return eventually from a torn ACL in her right knee and a slew of other combo guards, the Sky simply weren’t in the market for a third on-ball guard.
But that changed with time. The Sky landed all of their top targets in free agency. Still, the secondary guard group didn’t offer high confidence in their ability to facilitate the ball without Diggins and Vandersloot on the court. When Cloud remained available in the early days of training camp, coach Tyler Marsh said the internal messaging for the Sky was simple: Go get her.
“I think everyone in the league was (surprised Cloud was available),” Marsh said. “Everyone knows who and what Natasha Cloud is as a player. We’ve been able to learn is who she is as a person and how passionate she is about her teammates, how passionate she is about the game.”
Cloud said she couldn’t stop herself from laughing during her first phone call with Pagliocca, who is known for an incredibly intense style of communication during negotiations. Within minutes, the general manager had sold her — both on Marsh’s system and on the team’s win-now mentality.
“These dudes — they really got some dogs in them,” Cloud told the Tribune. “They want to win and they’re willing to do whatever. Even Jeff having the balls to call me and sign me when the rest of the league was dragging their feet, I think it speaks as a testament that like — he really doesn’t give a (expletive) He’s ready to wear it and he’s ready to put his name on the line, and that makes you want to do the same thing too.”
For Cloud, the challenge now is to figure out who she wants to be in Chicago. She averaged 8.3 points and 4.7 assists in her first three games with the Sky, coming off the bench twice before starting in place of the injured Diggins on Sunday. The guard’s role will have to adapt around the returns of Vandersloot and DiJonai Carrington, both of whom are projected to be cleared to play by midsummer.
But while her on-court presence must be malleable at this point of her career, Cloud feels confident in her ability to remain the same person off the court in Chicago.
“My activism isn’t going to stop,” Cloud said. “This is my purpose. This is what God’s purpose is for my career. Not just to come out here on an opening night and get a dub but to make sure that people feel seen and shielded and loved and protected. It’s not for everybody. These shoes, they’re hard to fill — and I say that again very humbly, but it just is what it is.”