Guard vows to prove herself with Chicago Sky

As the ultimate days of WNBA free company dragged to a detailed in April, one query started to improve in quantity: Why hasn’t Tash been signed?

Natasha Cloud needs she had a solution. weeks after signing with the Chicago Skythe guard nonetheless would not perceive why she was the final free agent signed this spring.

Cloud feels assured in her resume. She averaged 10.1 factors and 5.1 assists for a 27-win New York Liberty group final yr. She led the league in assists in 2022 and gained a hoop in 2019. She was named to three All-Defensive groups (one first- and two second-team choices) within the final seven seasons. Sure, she turned 34 in February, however Cloud believes she’s nonetheless in her bodily prime.

Still, the presents did not come.

When the Sky lastly made the decision to supply Cloud a one-year, $555,000 deal barely per week earlier than the season opener, it felt like a lifeline. Cloud made sense in Chicago as a secondary facilitator for a group trying to revamp its system and tradition shortly. But the ultimate match did not soften the blow of these days spent on the surface trying in.

“I just have extra fuel behind me this year,” Cloud instructed the Tribune. “This is the place that I feel like is ready to pour gas on that — in the best way.”

At first, Cloud’s omission from free company appeared to be a byproduct of a rushed interval of negotiations. But as Cloud remained unsigned, hypothesis started to swirl that the guard’s lack of a contract was pushed by off-the-court considerations — a suggestion repeatedly raised by fellow WNBA gamers.

An aggregator account on X made a submit citing a Front Office Sports report that sources throughout the league “denied social media rumors that Cloud is being blackballed because of his activism.” Within minutes, Cloud’s longtime girlfriend and Toronto Tempo ahead Isabelle Harrison responded: “This isn’t true.”

Harrison later deleted the submit, however his assertion sparked additional hypothesis from followers. During a livestream on Twitch, Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams and Seattle Storm guard Natisha Hiedeman echoed the identical concern.

“You know that it ain’t got nothing to do with his basketball ability,” Williams stated. “It gotta be because of the other (stuff).”

Speculation various, nevertheless, about what precisely the “other stuff” may entail. Cloud typically voiced important criticisms of the league, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and a few group homeowners throughout latest negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement. The guard’s willingness to articulate his political views has additionally earned backlash from detractors.

Cloud is a vocal advocate for Palestinian liberation, writing slogans reminiscent of “Feed Gaza” on her sneakers for each recreation she performs. She held up an indication studying “Abolish ICE” throughout participant introductions for an Unrivaled recreation this winter and made endorsement commercials with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani throughout final yr’s marketing campaign.

The timing of Cloud’s free-agency vacuum drove concern that the guard was being blackballed from the league for his political views. Despite acknowledging the dangers taken with vocal advocacy, Cloud stated no group or agent ever communicated an specific concern about his activism or political views.

“No one’s ever going to admit if that was the case,” Cloud stated Wednesday throughout a information convention earlier than the Sky’s residence opener towards 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 makes 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 company is planted within the lack of a suggestion from the Liberty.

Cloud stated that she understood the Liberty’s want to pay the Big Three of Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart — every of whom landed most offers — however by no means felt she obtained an evidence of why she wasn’t provided a deal.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Cloud stated. “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.”

While the shortage of curiosity from the Liberty was complicated, the next weeks of inactivity had been baffling to Cloud.

This yr’s free-agency interval was uniquely truncated, primarily lasting solely 13 days due to the period of CBA negotiations — and making a flurry of exercise in consequence. Cloud acknowledged how “binding” the brand new wage cap could be for entrance workplaces, forcing groups such because the Golden State Valkyries to offload their draft picks totally merely to navigate their present salaries. This put the squeeze on veteran gamers reminiscent of Cloud who’ve put in additional than a decade of service within the league.

And a participant will not make sense to each group. Teams such because the Lynx and Las Vegas Aces already had locked down high-level level guard choices. Cloud already had just a few no-go groups — she beforehand pushed exhausting for a commerce out of Connecticut following a commerce final spring, and league sources believed she additionally burned bridges with the Phoenix Mercury, who traded her to the Sun in February 2025.

In addition to these hurdles, Cloud stated she was dropped by her company two days earlier than the WNBA draft — and days into free company — earlier than signing with Fabio Jardine of FirstPick Management, which solely added to the tumult of the method.

Cloud was indignant. She was damage. And she was afraid she would not get an opportunity to play within the WNBA this season. But via the method, the guard stated she tried her finest to keep offline and keep away from talking out till she discovered a brand new residence within the league.

“Everyone thinks I’m a crashout,” Cloud stated. “So I believe everybody was anticipating me to jaw off and sort of go loopy with the predicament that I used to be in. If I’m being sincere, a few of it might have validity for me even being in that place. But that simply wasn’t the case. … Plenty of my silence was understanding that I do know my worth, that I do know my price, I do know who I’m and I haven’t got to communicate on it as a result of my recreation speaks for itself. When it comes down to it, it by no means made sense to me as a result of my play on the courtroom — y’all not gonna maintain undervaluing what I carry to it.”

For the Sky, Cloud wasn’t on the entrance workplace’s early record of free-agent targets for one easy purpose — they did not assume they wanted one other level guard.

General supervisor Jeff Pagliocca entered free company with a clear-cut precedence of seven-time signing-time All-Star Skylar Diggins to take the helm of start line guard. With Courtney Vandersloot set to return finally from a torn ACL in her right knee and a slew of different combo guards, the Sky merely weren’t out there for a 3rd on-ball guard.

But that modified with time. The Sky landed all of their high targets in free company. Still, the secondary guard group did not supply excessive confidence of their means to facilitate the ball with out Diggins and Vandersloot on the courtroom. When Cloud remained obtainable within the early days of coaching camp, coach Tyler Marsh stated the inner messaging for the Sky was easy: Go get her.

“I think everyone in the league was (surprised Cloud was available),” Marsh stated. “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 stated she could not cease herself from laughing throughout her first telephone name with Pagliocca, who is thought for an extremely intense fashion of communication throughout negotiations. Within minutes, the final supervisor had bought her — each on Marsh’s system and on the group’s win-now mentality.

“These dudes — they really got some dogs in them,” Cloud instructed 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 problem now’s to determine who she needs to be in Chicago. She averaged 8.3 factors and 4.7 assists in her first three video games with the Sky, coming off the bench twice earlier than beginning instead of the injured Diggins on Sunday. The guard’s position can have to adapt across the returns of Vandersloot and DiJonai Carrington, each of whom are projected to be cleared for play by midsummer.

But whereas her on-court presence should be malleable at this level of her profession, Cloud feels assured in her means to stay the identical individual off the courtroom in Chicago.

“My activism isn’t going to stop,” Cloud stated. “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.”