WNBA star Natasha Cloud showed love to the transgender community after her fiery, mid-game clash with Enes Kanter Freedom, the ex-NBA player who has recently embarked on an anti-trans-women-in-women’s-sports crusade.
“To every trans kid/person, You are apart of MY community & tribe,” wrote the Chicago Sky player, an LGBTQ+ community member, in a post to Threads.
“You belong. You’re loved. You’re seen. You’re perfect as you are. & you will always be protected by me.”
Cloud’s post arrived in the hours following her back-and-forth with Freedom late in the third quarter of the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever on Sunday.
After Cloud made a bucket in the paint and celebrated with Sky guard Aicha Coulibaly, she started walking toward and shouting in the direction of Freedom, who was sitting along the baseline and donned a shirt that read, “WOMAN noun. adult human female.”
Freedom put out his arms and took multiple steps onto the court before security swooped in and escorted him out of the arena.
Michael Reaves via Getty Images
Earlier this month, Freedom — who spent 11 seasons in the NBA — jumped onto the conservative-led train fueling the debate around trans women in sports when he announced he was identifying as a woman and declared for the 2027 WNBA draft.
Freedom — along with ex-NBA player turned failed Minnesota GOP candidate Royce White — made the announcements weeks after Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham expressed that she wants to “protect” young girls in sports, adding that they “shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
Despite no known trans woman playing, or having played, in the WNBA, right-wingers have seemingly become obsessed with discussing whether trans athletes have a place in the league — and sports in general — in recent months.
Fox News has spent over 13 hours fixated on the WNBA since late June, with a majority of the coverage leaning into talk of trans participation and race issues in the league, per a recent report by Media Matters for America.
Freedom, who is not known to have attended any WNBA game before Sunday, claimed in a Fox News interview on Monday that Cloud approached him and yelled that Cunningham “is not going to sleep with you” after he celebrated an earlier make by the Fever star.
“I’m just confused at that point,” Freedom told Laura Ingraham. “I’m here to protect women and support Sophie Cunningham.”
Freedom and White are not eligible to play in the WNBA, league sources told The Associated Press and ESPN on Monday.
League sources told Front Office Sports that the pair’s announcements were “simply publicity stunts” and the WNBA was “not going to give oxygen to efforts designed to mock the league or use this topic to demean and marginalize others.”
The WNBA has yet to comment on the matter.