{"id":813146,"date":"2026-05-21T22:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/813146\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T22:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:07:12","slug":"natasha-cloud-finds-seamless-transition-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/813146\/","title":{"rendered":"Natasha Cloud finds seamless transition in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2013 As Natasha Cloud<\/a> was introduced before the Chicago Sky\u2019s home opener on May 20, the crowd of more than 9,000 fans gave her a loud ovation. They welcomed her to her new home, perhaps cognizant of the long road she took to get to the moment where she was wearing a jersey that read \u201cSky-Town.\u201d<\/p>\n

WNBA free agency opened up on April 8, and veterans were snapped up by the league\u2019s 15 teams. Thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement, players were seeing bigger paydays.<\/p>\n

But one veteran was left out. Cloud, who won a championship with Washington, then played for Phoenix and New York, had not been signed. Even as training camp started, Cloud \u2013 who was named to three WNBA All-Defensive teams \u2013 didn\u2019t have a team.<\/p>\n

Speculation spread on social media about why Cloud hadn\u2019t been picked up. Was it her social activism? Cloud isn\u2019t shy about championing progressive causes. She wears bracelets in support of a free Palestine, and held a sign reading \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d while being introduced for Unrivaled\u2019s game in her hometown of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Was it her age of 34? Or was it that she had moved around the league so much? As questions mounted, Cloud stayed quiet. She posted videos on Instagram showing her continuing to work out at her alma mater, St. Joseph\u2019s in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that free agency, I just kind of remained quiet. I think everyone expected me to be \u2018Crash Out Tash\u2019 and to be blunt and talk my shit, as I usually do, but there\u2019s growth here,\u201d Cloud said on Wednesday. \u201cThere\u2019s growth. I\u2019ve really worked on who I am as a human being. I\u2019ve worked on my water as well as my fire, and when to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of why she was comfortable being quiet during this time was that she had confidence in what she could do and what she could bring a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard, honestly, because you know you get to the point where it\u2019s like, man, I\u2019ve done this 11 years in a row. I\u2019ve proved everyone wrong. I proved myself right. I continue to show up,\u201d Cloud said.<\/p>\n

She leaned on her family and her girlfriend, Toronto Tempo forward Isabelle Harrison<\/a>, to keep her going when she didn\u2019t know if she would be back in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family shielded me for the most part \u2013 my family and Izzy \u2013 they shielded me from everything. With that protection and being able to go home to St. Joe\u2019s and Coach Griffin and Ashley Prim, who was my college teammate, I just felt safe. I felt safe to be upset, I felt safe to be angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On May 4, less than a week before the WNBA season tipped off, the Chicago Sky announced they had signed Cloud. It was an interesting signing considering that point guard Skylar Diggins<\/a> was Chicago\u2019s big splashy free agency signing, and that Chicago\u2019s longtime point guard Courtney Vandersloot<\/a> is getting closer to returning to the game after an ACL tear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s obviously a ton of questions on what it will look like having three quality starting caliber point guards,\u201d Sky coach Tyler Marsh said. \u201cAt the end of the day, they\u2019re all ballplayers; they all know they will know how to mesh and how to make it work. I think that at times both Tash and Skylar have played off the ball, so it allows Sloot to stay in kind of her natural position when she\u2019s ready to come back, and allows the other two to kind of be off of her and feed off of her. And so we\u2019re looking forward to seeing what that mix looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming into Chicago so late wasn\u2019t easy and balancing a team with so many point guards isn\u2019t easy, but the word the team uses to describe her transition is \u201cseamless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the moment I was here, I just felt welcomed, I felt valued, I felt wanted, I felt needed, and that just made the whole transition of me coming in seamless, everyone\u2019s ability to really help me learn the plays on the fly,\u201d Cloud said. \u201cI know there was a lot of talk and narratives about the personalities that we have on our team, but those personalities fit really well together. They understand each other, they support each other, and one through 14 is valued, so I enjoy coming to work every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cloud\u2019s best game so far with Chicago was in the loss to Dallas on Wednesday night. She scored 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished five assists. She also received one technical foul for arguing with referees.<\/p>\n

Kamilla Cardoso<\/a> is in her third year with the Sky, and hadn\u2019t crossed paths with Cloud before they became teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s an amazing vet. She fit right in, and she\u2019s been important for me,\u201d Cardoso said. \u201cSometimes I have a lack of confidence in myself. Since day one, I think I never spoke to her before our first practice together, and she always pours into me. She is always telling me how great I am, and how nobody can mess with me, and she helps me a lot. It just makes me happy, and I play with confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cloud is the kind of player Chicago tends to fall in love with, as she doesn\u2019t think twice about sacrificing her body for a play, but still plays with a high IQ.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s about more than being a gritty player. Cloud is outspoken, and she speaks to the concerns of many of the people who will cheer her on. While still in New York, she met with mayor Zohran Mamdani and is hoping to work with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson to make an impact on people\u2019s lives. If there\u2019s blowback for that, she\u2019s prepared for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up as the youngest of five. My dad worked two jobs to keep a roof over our head and food on the table. There\u2019s a lot of days that he went without eating. There\u2019s a lot of times that my mom went without clothes just to purchase for us. Just because I am super blessed to play basketball doesn\u2019t mean that I didn\u2019t come from humble beginnings, or what it means to live paycheck to paycheck,\u201d Cloud said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in this position, I know there\u2019s too much out here, there\u2019s too much money, there\u2019s too many resources, there\u2019s too much power, too much opportunity for everyone not to have a dignified life. So that\u2019s what I advocate for. If I\u2019m villainized for doing that, then I\u2019m the motherfuckin\u2019 villain now. I\u2019m villain number one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2013 As Natasha Cloud was introduced before the Chicago Sky\u2019s home opener on May 20, the crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":813147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[1497,1499,19713,30231,62,8345,67,132,68,232],"class_list":["post-813146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-chicago-sky","tag-kamilla-cardoso","tag-natasha-cloud","tag-skylar-diggins","tag-sports","tag-tyler-marsh","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116614846846322638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}