St. Joseph's Professional Athletes

The biggest story in the WNBA this week didn't start with a buzzer-beater. It started with a St. Joseph's alumna pointing into the stands.

The Confrontation

During Sunday's Fever-Sky game on Aug. 23 — a 113-90 Indiana blowout — Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud directed a heated verbal exchange toward former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom, who was seated courtside. Freedom, who has been publicly attempting to declare for the WNBA draft as a political stunt against transgender inclusion in the league, was subsequently ejected from Wintrust Arena. The moment went viral almost instantly, igniting a week-long firestorm across sports media.

Cloud put up 16 points and 7 assists in the loss, but the box score was secondary. Within days, Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter announced an indefinite ban on Freedom from all Sky home games, citing his potential to be "a threat." The Sporting News and CBS Sports both confirmed the ban, with Alter's statement leaving little ambiguity about the team's position.

Cloud Speaks — On Her Own Terms

At her first media availability ahead of Saturday's game against the New York Liberty, Cloud refused to engage with Freedom directly. "I won't be talking about anything that happened with an irrelevant person," she said, before pivoting to a focused, two-minute statement on issues she argued actually affect women and children. She called the culture war debate swirling around the WNBA "an intentional distraction" and urged the league to extend Freedom's ban to all WNBA arenas — not just Chicago's. "We're asking for protection," Cloud said.

WNBA legends and prominent voices outside basketball amplified her position. Two-time Super Bowl champion Torrey Smith publicly backed Cloud on social media after the ejection.

Injury Scare, Then Clearance

The week had an anxious subplot. Cloud left Tuesday's game against the Connecticut Sun — a game the Sky lost 81-87 — with a knee injury, finishing with just 3 points and 4 assists before being ruled out for the second half alongside teammate DiJonai Carrington. For a Chicago squad already navigating a difficult season, losing two guards mid-game was a fresh blow.

The scare was short-lived. The Sky cleared Cloud to play Saturday against New York, and she responded with 14 points in a 66-85 loss to the Liberty — her knee holding up even as the team's win column did not.

The Bigger Picture

Cloud's week encapsulates what makes her one of the league's most consequential players well beyond the stat sheet. She is a Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award winner and a 2019 WNBA champion who has consistently used her platform without hesitation. The confrontation with Freedom — and her deliberate, disciplined response afterward — added another chapter to that legacy.

Kanter Freedom, meanwhile, has reportedly refused to back down, with reports indicating he is exploring legal action stemming from the altercation. That escalation is unlikely to change the trajectory: Cloud's message landed, the arena ban held, and the St. Joseph's guard walked into Saturday's game in New York having controlled the narrative all week on her own terms.

St. Joseph's alum Natasha Cloud just had the kind of week that reframes a career narrative.

The Chicago Sky guard put together three productive outings between Aug. 16–21, but the centerpiece was impossible to ignore: a 35-point, 9-rebound, 6-assist performance against the New York Liberty on Wednesday — a career high, and the first 35-point game in Chicago Sky franchise history. The Sky won 93-86.

The context made it richer. Cloud is a former Liberty player, and her former teammates had no answers on the night. She matched her previous career best of 31 on a mid-range jumper with 1:17 left to put Chicago up 86-84, then watched Kamilla Cardoso ice it with a bucket in the lane. What could have been a tight loss became a statement win.

Cloud's full week, by the numbers:

Cloud's breakout didn't come out of nowhere. She opened the stretch on Sunday, Aug. 16, with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals in an 82-80 road win over the Seattle Storm — the game that snapped a brutal six-game losing streak for Chicago. She closed the week Friday against the Golden State Valkyries with 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in a 73-70 Sky win.

Three games. Three wins. Scoring lines of 20, 35, and 17. The St. Joe's product has quietly become the engine of a Sky team finding its footing late in the season.

Off the court, Cloud didn't stay quiet either.

Friday's win over the Valkyries was marred by an ugly trend making its way through WNBA arenas: fans throwing sex toys onto the court. At least three objects were tossed during the third quarter at Chicago's home game, forcing arena staff to intervene and briefly halting play. Cloud, who has been one of the league's most outspoken players, didn't mince words afterward — calling the perpetrators "weird" and "lame as f–k" in post-game remarks that drew significant attention.

Cloud also used the post-Liberty win spotlight to defend New York's Breanna Stewart, who has faced persistent online criticism, dismissing the haters with characteristic bluntness.

The broader picture: Cloud is in her first season with Chicago after years in Washington and New York. She's playing some of the best basketball of her career at exactly the right moment, and her alma mater's fans have every reason to be watching.

Natasha Cloud is delivering some of her sharpest basketball of the 2026 season, and she's not taking sole credit for it.

The St. Joseph's alumna averaged 15 points and 6.7 assists over three games from Aug. 4–8, anchoring a Chicago Sky offense that looks increasingly dangerous when paired with a defense that has found new life. The reason for that defensive renaissance, according to Cloud herself: DiJonai Carrington, her fellow Hawk, who returned from a foot injury and promptly flipped the Sky's defensive identity.

Chicago went 3-1 during the stretch, and the Cloud-Carrington reunion in the backcourt has been the clearest catalyst.

The Numbers

Cloud's week was a study in consistency with a late stumble. She opened Aug. 4 against Phoenix with 13 points and 7 assists, though the Sky fell 106-101. Two days later, she was the best player on the floor in a 95-88 win over Los Angeles — dropping 15 points, dishing 9 assists, grabbing 5 rebounds, and posting a +9 plus-minus. Saturday's loss to Indiana (90-86) saw her finish with 17 points and 4 assists, though a -5 plus-minus reflected a game that slipped away late.

Over the three-game run: 17-15-13 in scoring, 4-9-7 in assists. For a guard who has always made others better, the volume and efficiency represent a genuine offensive uptick.

The Carrington Effect

What makes this stretch notable isn't just Cloud's box scores — it's the dynamic she's describing publicly. Cloud credited Carrington with transforming Chicago's defense since her return, a frank acknowledgment that the Sky's recent wins have been built on more than just offensive execution.

Carrington, who also played at St. Joseph's, brings the kind of disruptive, high-motor defensive energy that changes a team's personality on that end. When two players who ran the same college system share a backcourt again at the professional level, the familiarity tends to show up in ways box scores don't fully capture. The Sky's 3-1 run since her return suggests it's showing up in the standings.

The Bigger Picture

Chicago's season has been a grind, and this stretch doesn't erase the broader challenges — Cloud's plus-minus figures in two of three games are a reminder the Sky are still a team fighting for positioning, not coasting. But the directional shift is real: a functional defensive identity, a point guard playing with confidence, and two St. Joseph's alums proving that Philadelphia-forged chemistry travels.

Laura Ziegler, the other active St. Joseph's alumna in the WNBA, is on the Los Angeles Sparks roster but was on the losing end of Chicago's Aug. 6 win — a quiet footnote to a week that belonged to her former school's more prominent representatives.

For Cloud and Carrington, the reunion is producing results. The question is whether Chicago can sustain it deep into August.