“My contract was terminated because I hired an outside marketing agency,” Natasha Cloud told Sue Bird on the Bird’s Eye View podcast, laying out a rare public account of why an 11-year veteran and 2019 WNBA champion spent weeks on the free-agent market before the Chicago Sky signed her just before the season.
Cloud said she was told off the court that she wasn’t marketable and that her activism was cited as a reason she wasn’t getting certain deals and sponsorships. She described feeling “terrified,” switching agencies multiple times during the offseason, and being left without an explanation after the New York Liberty cut her — a sequence she said included her original agency terminating its contract two days before the WNBA expansion draft.
The numbers and the name recognition make the pause notable: Cloud is an established guard with a championship on her résumé and a reputation for leadership. Yet she sat unsigned for weeks in a market where players with her pedigree rarely slip so far from rosters and endorsement conversations. The timing — agency changes, a termination just before the expansion draft, and persistent market silence — is the weight behind her account.
Cloud tied those developments to her activism and her off-court representation. “Because I was a really happy with the agency that I was with on the court, [it] was amazing; always got my contracts, my basketball deals on the court, but when it came to off the court, I was just being told I wasn’t marketable. I was being told my activism was a reason as to why I wasn’t getting certain deals and sponsorships,” she said, and later added, “I couldn’t tell you why I was in this situation. I couldn’t tell you, still, an answer. I didn’t get one.”
That claim sits against public statements from New York Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb, who told reporters in the spring the team simply had other priorities and explicitly endorsed Cloud as worthy of a WNBA roster spot. The contrast underscores the friction at the center of Cloud’s account: she believes activism and marketability concerns played a role in how free agency unfolded; the Liberty publicly framed their roster choices as tactical rather than punitive.
Context matters here: Cloud is known for advocacy on behalf of the players’ union and for speaking out on social and political issues, and she campaigned last year with New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. Social media commentators had speculated teams or owners were black-balling her — a claim Cloud’s remarks implicitly bolster by describing a loss of deals and a fractured relationship with agencies. Still, the Liberty’s publicly stated priorities and Kolb’s endorsement complicate a straightforward narrative of punishment.
Cloud’s timeline is compact and sharp: agency termination two days before the expansion draft, multiple agency changes during the offseason, silence on the market for weeks, then a late signing with the Chicago Sky for the 2026 season. The Sky’s addition gives her a roster spot and a return to the court; it does not, however, resolve the deeper questions Cloud raised about transparency, representation and whether activism affected sponsorship and team interest.
The most consequential unanswered question now is simple and stubborn: why did the Liberty cut Cloud and why did no team claim her sooner? Cloud says she was left in the dark and still has no answer. She has a new home with the Chicago Sky for 2026 — but the broader issue she put on the table, about how advocacy and marketing intersect with careers in the WNBA, remains unresolved.
