Liberty's Natasha Cloud Makes Statement With Skills Challenge Win
Natasha Cloud is never one to avoid making statements, particularly when it comes matters away from the floor. The New York Liberty rep's latest came on All-Star hardwood in front of some of her peers.
Cloud set the tone for a seafoam-dominated Friday at the lead-up to the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game, earning the victory in the Skills Challenge before Sabrina Ionescu reprised her role as 3-Point Contest champion.
"The first half of the season was great," Cloud said in her postgame interview with ESPN's Holly Rowe. "This All-Star break is a good reset for us. But we know we have everything we need in our locker room. We all we got, we all we need. It's about Liberty biberty basketball. I know some of you are going to get mad at that, but it is what it is."
Cloud is a newcomer in the Liberty championship fold, coming over in a late offseason deal with the Phoenix Mercury. That has hardly stopped her from leaving an indispensable mark on the fanbase, one that made an ultimately futile push to get Cloud in the All-Star pool selected by Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier.
Cloud was nonetheless invited to partake in the Skills Challenge and became the second New Yorker to prevail in the event after Ionescu took home the 2022 title in Chicago. Though All-Star Weekend carries a sense of fun amidst consequence-free basketball (especially with the Team USA vs. WNBA format cast aside until the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles), Cloud felt that she made a statement with her victorious output.
"I'm meant to be here. I'm meant to be on this level," Cloud said when queried by Madeline Kenney of the New York Post about what she proved on Friday (h/t WNBA). "I'm confident in who I am, I know who I am. Whether I get the flowers or not, I do my job."
Cloud has certainly earned her share of accolades, earning three invites to the All-Defensive Team and a 2019 ring with the Washington Mystics. An All-Star bid, however, has proved elusive despite posting one of her more impactful seasons to date in her maiden metropolitan voyage.
The road to the All-Star Game has given Cloud a chance to play for what really matters: she is one of the most prominent WNBA voices speaking publicly about ongoing collective bargaining negotiations and dedicated her Friday victory to girlfriend and Liberty teammate Isabelle Harrison.
Cloud, in fact, played with literal house money on Friday: she's planning to use the Skills Challenge money, just over $57,000, to put a down payment on a home for her and Harrison, a fellow first-year New Yorker who has emerged as a sterling depth star in Brooklyn.
"It's been a blessing for our careers to collide in New York, for us to both be feeling comfortable and safe in the New York organization that's just top-tier through and through," Cloud told Rowe. "But this is for our family. [Harrison] over here told me, I better win today for a down payment on a house, so, baby' you're going to get that house!"
Geoff Magliocchetti is a veteran sportswriter who contributes to a variety of sites on the "On SI" network. In addition to the Yankees/Mets, Geoff also covers the New York Knicks, New York Liberty, and New York Giants and has previously written about the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Staten Island Yankees, and NASCAR.