Chicago Sky head coach Tyler Marsh is facing backlash from WNBA fans after defending Natasha Cloud following her heated courtside confrontation with former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom during Chicago’s game on Sunday.

In the post-game press conference, Marsh shared what defending Natasha Cloud meant to him and the rest of the Sky locker room.

He explained that Cloud was worried about becoming an unwanted distraction for the team after the argument happened. But he made sure to tell her that nobody felt that way.

“I told her that we all embrace her as someone that protects our team and protects people that need to be protected. Tash is always going to stand on that, and we stand for Tash,” Marsh said, per a video shared by Front Office Sports’ Colin Salao on X.

The incident happened on August 23 during the Sky's 113-90 loss to the Indiana Fever at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

Enes Kanter Freedom was sitting right next to the court along the baseline, wearing a black T-shirt that read "WOMAN noun. adult human female."

With 1:22 left in the third quarter, Cloud scored a tough basket inside that forced a Fever timeout. She celebrated with a chest bump from teammate Aicha Coulibaly, then walked straight toward Kanter Freedom, yelling and pointing as she approached.

Kanter Freedom stood up, spread his arms, and took a step toward the court before Sky players and arena security moved between the two.

Officials ejected him on the spot, and he was escorted out through the tunnel and eventually the front lobby, still holding out his shirt for the crowd as he left. Outside the building, he spoke with police officers before finally driving away.

It was not clear what the two were shouting about.

Sky forward Azura Stevens tried to brush the moment aside after the game, telling reporters, "There was just a fan incident, and the security handled it," and that the team only wanted to focus on basketball.

Fans turn on Tyler Marsh over his "distraction" defense

Instead of helping calm things down, Marsh's words after the game made fans even angrier.

"How could you be a coach and objectively say that Cloud did not create a distraction? yall are complicit in the delusion," one fan simply asked on X.

Other fans pointed to strict league rules about players walking over to confront people in the stands.

The comment read, "League rules say players can’t leave bench area to confront fans. She did. A suspension is warranted. League rules not an opinion."

While Cloud stayed on the floor instead of walking up into the seats, fans asked what if a male NBA player crossed the baseline during a live game to aggressively yell at a woman sitting in the front row over a T-shirt.

"Huh? She screamed at someone in the stands, and what she said was disgusting. A male player behaving like that would have been fined," one fan added.

Rulebooks in both the WNBA and NBA have always been strict about player-fan arguments.

Back in 2019, Washington Wizards guard Isaiah Thomas was ejected and handed a two-game unpaid suspension just for walking into the seats to talk to a fan who was yelling at him.

"Protect who and from what? Someone wearing a t-shirt? Is this league for real?" one fan even asked after Marsh's post-game comments.

One fan believes Marsh was using his speech to hide how badly his team played on the court.

"Word salad. 'Don't fire me please,'" the fan wrote.

Chicago Sky lost the game one-sided, 90-113. The loss officially knocked them out of the playoff race for the year.

Written by

Md Saife Fida