Natasha Cloud was vocal Tuesday night after being left off the WNBA All-Star game roster.
The reserves were announced earlier in the day, and while her Washington Mystics teammate Ariel Atkins received her second straight All-Star selection, Cloud did not make the cut for the game, which is set for July 10 in Chicago.
Still, Cloud showed out Tuesday for the Mystics. She scored a team-leading 18 points on 6-for-7 shooting to help Washington to a 92-74 blowout of Atlanta.
She was particularly potent early, scoring 11 points in the first quarter – matching her season average for points per game – as the Dream double-teamed Elena Delle Donne. But the league-leader in assists (7.3 per game) finished with just three of them – snapping her 23-game streak of five or more assists, the third longest streak in WNBA history.
“I think my emphasis was, I was a little bit pissed off today. I’m an All-Star,” Cloud said on the court postgame, before being interrupted by Shakira Austin and Myisha Hines-Allen yelling, “She’s a shooter!”
“I play both ends of the floor,” Cloud continued. “Teams have to prepare for me every single night. I lead this league in assists. So, if y’all needed to see that I can score – I can score too. I’m the floor general though.”
"I was a little bit pissed off today. I'm an All-Star." @T_Cloud4 made a STATEMENT tonight 💯 pic.twitter.com/Y7A0NswgZ9— ESPN (@espn) June 29, 2022
"I was a little bit pissed off today. I'm an All-Star." @T_Cloud4 made a STATEMENT tonight 💯 pic.twitter.com/Y7A0NswgZ9
She later re-emphasized her point in the post game press conference.
“I’m going to show up and I’m going to do my job every single night, regardless [of] if people respect me or not,” she said. “I just think people don’t respect that I impact the full stat sheet. I play both ends of the floor. You’ll have to prepare for me on defense, and you’ll have to prepare for me on offense, regardless of whether I’m scoring or not, because I facilitate our offense.”
Her work in facilitating the offense showed up in a different way Tuesday, which Cloud used to further emphasize her All-Star credentials. It would have been her first selection.
“I thought this was my year, and it’s all politics,” she said. “At some point you have to advocate for yourself, so that’s what I’ve been doing all season long.”
Cloud isn’t the only strong player to be left off the list of All-Stars.
Not a single player from the Indiana Fever was selected, despite Kelsey Mitchell averaging 19.2 points per game – good for fourth in the league – and 4.1 assists. She’s been a lone bright spot for a 5-15 Fever team that is currently last in the league standings. Mitchell, like Cloud, has never been selected for the All-Star game.
Allisha Gray was another big-name snub, with the Olympic gold medalist currently averaging 14.5 points and 5.6 assists per game for Dallas.