FOR WNBA veteran Natasha Cloud, speaking up about social justice is just as important as winning basketball games.

Cloud has had a successful nine-year pro career that includes a WNBA championship and being the career-assists leader for her former Washington Mystics. She has also used her platform for social justice advocacy — from sitting out the 2020 WNBA season to focus on community reform efforts, to joining protests after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

If winning “is all I do with my career, then I have failed,” said Cloud, who now plays for the Connecticut Sun. “Who would I be to not utilise practice time and camera time and all these things to create change within the communities that mean the most to me?”