Sophie Cunningham’s season with the Indiana Fever may be over, but that hasn’t stopped the controversial WNBA star from speaking her mind.
With the Fever eliminated from the WNBA playoffs by the Las Vegas Aces last week, Cunningham is now calling out players for not being able to handle the spotlight that has come with the league’s growing popularity.
“If you’re asking for all these fans to come and you have new fans, who are real sports fans, and they come and do something that a sports fan would probably do if you’re on the opposing team and then we’re gonna go for them for just pointing, saying that you fouled, like, grow up!” Cunningham said during an episode of the No Hesitation podcast. “What are we doing? Like, we ask for all these things and then once people come out and support us, we get mad, and it’s inappropriate.
“And then us athletes (say we) need to be treated better (and) these fans need to be more supportive and not say anything negative.”
Cunningham added that she has “heard the worst of the worst” and experienced all kinds of backlash from fans.
“I can say this because I hands down have probably got s— on the entire season, maybe sometimes two seasons, of people coming after who I am, my character, what I stand for … I’ve heard the worst of the worst,” she said.
“It’s part of it. It’s part of it. Like, who cares? Who cares? Like you should be grateful to be on this platform. You should be grateful to be playing basketball for a living and inspiring the next generation.”
Without naming names, Cunningham appears to have been calling out Aces superstar A’ja Wilson, who confronted a fan during Game 2 of their playoff series.
After being called for a foul against Cunningham, Wilson angerly approached a fan sitting courtside and had a heated verbal confrontation.
Why did Cunningham say the Fever lost?
Cunningham, who is teammates with WNBA superstars Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, also blamed the league’s FIBA World Cup break for cooling off the Fever’s momentum heading into the playoffs.
The league hit pause on its season during the stretch run for roughly three weeks, allowing players like Clark and Boston to compete for Team USA.
Cunningham said the pause disrupted the rhythm of an Indiana team that had gone 12-4 in the 16 games prior to the tournament.
“We were so good and it was so much fun,” Cunningham said. “It was so much fun and the squad really loved each other.
“I don’t want to say this, I think FIBA kind of hurt our momentum a little bit. Maybe we peaked too soon … But we really did have a hell of a year and I had so much fun.”