Sophie Cunningham must leave Fever 'circus' so team can focus on basketball, The Athletic columnist says
"If the Fever ever want to go back to being a basketball team again and follow the lead of rivals openly clashing with the forces trying to hijack their league, then (Sophie) Cunningham has to go."
- The Athletic's Candace Buckner
There's a great deal of media that truly despises Cunningham and her supporters. The soon-to-be WNBA free agent is likely the second-most popular player in the league, and perhaps the least popular in certain circles of the press.
She's pretty. She speaks out against some of the media's most sacred issues and cows. And she truly does not care what critics think. That's a combo that will quickly put your mug on a journalist's dartboard.
Tuesday morning, Buckner was the latest to attack Cunningham in a column that was as hostile as it was hyperbolic. Her thesis was that the "combustible" guard had become too much of a distraction for the Fever to prioritize basketball.
"This was the season when the Fever and even the whole Caitlin Clark experience took a backseat to a bench player with big opinions," Buckner wrote.
Big opinions, huh? Like what?
SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM SENDS MESSAGE TO HER HATERS AFTER SAYING MEN DON'T BELONG IN WOMEN'S SPORTS
Like Cunningham thinking biological males should be separated from females in sports? This is something the vast majority of the country — including the majority of Democrats — agree with. And it's not like Cunningham grabbed a megaphone to announce her stance to the world. She simply answered a question about the subject in an ESPN interview and stood by it after some boos and backlash.
Or that she thinks WNBA players should grow thicker skin? Players have griped about online harassment all season long. And last week, Aces forward A'ja Wilson furiously charged toward a Fever fan after he pointed at her and said "that (foul) is on you."
But on her podcast Sunday, Cunningham called Wilson out and said that if WNBA players want to be held in the same regard as their male counterparts, they have to learn to accept the heat that comes with being a professional athlete.
"I hands down have probably got s— on the entire season, maybe sometimes two seasons of people coming after who I am, my character, x-y-z and I can go on and on," Cunningham said. "I've heard the worst of the worst — it's part of it."
These aren't the words of a woman devoid of empathy. They're the words of a woman speaking candidly about the price of the spotlight.
And fans can't get enough of her.
Cunningham's signature sneakers sold out on Adidas' website on its first day. She is regularly sought out for autographs, which she signs with an incessant smile. She has 4.4 million TikTok followers and another 4.3 on Instagram.
She isn't "combustible" — she's beloved. At least by those who don't write about sports for a living.
Buckner said that Cunningham's positions have spawned a "circus" due to figures such as women's-sports activist Riley Gaines— who the writer refers to as a "one-hit wonder" — attending her games. She added that the Trump administration's X account sharing Cunningham's pointing meme was a sign that "things took a wrong turn." She also seemed to justify Wilson's behavior toward the aforementioned fan, arguing that Wilson was shouting at all Fever fans because of "the trans fear that overshadowed the games for a long stretch of the season."
CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE
What do the kids say these days? "Sure, Jan."
This goes back to a point I made last week: The primary reason sports journalists hold Cunningham's fans in contempt is that they're perceived as conservative. But Buckner doesn't seem to like the person those fans are rooting for much better.
Regarding where Sophie should play next, Buckner wrote: "Go to Chicago, or Portland. Or maybe Toronto could use a 30-year-old unrestricted free agent who averages fewer than 8 points a game, while her latest TikTok videos are good for about 2 million views. Or perhaps expansion Cleveland can take her in 2028, unless of course, she hasn't already dropped basketball entirely by then to become a professional UFC ring girl, or full-time finger pointer."
THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!
Sorry, but that's pure resentment. For starters, Cunningham is actually an effective bench player, with her three-point percentage (.419) being fifth in the WNBA this season and her true-shooting percentage (.654) being third. And second — big deal that she has a massive TikTok following or did a one-round ring girl spot at a UFC event. This is called having fun. And if you think Cunningham is the only WNBA player using sex appeal to grab attention, take a look at the outfits some of her peers wear to the arena.
The truth is this: The Fever are no longer in the playoffs because they lost to a superior team in the Aces. Wilson — bar none the WNBA's best player — tallied 36 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks to oust Indiana in the final game of a best-of-three.
This wasn't because of fans wearing XX-XY shirts. This was just X's and O's.
I can't help but go back to the quote at the top of this column about how Fever fans are trying to "hijack" the WNBA. No. Fever fans are watching the WNBA, something that wasn't happening before.
The problem for certain players and writers is that these fans threaten the political homogeneity of a league long dedicated to left-wing ideals. Cunningham's critics will say that she's leading a cult. The reality is that she's breaking the cult.