‘It just makes me sad’: Sophie Cunningham sounds off on state of WNBA after trans comments

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham sparked a controversy with her comments on transgender athlete participation in women’s sports in a July 21 profile published by ESPN.

“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” she said in the feature. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

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Since the initial comments, everyone from her podcast co-host to the White House has weighed in on the hot-button topic, and rallies in support of Cunningham have been held outside of the arenas Indiana is set to play in before the Fever’s games.

On Wednesday, after weeks of the debate continuing with seemingly no end, Cunningham called on the focus to return to basketball.

“I think the WNBA media, all we ever do is cover everything except basketball, and it’s like, what, like, what are we doing?” Cunningham asked at practice on Wednesday. “There’s so much, like, you can talk about other things. I think those are great stories. I think It shows fans, you know, who people are outside of the court. But I also think we got to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Interestingly, Cunningham is a part of the media herself, with featured appearances on USA Network. In an appearance on the network on Tuesday, Cunningham was asked about the Seattle Storm minority owner who reportedly verbally berated two young fans for holding pro-Cunningham signs at a Storm-Fever game, and was suspended for five Storm home games by the WNBA for the incident.

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“I know that people are not always going to align and agree. I totally understand that. But I think the most important thing is of having that respect, having that love, and pursuing peace in these conversations, in these debates, because I think that is healthy.

“Now, with that being said, I just hate how the W, the basketball of it all, is just getting overshadowed. I think that you were seeing teams playing at the highest level they’ve ever played at. You see, uh, great basketball, the most elite level basketball this league has ever seen.

“And it just makes me sad that all this kind of drama in, um, on things that truly don’t matter are getting overshadowed, that the basketball is getting overshadowed. And so My biggest thing is love and respect. I think there’s room for absolutely everybody. We don’t always have to agree, but that respect and love definitely has to be there.”