Sophie Cunningham chose to enter the fray by speaking out against transgender athletes, and now she wants everyone else to stick to sports.
Cunningham has garnered massive right-wing media fame, especially after comments she made in a recently published article by ESPN, where the Indiana Fever guard expressed a desire to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” In the wake of those comments being published, Cunningham has doubled down on her opinion and seemingly embraced the attention.
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The discussion was heightened again this week when Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve met with Cunningham and wore a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt during their Sunday game against the Fever. Regardless of whether it was her intent at the time of making the inflammatory comments to ESPN, Cunningham now finds herself in the middle of a culture war, with conservative influencers rushing to put her on a pedestal. Those same conservative voices have already begun to turn on her Fever teammate Caitlin Clark for refusing to join Cunningham in speaking out against transgender athletes. And amid all of it, Cunningham is now ready to bring the focus back to basketball.
“There is so much good going on in the WNBA. I think basketball is being played at the highest level it’s ever been,” Cunningham told WISH-TV News in Indianapolis. “There’s just so much distraction. The WNBA media, all we ever do is cover everything except basketball. It’s like, what are we doing? You can talk about other things, I think those are great stories, it shows fans who people are outside of the court, but I also think we gotta keep the main thing the main thing.”
“I want to get back to basketball, it’s always been about basketball,” Cunningham insisted. “That interview happened in February when I was asked a question. And for me, I just want to make sure the focus stays where it should.”
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WNBA media has attempted to keep the focus on basketball. It’s the other media who embraces every hot-button issue that repeatedly takes the focus off basketball.
Cunningham is the one who decided to take the focus off basketball to enter a conversation around transgender athletes that has been hijacked by the right for political gain. And because she gave conservative media the quotes they sought on transgender athletes, Cunningham has been built up into a culture warrior. But now she’s attempting to put the toothpaste back in the tube by blaming WNBA media.
Clark kept the focus on basketball when she was asked about Cunningham. Now the same conservative media that forced Clark into becoming the center of a culture war she never asked for, is turning on her for not taking a stance against transgender athletes. It’s bold of Cunningham to welcome the attention Clark tried to pass off, only to now fault WNBA media for not keeping the focus on basketball. Cunningham is the one who went down this path, it’s not on WNBA media to bring her back.
The post Sophie Cunningham rips WNBA media for not sticking to sports appeared first on Awful Announcing.
