‘Bigotry pays the bills’: Sophie Cunningham gets blasted for struggling since trans comments

The Indiana Fever looked to have turned the corner heading into the home stretch of the regular season, but have now dropped two straight games, both to title contenders in the Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces, and concern is mounting that Indiana isn’t an actual title contender.

A lot of the coverage surrounding the Fever has centered on comments that reserve guard Sophie Cunningham made about transgender athlete participation in women’s sports in a July 21 ESPN profile.

“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.”

Days later, Cunningham doubled down on her stance.

“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” she told local media. “And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. I stand on what I said.”

After the comments led to nothing short of a nationwide controversy, Cunningham has since called for the focus to return to the actual basketball being played on the floor.

“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.”

“The Riley Gaines of the WNBA”

Unfortunately, the reserve guard is not playing high-level basketball at the moment. In Sunday’s loss to the Lynx, she scored jsut three points in 23 minutes, and in Thursday’s loss to the Aces she scored just two points, failing to make a single field goal. Now, fans on social media are wondering if her heart is really in basketball.

“Most mediocre athlete ever with a shoe deal of any sport… ever! Racism and bigotry pays the bills,” one fan posted on X.

“She should look for some other career. Basketball ain’t for her,” another fan added.

“She’s The Riley Gaines of the WNBA!!!!” someone else posted.

There’s still some time to refind her footing and make meaningful contributions to her team, but if Cunningham can’t do it soon she may she herself fall out of Indiana’s rotation, and with her on a one-year deal, that may mean the end of her time in Indiana.

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