The WNBA, through no work of its own, has seen its cultural importance and fan interest surge the past few seasons. Thanks mostly to Caitlin Clark falling into their laps, attendance is up, there’s more revenue in the sport and media attention has grown exponentially.
And the league is committed to working tirelessly to squander it.
One of the other gifts the WNBA was given, again, through no work of its own, was Sophie Cunningham. Cunningham has become one of the faces of the league, to the point where a clip of her pointing her finger with an instantly-recognizable facial expression virtually took over the internet for a week. She’s smart, fun, clearly has a sense of humor and turned herself into a much-improved player with 48% shooting from the field and 44% from 3-point range.
WNBA STAR SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM’S PLAYER EXCLUSIVE ADIDAS SHOE SELLS OUT IN LESS THAN AN HOUR ONLINE
She’s also stood up for Caitlin Clark when some, uh, jealous opponents have gone after her with overly physical fouls or altercations, which instantly increased her popularity among Clark’s massive fan base.
Cunningham has chosen to respond to her newfound popularity and fame by demonstrating an impressive amount of courage. While many well-known female athletes, such as Megan Rapinoe, have used their platform to advocate for male athletes to dominate sports they no longer play, Cunningham told the truth.
“I think that I am here to extend love, but I also think that with 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,” Cunningham said in a recent interview with ESPN.
An opinion shared by 80–90% of the American public, and scientifically backed by the entire existence of human biology. Unsurprisingly, this common sense statement of objective reality was extremely unpopular with much of the WNBA, including the Seattle Storm.
When the Storm played the Indiana Fever recently, one of the team’s co-owners, Celeste Keaton, made profane, inappropriate remarks to fans seated courtside showing support for Cunningham. The Storm’s social media account approvingly posted a photo of center Stefanie Dolson wearing a “Trans Rights are Human Rights” T-shirt ahead of the game. They had little interest in other anti-biology fans harassing young kids expressing support for Cunningham.
How did Cunningham respond to this? By being exceptionally classy, honest and inclusive.
“I truly believe there is a safe space and love for EVERYBODY. Biological girls, biological boys, trans women, and trans men. Everyone is welcome at my table! You can disagree and still be kind. Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You’ll be hearing from me soon heart emoji yay for gifts. Truly embarrassing of the co-owner. Unfortunately shows the type of leader she is,” Cunningham wrote on X.
While the Storm issued a half-hearted “apology” and the league did suspend Keaton for the next five Storm home games, these minimal efforts have done little-to-nothing to repair the WNBA’s tattered reputation. Nor has there been any indication that the league will make some kind of permanent change to address their individual teams making overt, divisive political statements.
And it raises the question: At what point do the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver have a responsibility to step in?
Again, the WNBA has a golden opportunity in the current era to cement itself as a major sports league. Clark has raised its profile, and as more fans tune in to watch her play, the greater likelihood there is that they’ll become fans of the sport in general, not just her.
But with many of these new viewers coming from, say, the Midwest and South, what chance is there that they’ll become WNBA fans, not just Clark fans, if the league keeps demonstrating that it’s openly opposed to them and their views?
OutKick asked these exact questions to media relations representatives for both the NBA and WNBA. Should Adam Silver put his foot down if more team owners go after young fans for having different views on male participation in women’s sports?
Does the NBA want the WNBA as an institution, or its member teams, to be this political? Especially when those politics are so obviously and aggressively aligned with one side? Does the NBA, which subsidizes the WNBA, want it to potentially alienate fans?
Does the WNBA believe that ownership antagonizing young fans for having different views will grow interest in the league and does the WNBA believe that diversity and inclusion extends to those with different viewpoints, or is that entirely based on the league’s political priorities?
At what point does politics take a back seat to business? Or does it ever for the NBA and its affiliates?
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As of time of publishing, we had not received a response. Unsurprisingly. But we know what the response is. The NBA, and especially the WNBA, doesn’t care. They would rather alienate fans than stop advocating for progressive ideology.
Maybe the NBA could send Victor Wembanyama or Steph Curry or Luka Dončić or Anthony Edwards or Jalen Brunson over to the WNBA and see how they do. Would that be enough to demonstrate to the league, some of its fans, and apparently some of its owners, how absurd their views are? Is there anything that matters to them other than left-wing politics?
Increasingly, we’re finding that the answer is no. While the WNBA has done nothing to build Clark or Cunningham into the stars they are today, they’ve built a political hill, and they’re clearly willing to die on it.
