Relating to the face of the WNBA and the participant taking the league to new heights, the Indiana Fever’s Sophie Cunningham minces no phrases.
Cunningham says critics of teammate Caitlin Clark do not simply come from the stands or through social media both. There’s a resentment from gamers within the league that the seventh-year guard finds abhorrent.
“It actually pisses me off when persons are like, ‘She’s not the face of the league.’ What?” Cunningham stated on her new podcast, ‘Present Me One thing.’ “There’s actually good, well-known individuals in our league. I am not discrediting them. We have now a variety of badasses in our league. Hell yeah to that. I am all for that. However when individuals attempt to argue that she’s not the face of our league or our league could be the place we’re at with out her, you are dumb as s—. You are actually dumb as f—.”
Cunningham was with the Phoenix Mercury final season, when Clark was a rookie, and stated teammates deliberate to zero in on the younger star participant.
“I do know the talks Phoenix had of their locker room of, like, ‘We will present her what the W actually is,'” Cunningham stated. “I get it to a sure extent. Each rookie coming into the league, that is how you are going to deal with them. However there’s simply extra for her. It is her second 12 months. Now being on her staff and seeing it, I am like, ‘What are individuals doing?’ It is simply an excessive amount of.”
Cunningham got here to Clark’s protection on the court docket earlier this season in an incident with the Connecticut Solar’s Jacy Sheldon and Marina Mabrey.
Clark has been restricted to simply 13 video games due to a number of leg accidents and her 16.5 factors per recreation are under her 19.2 mark over 40 video games final season when she was named WNBA Rookie of the 12 months.
However inside these 13 video games was a matchup with Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky that drew 2.7 million viewers, making it essentially the most watched WNBA recreation in 25 years. Groups in smaller house arenas additionally transfer their video games to larger arenas for matchups with Clark and the Fever.
“That is what we have at all times needed as a league so like, who cares who will get the credit score,” Cunningham stated. “And if you happen to’re sensible [you know] you are creating wealth off them. … Simply be good. Why cannot individuals be good?”