Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has gained a ton of popularity recently after coming to the defense of WNBA star and teammate, Caitlin Clark.
However, Cunningham has also ruffled some feathers along the way and is now drawing the ire of two major U.S. cities: Cleveland and Detroit.
When asked about the WNBA’s plan to expand with three new teams, including one in Detroit (2029) and one in Cleveland (2028), Cunningham’s response was not exactly an endorsement of either one.
“You want to listen to your players, too. Where do they want to play? Where are they going to get excited to play and draw fans? I do think that Miami would have been a great (location). Nashville is an amazing city. Kansas City, amazing opportunity,” Cunningham said.
“I’m not so sure what the thought process is there, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you’re not expanding our league too fast,” she added. “I think that that’s also another thing. It’s kind of a hard decision-making situation. But man, I don’t know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or (Cleveland).”
As you’d expect, that did not draw a positive reaction. In fact, the X accounts of both cities have since responded, as have athletes who play in them.
“Team not even here yet and we already got haters,” the Detroit Lions said on X.
“You ever been there? Pretty good place to play, well not for you now,” tackle Dan Skipper said.
“The last time we were home to a WNBA team (Detroit Shock) we ranked top five in attendance for five straight seasons, No. 1 in attendance for three straight seasons and set a single-game attendance record of 22,076 fans at Game 3 of the 2003 WNBA Finals,” the City of Detroit replied.
“Additionally more than 775,000 people were excited to come to Detroit for the 2024 NFL draft. Detroit is a sports town,” the city’s account added. “We’re sure we’ll see the same excitement for the WNBA returning.”
The City of Cleveland and current and former Cavaliers players, Donovan Mitchell and Tristan Thompson, have also since responded to Cunningham’s comment, with all three parties defending Cleveland.
Safe to say, Cunningham has stepped on quite the hornet’s nest. We’ll see if she tries to walk her comment back, but it’ll likely be too little, too late if she does.
