{"id":830780,"date":"2026-07-29T07:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830780\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T07:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:36:17","slug":"fever-do-not-answer-questions-about-pro-cunningham-rally-ahead-of-105-95-win-against-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830780\/","title":{"rendered":"Fever do not answer questions about pro-Cunningham rally ahead of 105-95 win against Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark were not made available to answer postgame questions about a rally before the Indiana Fever’s 105-95 win over the Seattle Storm on Tuesday night<\/a> in support of Cunningham’s recent comments about transgender athletes.<\/p>\n

A crowd of a few dozen gathered outside Climate Pledge Arena to both support Cunningham and promote statewide Initiatives 638 and 011, which would bar transgender students from participating in girls\u2019 athletics at Washington schools. <\/p>\n

Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports in an ESPN article published last week.<\/a> Cunningham was booed by Storm fans when she checked into Tuesday\u2019s game, as well as when attempting her first free throws of the night. <\/p>\n

Media members asked to speak to Cunningham and Clark postgame, but neither player was made available. Kelsey Mitchell and Monique Billings addressed the media instead, alongside head coach Stephanie White.<\/p>\n

When White was asked about the rally and Cunningham\u2019s recent comments, a Fever public relations representative intervened with the following statement: <\/p>\n

\u201cNeither our organization nor Sophie had any knowledge of this demonstration and no contact with its organizers,\u201d the statement said. \u201cOur only goal as a team, whether at home or away, is to win basketball games and make Fever fans for life, and we are united in that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storm head coach Sonia Raman answered a question about the pregame protest following her team\u2019s seventh consecutive loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cSeattle and this organization and Climate Pledge, we always want to be an area where people feel welcome coming into this building,\u201d Raman said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve always done a really good job with that. So, I know our organization was working closely with Climate Pledge and the security just to make sure that everybody feels safe and included and welcome when they walk in this door. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I understand, that was successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heather Weiner, a spokesperson for No Hate in Washington State, a coalition of doctors, nurses, anti-domestic violence groups and other community organizations opposing statewide Initiatives 638 and 011, found it to be a positive experience on the whole outside Climate Pledge Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington State is a very caring, inclusive place,\u201d Weiner said. \u201cWe don\u2019t always agree, but we do agree against hate, and we will come together about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark were not made available to answer postgame questions about a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,37410,403744,22405,15392,1628,85,276748,98429],"class_list":["post-830780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-gender","tag-gender-in-sports","tag-lgbtq","tag-protests-and-demonstrations","tag-s","tag-sports","tag-wnba-basketball","tag-youth-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}