{"id":833133,"date":"2026-07-30T09:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T09:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833133\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T09:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T09:25:09","slug":"storm-apologize-after-co-owner-berates-teen-girls-for-support-of-cunningham-basketball-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833133\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm apologize after co-owner berates teen girls for support of Cunningham | Basketball News"},"content":{"rendered":"

WNBA basketball team Seattle Storm apologize after co-owner berates girls with \u2018thank you\u2019 sign for Sophie Cunningham.<\/p>\n

Published On 30 Jul 202630 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

The Seattle Storm has issued an apology statement, one day after one of their co-owners verbally accosted two teenage female fans \u2060with expletives because they \u2060were holding signs supporting the views of Indiana\u2019s Sophie Cunningham during a home game against the Fever.<\/p>\n

The teenagers each had a sign, one saying \u201cThank You Sophie \u2060for speaking up for girls!\u201d Cunningham recently went to bat for the protection of women\u2019s sports and keeping them female only.<\/p>\n

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Independent journalist Brandi Kruse reported that minority owner Celeste Keaton told the girls \u2060they were \u201cf\u2014ing insane\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware one of our co-owners made comments to two fans in attendance at last night\u2019s game,\u201d Storm majority owner Ginny Gilder said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologize that this happened. Everyone who attends a Storm game deserves to feel welcome, and we remain committed to creating an \u200cinclusive environment where every fan is treated with respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kruse told Fox News that the scene included Seattle players making thumbs-down gestures to the girls. Some fans also made their opinions known.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the fans were relentlessly booing at them,\u201d Kruse told Fox News. \u201cAnd I kind of turned around and said, \u2018Look, they\u2019re just teenage girls.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FanGuard Sophie Cunningham in action for Indiana Fever in the WNBA [Trevor Ruszkowski\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Last year, a New York Times poll suggested that 79% of Americans don\u2019t want men playing in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

The issue was recently \u2060in the news when the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June \u2060that states can ban transgender athletes from participating in women\u2019s and girls\u2019 sports.<\/p>\n

During a recent interview with ESPN, Cunningham weighed in about women\u2019s sports, emphasising girls should never have to compete with biological men.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a lot of \u2060negative feedback about me hating trans,\u201d Cunningham told ESPN. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018I never once said that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that I am here to extend love. \u2060But I also think with that love is truth, being \u2060honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn\u2019t have to go against biological men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham received a mix of cheers and jeers during Wednesday\u2019s game, which was won 105-95 by \u200cthe Fever. There was a rally outside the arena before the game, where proponents of women\u2019s sports had signs thanking Cunningham for speaking up for girls and women. Pro-transgender activists were also on the scene.<\/p>\n

The Fever did not allow Cunningham to face questions after the game. She made three 3-pointers and scored 11 points.<\/p>\n

The Storm (6-24) lost their seventh straight game and own the worst record in the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA basketball team Seattle Storm apologize after co-owner berates girls with \u2018thank you\u2019 sign for Sophie Cunningham. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,44,588,85,1055,6075],"class_list":["post-833133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833133","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=833133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}