![\"Dallas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/01k4anh4fpdrfcrh56yb.jpg\" "\\"Dallas")
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Aug 1, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (5) and Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) in action during the game between the Dallas Wings and the Indiana Fever at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Sophie Cunningham Explains What ‘Triggered’ Her Hate for WNBA Referees<\/p>\n
The fines Cunningham has received to this point haven’t kept her from continuing to be critical of the league’s referees. This was conveyed by something she said in a September 2 episode of her podcast. <\/p>\n
“If I say the word ‘ref’ on this podcast, I’m gonna get fined. So I might as well just go balls to the wall,” Cunningham said when asked about Lexie Hull’s double black eyes, which were the result of her clashing heads with Seattle Storm star Gabby Williams.<\/p>\n
She later added, “What kind of really pissed me off about last week are three things. And again, I was high on meds, but it still triggered my hate for the refs.” <\/p>\n
Cunningham went on to add, “What is kind of getting out of hand is that the refs are allowing it to be too physical, and then people can get away with certain stuff. And then that’s when emotions flare, and that’s when you see fights, or people things that they probably shouldn’t be doing.”<\/p>\n
She then explained how Hull was elbowed by Lynx player Kayla McBride during an August 24 game (one game before the head clash with Williams), and added, “That should have been upgraded. Because I know if that was anybody on our team \u2014\u00a0if it was me, probably because I talk s*** on here, and then my reputation \u2014 they probably would have thrown me out [of the game]. And so, that’s not okay.” <\/p>\n
In other words, Cunningham is saying that double standard that she and her Fever teammates are subject to when it comes to referees is what triggered her hate for them.<\/p>\n
And one can’t blame her for feeling that way. <\/p>\n
Recommended Reading:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever standout Sophie Cunningham is never afraid to express her frustration with WNBA referees, which has cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-119657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}