{"id":284375,"date":"2025-11-15T09:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/284375\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T09:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:01:09","slug":"sophie-cunningham-casts-dismal-forecast-for-2026-wnba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/284375\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham casts dismal forecast for 2026 WNBA season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5z\">Not everyone is sure that the WNBA will play at all in 2026 \u2014 at least, that&#8217;s what Sophie Cunningham told Front Office Sports in an <a href=\"https:\/\/frontofficesports.com\/sophie-cunningham-interview-wnba-project-b\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">interview published November 14<\/a>. In addition to the ongoing CBA negotiations, Cunningham addressed a few key topics, including her future with the Indiana Fever and the rumors surrounding Project B.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">Cunningham made it clear that when it comes to CBA negotiations, things are not progressing at a pace that seems particularly helpful or even appropriate. She noted that her understanding is the last time the WNBA and the leaders of the WNBPA met was &#8220;two weeks ago&#8221; and said, &#8220;I know our execs are talking with their people every single day. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s been much movement. I think at least there\u2019s communication. So that\u2019s the biggest thing for us. But, normally we don\u2019t have meetings unless something big is happening or if they need to update us on what they\u2019re talking about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sophie Cunningham addressed her future with the Fever<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">Cunningham also admitted that there is &#8220;a lot of uncertainty&#8221; when it comes to the WNBA&#8217;s 2026 season, which makes it more difficult to know if she can plan to be on the Indiana Fever next year. Like most of the league, Cunningham will be a free agent, and her spot on the team isn&#8217;t guaranteed. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">&#8220;There is a lot of uncertainty, like you said, with the CBA, with the money, if we&#8217;re even going to have a league next year,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And then people want to come back, we&#8217;re trying to keep our core together.&#8221; The Fever battled through several season-ending injuries, <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/fever-s-sophie-cunningham-quieted-the-haters-despite-shortened-season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">including Cunningham&#8217;s own<\/a>, and put in a strong performance during the WNBA Playoffs this season. If the team can retain its core, they could end up doing the same next season \u2014 or achieving even more.<\/p>\n<p>Sophie Cunningham doesn&#8217;t see a problem with Project B<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">Cunningham also spoke about Project B, the <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/project-b-cannot-should-not-be-the-future-of-women-basketball\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">latest professional women&#8217;s basketball league<\/a> that&#8217;s been announced. Not too many details are available yet about the league, but it was hashed out by a group of investors who initially hoped to create a rival to the NBA. When that didn&#8217;t work, they turned their attention to the W and women&#8217;s basketball. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">For Cunningham, the appeal of the new league is financial. (Project B is reportedly offering some players $2-3 million salaries to participate in the league from November-April 2026). &#8220;I don\u2019t know too much about it,&#8221; Cunningham admitted. &#8220;You know, you see stuff on social media, but I also know how social media goes. So you got to take it with a grain of salt. But, you know, if people are going to be paying you multi-million dollar deals, why would you not?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not everyone is sure that the WNBA will play at all in 2026 \u2014 at least, that&#8217;s what&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-284375","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\/284375","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=284375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}