![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/84de41489ec0c5ab0127401e05e98852.jpeg\"\/)
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From left, injured Indiana Fever forward Chloe Bibby, guard Caitlin Clark and guard Sophie Cunningham support their team from the sidelines.Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
In an interview with Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports<\/a>, Cunningham admitted why the Fever may never get a chance to see what their roster could do if fully healthy.<\/p>\n “If people want to come back, we\u2019re trying to keep our core together,” Cunningham said. “But, you know, when money is waved in people\u2019s faces, you just never know.”<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Much of the uncertainty is tied to ongoing negotiations between the WNBA and its players over a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The majority of the league, including Cunningham and other key Fever players, is entering free agency anticipating higher salaries in a new CBA.<\/p>\n For example, Cunningham played on a one-year, $100,000 contract<\/a> with the Fever in 2025 \u2014 tied for third-largest annual salary on the team. One reported proposal would increase the supermax salary from $249,244 to $850,000 in the new CBA, meaning Cunningham could reasonably triple or quadruple her salary next season. The question that remains is which team will offer her the sweetest deal.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In her exit interview<\/a> with the Fever in October, Cunningham said she “can\u2019t just not look at other opportunities” when free agency arrives.<\/p>\n “If people are going to be paying you multi-million dollar deals, why would you not?” Cunningham told Costabile of players joining rival leagues this offseason, offering another lens into her thinking.<\/p>\n Whatever the salary cap ends up being in a potential new CBA, Indiana will have to decide where to prioritize its money between Cunningham and other free agents<\/a>. Max player Kelsey Mitchell and key contributors Natasha Howard, Lexie Hull, Damiris Dantas and Aari McDonald are not under contract. On the bright side, All-Stars Clark and Aliyah Boston are still on relatively cheap rookie deals, offering some crucial flexibility.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Related: Sophie Cunningham Addresses Future With Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever<\/a><\/p>\n Related: Sophie Cunningham Teases New Career Amid WNBA Offseason<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Nov 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the WNBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham’s first season with the Indiana Fever was one to remember, but the injured team could not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[21316,4655,49,735,48,4233,31924,21318,2803,4650,3460,7086,11578,10879,82,630,15457,26214],"class_list":["post-286419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aari-mcdonald","tag-aliyah-boston","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-cba","tag-chloe-bibby","tag-damiris-dantas","tag-indiana-fever","tag-kelsey-mitchell","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-lexie-hull","tag-natasha-howard","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-finals","tag-wnba-playoffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286419","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=286419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}