{"id":40611,"date":"2025-08-02T00:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/40611\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T00:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:35:08","slug":"sophie-cunningham-calls-caitlin-clark-critics-dumb-as-f-if-they-think-shes-not-the-face-of-the-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/40611\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham Calls Caitlin Clark Critics \u2018Dumb as F&#8212;\u2019 If They Think She\u2019s Not the Face of the WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<p>Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said people who don&#8217;t think Caitlin Clark is the face of the WNBA are &#8220;dumb as f&#8212;&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Clark&#8217;s teammate said she&#8217;s seen first hand how players around the league want to show Clark &#8220;what the W really is&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham said the treatment towards Clark is &#8220;too much&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/sophie-cunningham-claps-back-wnba-over-tiktok-fine-11778255\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sophie Cunningham;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sophie Cunningham<\/a> had some strong words for <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/caitlin-clark-8640752\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Caitlin Clark;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Caitlin Clark<\/a>&#8216;s critics.<\/p>\n<p>On the debut episode of her podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0jtH1N_anlU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Show Me Something;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Show Me Something<\/a>, co-hosted by Bravo star West Wilson, Cunningham, 28, slammed the idea that her Indiana Fever teammate isn&#8217;t the &#8220;face of&#8221; the WNBA.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It literally pisses me off when people are like, &#8216;She&#8217;s not the face of the league,'&#8221; said Cunningham. &#8220;We have a lot of badasses in our league, and hell yeah, I&#8217;m all for that, but when people try to argue that she&#8217;s not the face of our league or that our league would be where we&#8217;re at without her, you&#8217;re dumb as shit. You&#8217;re literally dumb as f&#8212;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham, who <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/wnba-sophie-cunningham-and-bravo-star-west-wilson-announce-new-podcast-exclusive-11781210\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:recently told PEOPLE;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">recently told PEOPLE<\/a> she&#8217;s gotten her Fever teammates watching her co-host on Summer House, also said she&#8217;s seen first-hand that some players in the league give Clark, 23, a tougher time on the court because of her stardom.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even when I wasn\u2019t on her team, I know the talks that Phoenix had in the locker room, like, &#8216;No we&#8217;re gonna show her what the W really is,'&#8221; Cunningham revealed.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Chris Coduto\/Getty Sophie Cunningham defends Caitlin Clark on June 30, 2024\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/773ab924d84d16bfcca4e01a8522849e.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chris Coduto\/Getty<\/p>\n<p> Sophie Cunningham defends Caitlin Clark on June 30, 2024<\/p>\n<p>The guard, who is in her first year with Indiana, said she understands the mentality &#8220;to a certain extent,&#8221; and that &#8220;every rookie coming into a league&#8221; will experience some level of on-court hazing from veterans. &#8220;But there&#8217;s just more for her,&#8221; said Cunnginham. &#8220;It&#8217;s her second year, and now being on her team and seeing it, I&#8217;m like, &#8216;What are people doing?&#8217; It&#8217;s too much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham said she&#8217;s &#8220;over it&#8221; and added, &#8220;If I&#8217;m saying it&#8217;s too much, then it&#8217;s probably too much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Clark has generally rejected suggestions that players are being rougher with her when her fans have complained about the lack of calls for the Fever star, chalking up <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/caitlin-clark-poked-in-the-eye-pushed-to-the-floor-during-tense-wnba-skirmish-11757172\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:injuries like a poked eye;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">injuries like a poked eye<\/a> to competitive play in the league.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Joe Buglewicz\/Getty Caitlin Clark plays on Sept. 25, 2024 in Connecticut\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/9db70f1a3351593964189dc15b7c6ec1.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joe Buglewicz\/Getty<\/p>\n<p> Caitlin Clark plays on Sept. 25, 2024 in Connecticut<\/p>\n<p>In July, Clark was voted the ninth best guard in the league in a survey voted on by WNBA players. Legendary sports broadcaster <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/dick-vitale-slams-wnba-players-ranking-caitlin-clark-9th-best-11764791\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dick Vitale said Clark finished in ninth place because of jealousy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dick Vitale said Clark finished in ninth place because of jealousy<\/a> from others in the league. \u201cAbsolutely PURE JEALOUSY that \u2066@WNBA\u2069 players voted Caitlin Clark the 9th best guard,\u201d Vitale, 86, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DickieV\/status\/1939859393241067820\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:wrote;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">wrote<\/a>. \u201cSome day they will realize what she has done for ALL of the players in the WNBA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/people-app.onelink.me\/HNIa\/kz7l4cuf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/people-app.onelink.me\/HNIa\/kz7l4cuf;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/people-app.onelink.me\/HNIa\/kz7l4cuf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And after the All-Star Game on July 19, <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/kelsey-plum-sparks-outrage-dig-team-caitlin-clark-wnba-all-star-game-meeting-11775978\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:fans slammed Sparks star Kelsey Plum;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">fans slammed Sparks star Kelsey Plum<\/a> when she, unprompted, revealed that players on Clark&#8217;s All-Star team were not in attendance for a players-only meeting to discuss wearing statement shirts amid their fight for higher pay. \u00a0&#8220;Not to tattletale; zero members of Team Clark were very present for that,&#8221; Plum, 30, told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Fans said the comment was &#8220;unnecessary&#8221; and accused Plum of &#8220;throwing other players under the bus&#8221; during a moment that was meant to be united. &#8220;They\u2019re already showing cracks in this &#8216;united front,&#8217; &#8221;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/zabmoto\/status\/1946972219868934271\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:wrote;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">wrote<\/a>\u00a0one user.<\/p>\n<p>Another fan\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rendawg90\/status\/1947017864415990069\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:said;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">said<\/a>, &#8220;I don\u2019t think creating any division among players is the right move when discussing this topic that impacts everyone in the league.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/sophie-cunningham-calls-caitlin-clark-critics-dumb-11782687\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:People;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said people who don&#8217;t think Caitlin Clark is the face&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,735,48,4785,2803,631,10879,82,630,11043],"class_list":["post-40611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-connecticut","tag-indiana-fever","tag-kelsey-plum","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611","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=40611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}