{"id":891468,"date":"2026-09-11T07:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/891468\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T07:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:12:14","slug":"sophie-cunningham-says-she-could-put-the-wnba-on-the-right-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/891468\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham says she could put the WNBA ‘on the right track’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the September 11 episode of No Hesitation posted on YouTube<\/a>, Cunningham listed a few changes she would make if she reached a position of power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She pointed out that some teams didn\u2019t have proper practice facilities and were forced to practice at YMCA facilities, with youth camps taking part on the other side of the curtains separating the spaces allotted to them.<\/p>\n

Cunningham further pointed out that some teams didn\u2019t have weight rooms either, making it more difficult for them to be at a similar level as teams with better facilities and opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Fever guard felt it was a failure on the WNBA\u2019s end, especially considering they claim to be the \u201cbest league in the entire world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanlen also pitched in with his own anecdote about his experience while practicing with Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton on the Fever practice gym. <\/p>\n

After practicing hard, he tried to get some Gatorade from the cooler, only to find it locked due to WNBA budget restraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018There is no way they locked the Gatorade cooler in the Fever practice gym, but y\u2019all have it locked up.\u2019 That is crazy to me,\u201d Hanlen said.<\/p>\n

Cunningham pointed out that the Fever\u2019s facility was probably among the best players could get next year, and believed that things were changing for the better, little by little.<\/p>\n

But that is not all that Cunningham had to say on the WNBA and team owners\u2019 failings.<\/p>\n

Sophie Cunningham lays out her expectations from the league and team owners<\/p>\n

During the same episode of the No Hesitation podcast, Cunningham also explained what she expected from the league and where they were falling short.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I will say there\u2019s a lot of owners who are still being very cheap and not giving us professional athletes what we need,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that having proper practice facilities was the bare minimum she expected. She also believed that league owners needed to connect with players and have the ability to withstand criticism, since it was a polarizing position to hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to have great character that is willing to withstand it all and uphold your values and what\u2019s best for the players,\u201d Cunningham added. \u201cIt definitely has to be someone who is in great communication with the players because at the end of the day we should be joining forces. We should be working together to grow this league to the best of its ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she believes that league owners also need to be bolder, they could begin by just being friendly people that players could approach with their concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the September 11 episode of No Hesitation posted on YouTube, Cunningham listed a few changes she would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-891468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891468","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=891468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}