{"id":926992,"date":"2026-10-09T21:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926992\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T21:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:36:11","slug":"sophie-cunningham-calls-out-thirsty-critics-in-video-ahead-of-2027-wnba-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926992\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham Calls Out &#8216;Thirsty&#8217; Critics in Video Ahead of 2027 WNBA Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Ahead of her potential foray into WNBA free agency, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham addressed her detractors on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Speaking during the latest episode of No Hesitation with Sophie Cunningham and Drew Hanlen (beginning at the 2:30 mark of the podcast), Cunningham suggested that she is no longer concerning herself with fan criticism:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">&#8220;That&#8217;s why I literally don&#8217;t even care what anyone says about me anymore,&#8221; Cunningham said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve said this so many times, if you&#8217;re going to live by the praise, you&#8217;re going to die by the hate. The majority of these people have never picked up a ball in their entire lives, and they&#8217;re just, like, thirsty to have attention or be relevant in some type of way. No matter what anyone says to me, I&#8217;m gonna continue to do me. I know what I bring to the table. It&#8217;s not always in the stat sheet. So for you to not say I&#8217;m effective or any of that, whatever. Suck it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Cunningham, 30, is an eight-year WNBA veteran who has spent the past two seasons with the Fever, following a six-year run as a member of the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">She started a career-low three of the 43 games she appeared in for Indiana this past season, but she was a key contributor off the bench nonetheless, averaging 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.6 three-pointers made and 1.2 assists per game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Cunningham&#8217;s biggest contribution was her work from behind the arc, as she shot 41.9 percent from distance, which ranked fifth in the WNBA season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">She has shot 40 percent or better from downtown in a season four times in her career, which figures to make her a sought-after commodity on the free-agent market by the Fever or potentially even a different team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The Fever&#8217;s 2026 season came to an end last week when they fell to the Las Vegas Aces in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Star players Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston are under contract for Indiana next season, but Cunningham is eligible for free agency, as is four-time All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">If one or both of Cunningham and Mitchell sign elsewhere, the Fever could have a much different look next season, even with Clark and Boston still in the fold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of her potential foray into WNBA free agency, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham addressed her detractors on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-926992","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\/926992","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=926992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}