{"id":327544,"date":"2026-08-22T21:46:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327544\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T21:46:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:46:28","slug":"wnba-team-reveals-new-mascot-to-taunt-indiana-fever-star-sophie-cunningham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327544\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA team reveals new mascot to taunt Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Tempo debuted a new \u201cnon-binary\u201d mascot ahead of their WNBA matchup with the Indiana Fever in an apparent swipe at controversial star Sophie Cunningham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tempo revealed Dez, a butch, non-binary Borealis Blue Snapping Turtle who uses she\/they pronouns and \u201chas a fondness for soft shell tacos,\u201d the team said in an Tuesday announcement unveiling the new mascot.<\/p>\n

Dez also has a partner in crime, anthropomorphic arctic hare named Dot who uses standard she\/her pronouns.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Tempo reveal new non-binary mascot, Dez, during the game against the Indiana Fever on Tuesday, NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dez is a Taurus, the team made sure to include in its announcement.<\/p>\n

It joins the Seattle Storm\u2019s Doppler as the only two non-binary mascots in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

The Tempo made a point to announce the new, queer turtle totem during their home game against the Indiana Fever \u2014 and their guard Cunningham<\/a> who has been outspoken about defending girls and women\u2019s sports from transgender athletes.<\/p>\n

The Fever beat the Tempo, 101-95.<\/p>\n

Dot (left) is Dez\u2019s partner in crime but identifies using she\/her pronouns, according to the Toronto Tempo. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cunningham scored 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting, going 3-for-3 from behind the arc while snatching two rebounds and dishing out two more assists.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Missouri native set off the ongoing controversy \u2014 rallies backing and bashing Cunningham have popped up at several Fever road games \u2014 with comments made during an interview earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has been at the center of a firestorm since she spoke out in defense of women\u2019s and girls\u2019 sports. AP Photo\/LM Otero<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn\u2019t have to go against biological men,\u201d she told ESPN<\/a> on Aug. 5, later defending her remarks as \u201ccommon sense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is room for absolutely everyone here, and I think there is room to love everyone,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI truly think when you get people in the same room and you have conversations, you actually have a lot in common with a lot of people. And so I\u2019m there to love.<\/p>\n

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Those comments, which align with the overwhelming majority of popular opinion in America, were not welcomed by WNBA players. <\/p>\n

On Aug. 8, the league\u2019s players\u2019 union issued a statement, writing in part, \u201cWe embrace justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham, meanwhile, was on the receiving end of a flagrant foul<\/a> from Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington, who was thrown out of the game after clotheslining the Fever star \u2014 and immediately took to social media in the locker room to call out \u201cwhite privilege.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Tempo debuted a new \u201cnon-binary\u201d mascot ahead of their WNBA matchup with the Indiana Fever in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[40002,9,11,10,64829,319,9889,58,77798],"class_list":["post-327544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-mascots","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-transgender","tag-us-news","tag-wnba-draft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}