Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has no issues with Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr.’s comments that his 8th-grade version would dominate against WNBA players.
Speaking on her “Show Me Something” podcast, Cunningham said that men are physically superior to women by nature. So if it’s a future pro like MPJ, he would already be a big guy in 8th grade and give even professional women’s basketball players fits if he played against them.
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“I mean, it’s probably true,” said Sophie. “I think, if you are a professional [athlete], if you’re in that elite level group, yeah you should be able to beat the girls! I’m not surprised by that. I don’t get why it’s continuing to get brought up. If women are saying, ‘yeah, he couldn’t beat us.’ Yes, he could. Any NBA star or player can beat a female in high school. The context of it is fair.” Â
Mike’s claim was at least two years off
Porter Jr. drew flak during his recent appearance on Lonzo Ball’s “Ball in the Family” podcast, when he doubled down on Zo, saying his 9th-grade version would be like Michael Jordan against WNBA players. But Porter took the boast further when he said that in his case, his 8th-grade self would do the same.
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MPJ said that he based his claim on experience because, as an 8th grader, he played against his sisters, who were varsity players at the University of Missouri. Several future WNBA stars, including Sophie, went crazy against them.
However, there was an inconsistency in that statement because Cunningham is just two years older than Porter, which means that during her freshman year in college, MPJ was already in 10th grade, two years behind his claim. Sophie did not address that on her podcast, but reiterated that Mike is right about his take on men versus women in basketball.
“Future pros [in 8th grade]? It depends on how big they are. If they’re going pro, they’re already pretty big. I would say that’s probably true. I don’t want to be unrealistic or delusional. Men are stronger, bigger, athletic — a bigger build. If you put them up against females, yeah, they’re gonna win. Duh,” she added.
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MPJ got called out by a WNBA star
But while Sophie agreed with Porter, five-time WNBA All-Star Angel McCoughtry lashed out at Porter for being obsessed with the conversation of men dominating women in basketball and advised him instead to celebrate women for being able to juggle playing hoops at a high level while experiencing things that men don’t.
“I think the only thing that should be coming out of a man’s mouth about women is uplifting her. I think the main thing we should be talking about a woman, guess what?” McCoughtry stated. “Let’s talk about how awesome it is that women, we have these babies and we come back and still dominate sports. Yeah, you can dunk. A lot of us can’t do that. But the awesome things we can do, let’s highlight that. Guess what? We are wives. So, it’s not easy to take care of a husband and kids and come and dominate a sport.”
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McCoughtry went on to say that the game’s all-time greats, such as Kobe Bryant, have never said anything to disrespect women’s basketball, and in fact, Bryant was a strong supporter of the women’s game. Maybe if he can’t praise women’s basketball like Kobe can, then perhaps “Curious Mike” might want to keep his thoughts to himself.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Nov 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the WNBA section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.