{"id":395154,"date":"2026-01-08T12:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395154\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:41:15","slug":"indiana-fever-star-sophie-cunningham-makes-announcement-amid-wnba-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395154\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever Star Sophie Cunningham Makes Announcement Amid WNBA Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/tag\/sophie-cunningham\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sophie Cunningham;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sophie Cunningham<\/a> watched as the <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/wnba\/indiana-fever\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Indiana Fever;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Indiana Fever<\/a> produced one of the more surprising runs of the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/wnba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WNBA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">WNBA<\/a> playoffs, pushing the eventual champion <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/wnba\/las-vegas-aces\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Las Vegas Aces;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Las Vegas Aces<\/a> to a decisive Game 5 in the semifinals despite multiple key players sidelined by injury, including Cunningham, <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/tag\/caitlin-clark\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Caitlin Clark;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Caitlin Clark<\/a>, Aari McDonald and Sydney Colson.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham was acquired by the Fever from the Phoenix Mercury in a multi-team offseason trade that saw NaLyssa Smith depart the team. In her first season in Indiana, Cunningham became a key part of Stephanie White\u2019s rotation, averaging 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. However, she missed the entire postseason after undergoing surgery in August to repair a torn MCL in her right knee.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Following the season, Cunningham saw her one-year, $100,000 contract expire, making her an unrestricted free agent. While she awaits her next move in the WNBA, Cunningham continues to make strides off the court.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) celebrates a three point shot during a game.Mark J&amp;period; Rebilas-Imagn Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/54c159c7707a1049864652ccf3b634fd.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) celebrates a three point shot during a game.Mark J&amp;period; Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>From Jan. 9-11, Cunningham will host the fourth annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sophiecunninghamclassic.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sophie Cunningham Classic;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sophie Cunningham Classic<\/a> in her hometown of Columbia, Missouri. The basketball tournament showcases some of the top women&#8217;s high school teams from the Midwest, giving players an opportunity to display their talents in front of college coaches while also providing each participant with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercebank.com\/personal\/ideas-and-tips\/2025\/investing-in-talent#:~:text=Commerce%20Bank&#039;s%20sponsorship%20of%20the%20Classic%20included,challenges%20*%20Build%20character%20*%20Work%20hard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:financial education materials;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">financial education materials<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>In addition to hosting the tournament, Cunningham also offers a wide array of Sophie Cunningham Classic merchandise, ranging from shirts to hats featuring the event\u2019s logo or a caricature of Cunningham. On Tuesday, she revealed that the merchandise store will now include custom Missouri Cunningham jerseys.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;\ud83d\udc4cDays Away!&#8221; the Sophie Cunningham Classic wrote on Instagram. &#8220;Don&#8217;t miss out and secure your \ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f now. Also, we&#8217;re excited to announce, custom Mizzou Cunningham jerseys are now available as well as all of our classic looks. Get your merch ahead of time or visit our #SophieCunninghamClassic stores onsite this weekend. Link in bio for tickets and to \ud83d\udecd\ufe0f&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham became one of the best players in Missouri&#8217;s women&#8217;s basketball history. From 2015 to 2019, she averaged 17.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, becoming a three-time All-SEC member.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/caitlin-clark-iowa-teammate-gabbie-003624115.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Caitlin Clark\u2019s Iowa Teammate Gabbie Marshall Announces Move to Indiana;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: Caitlin Clark\u2019s Iowa Teammate Gabbie Marshall Announces Move to Indiana<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This story was originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/wnba\/indiana-fever\/indiana-fever-star-sophie-cunningham-makes-announcement-amid-wnba-offseason\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Athlon Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jan 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/wnba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WNBA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">WNBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=athlonsports.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham watched as the Indiana Fever produced one of the more surprising runs of the 2025 WNBA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[5624,1760,2839,4677,9216,5551,4805,99,9218,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-395154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-aari-mcdonald","9":"tag-caitlin-clark","10":"tag-indiana-fever","11":"tag-las-vegas-aces","12":"tag-nalyssa-smith","13":"tag-phoenix-mercury","14":"tag-sophie-cunningham","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-sydney-colson","17":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}