{"id":798394,"date":"2026-08-02T01:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T01:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798394\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T01:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T01:16:08","slug":"sophie-cunningham-shares-touching-moment-with-young-fever-fan-after-game-against-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798394\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham shares touching moment with young Fever fan after game against Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a lot of intensity in the building when the Indiana Fever<\/a> paid a visit to the Portland Fire on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Most of that intensity came from leftist fans who were upset that Fever star Sophie Cunningham<\/a> voiced her support for keeping biological men out of women\u2019s sports. A stance you\u2019d think is universal among female athletes and fans of women\u2019s athletics in general\u2026 but here we are.<\/p>\n

However, Cunningham didn\u2019t let that get to her; in fact, she did the exact opposite, and it was summed up nicely in a heartwarming moment with a young fan after the game.<\/p>\n

FEVER SHUT DOWN SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM QUESTIONS, ABRUPTLY END PRESS CONFERENCE<\/a><\/p>\n

Cunningham was welcomed onto the court in Portland with boos and fans waving transgender flags, and she quickly shut them up<\/a> by burying a three-pointer and sending a quick message of her own.<\/p>\n

Cunningham finished the night with 13 points and 3 assists, and the Fever went on to win 112-98 thanks in large part to a triple-double from Caitlin Clark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But after the game, Cunningham showed that she practices what she preaches.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE<\/a><\/p>\n

In the ESPN profile<\/a> that sparked the events of the past week, Cunningham talked about wanting to \u201cprotect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn\u2019t have to go against biological men.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, after what had to be one of the more intense games of her WNBA<\/a> career, Cunningham had an incredible moment with a young fan in which she gave her one of her game-used shoes.<\/p>\n

Hang on to that shoe, young lady; those things are tough to find these days<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What a moment, and one that the young girl will never forget. You can also see that Cunningham\u2019s willingness to support women and girls is being felt, and in this case very much appreciated.<\/p>\n

As Riley Gaines recently pointed out<\/a>, the WNBA is at a crossroads where it must decide whether its priority is growing the next generation of girls who will one day join its ranks or political activism.<\/p>\n

I think this is a pretty good example of why the former is the right choice.<\/p>\n

And yet, if you ask some of the people protesting in Portland \u2014 which is like the city\u2019s official pastime at this point \u2014 or the co-owner of the Seattle Storm<\/a>, Cunningham is the villain in all of this.<\/p>\n

Yeah\u2026 okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a lot of intensity in the building when the Indiana Fever paid a visit to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-798394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798394","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=798394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}