{"id":798727,"date":"2026-08-02T05:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798727\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T05:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:29:19","slug":"sophie-cunningham-says-shes-not-concerned-about-being-a-distraction-for-the-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798727\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham says she’s not concerned about being a distraction for the Fever"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 Sophie Cunningham says she\u2019s unconcerned that the rallies against transgender participation in women\u2019s sports that have accompanied the Indiana\u2019s Fever\u2019s recent games are a distraction for the WNBA<\/a> team. <\/p>\n

Cunningham made the comments before the Fever\u2019s game Friday night against the Portland Fire. Outside, a group rallied for the second straight game in support of Cunningham and her recent comments about transgender athletes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the end of the day, I come in and I do my job,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI think everyone who knows me personally, they know that I\u2019m full of love. I\u2019m bubbly. I love the people around me. I love basketball. I love inspiring the next generation and doing that in a positive light. And so that doesn\u2019t even cross my mind. Doesn\u2019t cross my teammates\u2019 minds. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd again, I\u2019m here to play basketball, but I\u2019m also here to be me, and I\u2019m not gonna like shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don\u2019t agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s rally came after a similar rally for Cunningham earlier in the week before the Fever\u2019s game at the Seattle Storm<\/a>. Both rallies only attracted about two dozen participants and a bevy of onlookers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have honestly had nothing to do with them,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI think it\u2019s people just practicing their rights of freedom of speech and doing what other fans have been doing since the WNBA has started. And so props to them, props to everyone who is able to be competent and be bold and courageous enough to to speak their truths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another rally was planned for Sunday in Minneapolis when the Fever play the Minnesota Lynx. <\/p>\n

In Seattle on Tuesday, two Cunningham supporters sat courtside at Climate Change Arena holding signs. A co-owner of the Storm, Celeste Keaton was later fined an undisclosed amount and suspended for five games by the WNBA<\/a> for an exchange with the two supporters. <\/p>\n

The Storm also apologized for the incident, but did not provide details about the exchange, releasing a statement that said: \u201cWe remain committed to creating a welcoming and respectful environment for anyone who attends a Storm game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Seattle rally promoted statewide ballot initiative, IL26-638, that would bar transgender students from participating in girls\u2019 athletics at Washington schools. It also praised Cunningham, who voiced support for barring transgender athletes from girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports in recent interviews. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am here to be a cheerleader for Sophie Cunningham, who has so bravely put her head above the parapet to protect women and girls in our sports and in our locker rooms,\u201d said Amy Souza, who was among those at the Portland rally. \u201cI was an organizer of this event, I was a co-organizer of the Seattle event. I\u2019m also here, standing in solidarity with those teen girls who, unfortunately, were harassed when they were just trying to be fans of the sport, fans of Sophie Cunningham.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham was booed by the Moda Center crowd in Portland when she entered the game midway though the first quarter. Many waved small pink, blue and white transgender flags. <\/p>\n

The Fever downed the Fire 112-98 for their fifth straight win<\/a>. Cunningham finished with 13 points and Caitlin Clark had her fourth career triple-double with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. <\/p>\n

Coach Stephanie White said she was concerned that the controversy was distracting from the team\u2019s play. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know there is a frustration, of course, because we want to we want to talk about basketball and we want to continue to work on our game and we want to continue to grow as a team.,\u201d White said. \u201cBut I also understand this is part of our growth edge as a league, right? It\u2019s part of our growth as a league, and we have to to be able to manage, we have to be able to insulate as much as we can, and then we have to be able to lead with conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 Sophie Cunningham says she\u2019s unconcerned that the rallies against transgender participation in women\u2019s sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[339037,402,1760,236,88,6659,10701,64751,793,8262,2652,2839,3026,18223,12077,255599,1839,4676,4805,99,4803,795,2003,2002,434,13017,13016,28612],"class_list":["post-798727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-amy-souza","tag-basketball","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-fires","tag-gender","tag-gender-in-sports","tag-general-news","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-fever","tag-lgbtq","tag-portland","tag-portland-fire","tag-portland-pilots","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-storm","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-u-s-news","tag-wa-state-wire","tag-washington","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-basketball","tag-womens-national-basketball-association","tag-youth-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798727","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=798727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}