{"id":97380,"date":"2025-08-20T18:08:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/97380\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T18:08:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:08:06","slug":"sophie-cunningham-doesnt-blame-bria-hartley-for-season-ending-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/97380\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham doesn’t blame Bria Hartley for season-ending injury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham<\/a> doesn\u2019t believe a dirty play led to her season-ending knee injury, and she wants everyone to stop accusing Connecticut Sun guard Bria Hartley<\/a> of intentionally hurting her.<\/p>\n

That includes Cunningham\u2019s own mother.<\/p>\n

Cunningham addressed the matter on an episode of her \u201cShow Me Something<\/a>\u201d podcast that dropped Tuesday. It\u2019s the same day the Fever announced<\/a> that Cunningham will miss the remainder of the season after getting injured during Sunday\u2019s game in Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Hartley was driving toward the basket during the second quarter when she lost balance and collided with Cunningham on her way to the floor. Cunningham immediately grabbed her right leg in pain and was eventually helped off the court.<\/p>\n

The seven-year WNBA veteran told co-host West Wilson that she tore the MCL in her right knee and surgery is scheduled on Friday. She also said that she has no hard feelings toward Hartley and does not blame her for the season-ending injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Bria, and I\u2019m actually really good friends with Bria,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201c… There was no ill intent. I think it was basketball play. I was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. She fell \u2014 like there\u2019s no way that she would go in there and potentially try to hurt me. So yeah, I have nothing but love for Bria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those who have questioned Hartley\u2019s intentions is Cunningham\u2019s mother, Paula, who reportedly wrote<\/a> on a now-deleted X (formerly Twitter) post that Hartley is a \u201cdisgruntled player\u201d who is \u201cplain mean and plays out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham said she set her mother straight .<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018No, Mom, I get it, but I promise you, Bria and I are super cool,\u2019\u201d Cunningham said. \u201c\u2018She would never try to hurt me, because there are some girls that I think might, but she wouldn\u2019t do that.\u2019 So I have nothing but love. And I hope people stop giving Bria some heat, because I don\u2019t think she meant to do that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham also addressed a photo<\/a>, taken by David Butler II for Imagn Images, from immediately after the injury occurred that some think shows Hartley smiling while Cunningham is holding her leg in agony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that smile, it wasn\u2019t like a \u2014 it was like an \u2018ooh\u2019, you know, like, one of those,\u201d Cunningham said, making a grimace. \u201cSo I\u2019m totally fine\u201d with Hartley.<\/p>\n

In June, Cunningham sparked a scuffle between Fever and Sun players<\/a> when she took down then-Connecticut player Jacy Sheldon, who was making a break toward the basket late in the game with Indiana leading by 17. Sheldon has since been traded to the Washington Mystics. Some have viewed Cunningham\u2019s move as payback after Sheldon poked Fever superstar Caitlin Clark<\/a> in the eye during a play earlier in the game.<\/p>\n

The Fever have struggled with injuries this season. Clark hasn\u2019t played in more than a month because of a groin injury, and guards Sydney Colson (ACL) and Aari McDonald (broken foot) saw their seasons come to a premature end because of injuries during an Aug. 7 game at Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham doesn\u2019t believe a dirty play led to her season-ending knee injury, and she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[57937,65691,33992,2000,4129,5460,65687,10156,15389,65690,5190,65688,65689,4805,99,14512,434],"class_list":["post-97380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basket","tag-basketball-play","tag-bria-hartley","tag-connecticut","tag-fever","tag-game","tag-hartley","tag-injury","tag-mother","tag-right-leg","tag-season","tag-season-ending-injury","tag-sheldon","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-way","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97380","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=97380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}