Sophie Cunningham has never shied away from speaking her mind, and her latest remarks have made waves across the WNBA. The Indiana Fever star recently highlighted which ownership groups she believes are truly invested in the league’s future-and notably, Indiana was missing from her list.
On February 3, 2026, during an episode of Show Me Something, Cunningham shared her assessment.
“I feel like the frontline owners who are most involved, I would say right now, would be New York, Seattle, and Phoenix,” she said. “They are very player-first. They know you might lose a little money on the front end, but you get it back if you invest. At the end of the day, if you give players what they want, you’re going to win. Ticket sales go up. Everything goes up. But it all comes back down to revenue share.”
The omission is notable and striking considering Cunningham spent the 2025 season with the Fever, forming a key partnership with Caitlin Clark. In 30 games for Indiana, she averaged 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 25.2 minutes per game while shooting 43.2 percent from three-point range.
Yet despite her time with the Fever, the now free agent refrained from citing Indiana ownership as actively engaged.
Cunningham calls WNBA a laughing stock
Cunningham also weighed in on the broader challenges facing the league amid ongoing collective bargaining talks. The WNBA and WNBPA met in person for the first time since October, but progress has been slow, with just over three months remaining before the 2026 season begins.
“I’ve been around a lot of NHL people, a lot of NBA people, a lot of MLB people, and everyone is like, ‘Why are you guys not using what we’ve already built?'” Cunningham said.
“This is a successful business. Why is the WNBA not learning and leaning on people who are already building that type? … Our negotiation and all that, how that’s going, it’s like we’re the laughing stock of sports right now. That is so f—ing typical.”
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