It only took one episode of her new podcast Show Me Something for the Indiana Fever’s Sophie Cunningham to get fined by the WNBA.
In the second episode released Tuesday, Cunningham revealed that the league office fined her $1,500 for comments critical of referees. This comes just weeks after Cunningham was initially fined $500 for a TikTok video at the expense of the league’s officials.
In the premiere of Show Me Something, Cunningham commented on an altercation with the Connecticut Sun in mid-June in which she was ejected. During the segment, Cunningham called WNBA referees “inconsistent” even with “simple” foul calls. The Fever forward also stated that she felt emboldened to continue hammering WNBA referees because she believes most fans and league insiders agree that officiating is a problem.
“Everyone’s like, what is going on with the refs? And I’m like, ‘I don’t know,'” Cunningham said. “And you fining me $500 is not going to do sh*t.”
Midway through Episode Two of the podcast, Cunningham revealed that those comments earned her the increased fine. Cunningham was still in disbelief that the league took issue with her remarks, given that she felt she hedged her criticisms.
“I even … credited them that their job was hard,” Cunningham said. “I did say that, and I said that I would not be good at it.”
However, Cunningham isn’t expecting her issue with the league to go away any time soon. And from the sound of it, she doesn’t plan on quieting down just because of a few small fines.
“I’m starting to think that the WNBA is starting to have some beef with my comments, but more than 95 percent of the population who watches the WNBA agrees with me,” she said.
Cunningham is becoming quite a combatant with the WNBA. Not only is she frequently in the middle of on-court trouble with the most popular team in the league, but she also doesn’t hold back in criticizing the league publicly. Already, she has gone to bat against WNBA expansion decisions and refereeing while also being a prominent voice as WNBA players negotiate with the league on a new collective bargaining agreement.
And she isn’t budging.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.