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Updated Aug. 19, 2026, 1:34 p.m. ET
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional information.
ATLANTA – Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham is signing autographs for a sea of screaming fans ahead of a matchup against the Atlanta Dream of Aug. 16.
“Sophie! Sophie! Sophie!” they shout, hanging over the railing at State Farm Arena with outstretched arms. Cunningham has a mountain of items waiting for her signature. A jersey. A deflated basketball. A pair of her adidas Crazy Energy “Sophie Cunningham” PE shoes that sold out on July 24, the same day they debuted.
Cunningham’s popularity has skyrocketed this season amid a national conversation about transgender athlete inclusion. The WNBA veteran made comments in a July ESPN story about “protecting women’s sports” by banning transgender girls and women from participating. Since the interview was published, “Support Sophie Cunningham” demonstrations have become commonplace outside Fever games. Conversations surrounding Cunningham and the WNBA’s policy regarding transgender athletes also intensified, prompting her to ask for the focus on the WNBA to return to basketball.
“People are like, ‘You have a platform. Use it,’ and then once you use it, it’s like, ‘Go back to playing basketball.’ I think the reason why I stated that is because you go into media, and it’s not anything even about basketball. I think I could do both,” Cunningham told USA TODAY Sports. “Ask me about what’s going on and what I said. And also ask me how great my teammates are doing, how great our team is doing, how great the league is doing.
“We can be a great example of how to do both.”
Cunningham and the Fever have pressed on during the ongoing chatter, amassing 24-12 record, including five straight wins. The Fever guard is second in the WNBA in 3-point shooting percentage (44.5%), while her teammate Kelsey Mitchell is fourth at 43.7%. Mitchell, who is second in points per game (24.2) in the WNBA, is also in the middle of a record-breaking streak (20 games) of scoring 20 points or more.
Caitlin Clark, who is averaging a career-high in points (22 per game) and field goal percentage (45%), won player of the week for the fourth time this season on Aug. 18. Fever forward Aliyah Boston is nearly averaging a double-double (17 points and 8.7 rebounds).
Cunningham told USA TODAY she’s used to the noise around the Fever because it’s been there since 2025. For her, the goal remains the same: “protect our locker room” and highlight the high-level basketball the Fever are playing. For as much as the Missouri native would like to shine a light on basketball, the conversations around her comments remain.
“I think the most important thing is just try to lead by example. Look, it’s really challenging, I think, for our team to silence it. You can’t silence it,” Fever coach Stephanie White said.
“For us, it’s how do we minimize it, and how do we use it in a way that brings us closer together. How do we use it in a way that helps us grow not just on the floor but off the floor to become a better basketball team, to become better human beings, to become better teammates, to become better friends, to become better allies? I think that there’s all of these different ways that we can minimize it to help us grow.”
WNBA’s free speech battleground after Sophie Cunningham remarks
On Aug. 17, the WNBA distanced itself from an r/WNBA fan subreddit in the middle of a controversy for appearing to ban mention of Cunningham’s name. “The WNBA does not moderate or have any affiliation with the r/WNBA subreddit,” a league spokesperson told USA TODAY in a statement.
The subreddit posted a clarification regarding the use of Cunningham’s name in the online conversation platform, saying content related to the Fever guard was not banned. “Posts about Sophie are welcome when they are related to basketball, including games, highlights, interviews, statistics, marketing endorsements, and other WNBA-related news. Off-court Sophie content can be shared as well,” the statement said.
On Aug. 16, Cunningham fans who attended the Fever vs. Dream matchup said they were “made to cover up” their T-shirts by league security staff at State Farm Arena. Video captured inside the arena and posted on social media shows a mother and daughter covering up their XX-XY Athletics branded shirts with shirts provided by the Dream.
In a statement provided to USA TODAY Sports, the WNBA said the fans shouldn’t have been made to cover their clothing. “The WNBA is aware of interactions at last night’s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts,” a league spokesperson said. “This should not have happened.”
XX-XY Athletics, which bills itself as a brand “here to protect women’s sports and spaces,” was founded by former gymnast and former Levi Strauss chief marketing officer Jennifer Sey. XX-XY has also been part of rallies around WNBA games this season in “Support of Sophie Cunningham.”
Cunningham’s comments on transgender athlete participation and the ensuing conversation came after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld states’ right to ban transgender girls and women from participation in women’s sports. There has not been an openly transgender player in WNBA history. The wave of anti-transgender legislation is aimed at a tiny portion of the population — 1% of people aged 13 and over in the U.S. identify as transgender, according to a 2025 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law.
The Human Rights Campaign reported in 2023 that 19% of transgender youth nationwide were playing sports, including fewer than 1,300 who played sports in school. In 2024, NCAA president Charlie Baker testified to the Senate that he knows of fewer than 10 transgender students out of 510,000 college athletes.
“It’s sort of surprising to be the headline, and I would say the only reason we are is because people who have been censored by the league … they tend to be censored when they’re wearing our product,” Sey, the XX-XY founder, told USA TODAY Sports. “Obviously, I didn’t make that happen. I don’t think anyone should be censored at the games. People can wear whatever shirt they want. I’m hearing now that ― I saw (on Tuesday) that (outlets are) reporting that several people wearing “trans kids belong” shirts were told to cover them up. I don’t think that should happen either.
“None of these shirts are violent or mean. They express (a) belief. We may not agree, and that’s fine. I think everybody should get to wear what they want, and I think the league is making a mistake by attempting to censor anybody.”
Sophie Cunningham: WNBA leadership future ‘up to Adam Silver’
When USA TODAY spoke to Cunningham, she acknowledged WNBA leadership and the league have been under a high amount of scrutiny this season and the spotlight has only intensified as the debate around transgender athletes continues.
Cunningham said anyone in a position of power has a challenging job, but she believes new leadership might help the WNBA. She said the league is evolving, and as players have an opportunity to be “trailblazers of what women’s leagues can look like,” it needs leaders who support the growth.
“You do have to have a person in power who is bold, who is confident, who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves all the time. So I do feel like, as a whole, that could be a position that’s maybe open at the end of the year, but that’s not my call,” Cunningham said. “(Cathy Engelbert’s) done a lot of good things, but with where our league is trying to go, I feel like you just want someone who also wants that. That’s just a hard position to be in, in her shoes, us as players ― we always want more, more, more because we see how good it can be, but … that’s up to Adam Silver at the end of the day.”
Cunningham and the Fever’s season continues in Dallas against Paige Bueckers and the Wings on Thursday, Aug. 20 (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video). While Cunningham doesn’t plan to change how she operates, she told USA TODAY she understands the weight of her words.
“When you do have so many eyes on you … that people can use your words for the positive. People can weaponize your words. So that’s just how people are. That’s how human nature is. So, that’s not gonna make me dim my light any more,” Cunningham said.
“I try to just show people love and try to go that route, and when people actually talk to me in person, I think they feel that, and I’m arms wide open. So I can’t control how other people do stuff, but I do think that you just always have to see how your words can maybe be interpreted by other people. But at the end of the day, if you’re constantly doing that, you’re going to lose yourself, and so I just try to control what I can control.”
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