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Fever guard Sophie Cunningham responded to an X user who insulted her sister with derogatory remarks following comments about “poor officiating” and the WNBA’s duty to safeguard its players.
After Sophie incurred a significant right knee injury, ending her season in Sunday’s overtime victory against the Sun, her sister, Lindsey Cunningham, voiced her opinion on X. She stated, “@WNBA maybe you should focus less on fining players for commenting on your poor officiating and more on hiring officials capable of maintaining consistent calls and protecting your athletes. This is pathetic. Praying for you @sophaller.”
As a retort to Lindsey’s post, a social media user mocked her by saying, “‘Protect athletes’ shut up b***h,” attaching a video of Sophie committing a flagrant foul on Sun guard Jacy Sheldon during their game against Connecticut on June 17. This incident led to both Sophie and Sheldon being ejected after a confrontation broke out.
Sophie entered the chat on Monday with a message for the X user.
“… Some of us were raised by the words of ‘don’t bite off more than you can chew’ and some of us didn’t. ‘fafo,’” she wrote, along with a kissing face emoji.
A day after Monday’s exchange, the Fever announced that Sophie will miss the remainder of the 2025 WNBA season after sustaining a season-ending injury in the second quarter of Sunday’s game at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut.
The team did not disclose a specific diagnosis and said the veteran guard is expected to make a full recovery.
The Fever signed guard Shey Peddy to a seven-day hardship contract and released guard Kyra Lambert in a corresponding move.
Cunningham fell to the floor, grabbing her knee in pain after she collided with Sun guard Bria Harley and did not return to play.
Cunningham, who has been publicly critical of the officiating throughout this season, said she was fined by the WNBA twice in July for remarks she made about the referees.
Speaking July 28 on her “Show Me Something” podcast, Cunningham went off about the refs being “so inconsistent,” which she said resulted in a $1.500 penalty by the league.
Before that, Cunningham explained that she was fined $500 for a July 17 TikTok, in which she lip-synched to the lyrics, “Stupid. Or is it, slow? Or maybe, useless?” from Sabrina Carpenter’s song “Manchild” — including the caption, “@ some refs.”
The Fever (19-16) play the WNBA-leading Lynx (28-5) on Friday at home and again on Sunday in Minnesota.