Sophie Cunningham Won’t Back Down. Her Supporters and Critics Won’t Either.

For 22 seconds in June, WNBA star Sophie Cunningham pointed on court without saying a word.

The Indiana Fever guard leveled her index finger at Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner and held it there after Bonner and Fever teammate Caitlin Clark tangled up following a whistle at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, on June 22.

Bonner told her not to point. Cunningham kept pointing. The clip ran less than half a minute; within days, it was the biggest meme of the WNBA season.

That sudden fame is what turned Cunningham into a lightning rod.

Months earlier, in a February ESPN interview, she had said she wanted to “protect young girls in a locker room who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” a comment that drew little attention at the time.

Once the finger-point clip made her a household name, reporters and critics revisited her back catalog of interviews, and the February remarks resurfaced before a far larger audience.

Cunningham has said she continues to stand behind her comments. She is praised by some as a rare example of an athlete standing her ground, and criticized by others for reopening a fight the league would rather not litigate in public.

Interviews with a broadcaster, a sports law professor, and a women’s rights advocate show just how split the reaction has become.

Cunningham, 29, has stood her ground.

“I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” she said in an ESPN profile published July 21.

She has also pushed back on the accusation that her position is rooted in hostility toward transgender people.

“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she told ESPN.

On Aug. 12, a WNBA task force of team presidents and general managers met to discuss the matter and issued a statement saying there are “no immediate eligibility matters” facing the league, while criticizing what it called “bad-faith efforts” to use the topic “to demean or marginalize others.”

The Case for Cunningham

Sage Steele, who spent 16 years at ESPN primarily hosting “SportsCenter” before leaving the network in 2023, told The Epoch Times the league’s handling of the controversy has backfired.

“It has been atrocious how the league has handled the matter. The women deserve so much better,” Steele said.

“I am so proud of Sophie for speaking the truth, and not caving and hiding when people start coming after her. That is when most people cave. She is strong. This is rooted in truth and kindness,” Steele said.

“I think people on the other side refuse to acknowledge that distinction.”

Steele said Cunningham has faced criticism even within her own organization.

“Sophie is on an island. Her own coach [hasn’t fully backed her]. It’s a PR disaster,” Steele said.

Fever coach Stephanie White has acknowledged “frustration” over the comments and said she worries the episode has become a distraction for the team.

Steele argued the controversy would not have escalated the way it did if the league had responded differently from the start.

“If they would not have doubled down,” Steele said. “That is not what sports is all about. Not everyone makes it. The best play,” she continued, predicting the league will ultimately act to keep Kanter Freedom and White off WNBA rosters.

“They will make sure men don’t get drafted into the WNBA. They will find a way to block it. Unfortunately, it has taken this to happen.”

Steele said she does not view the underlying question as controversial.

“It has never been controversial until the past 10 years. It is not an opinion. It is science that men are physically stronger than women,” she said, invoking Title IX, the 1972 law that mandated equal athletic opportunities for women, which marks its 54th anniversary this year.

“It’s fascinating that so many are taking us backward, from the very law they benefited from. We have to continue to point out the hypocrisy.”

Amy Sousa, a women’s rights advocate who has organized rallies outside WNBA arenas in support of Cunningham, including in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, said she appreciate’s the guard’s resolute stance.

“We have seen so many people who put their head above the parapet but then, when the public [backlash] starts, they’ve backpedaled,” Sousa told The Epoch Times.

“What was so cool about Sophie is that she just said, ‘I said what I said.’ That is really remarkable, especially in today’s day and age of cancel culture.”

Sousa, who has testified before state legislatures and organizes online under the handle @KnownHeretic, said the rallies she has organized are meant to be celebratory rather than confrontational.

“We brought balloons at the Portland event. I brought bubbles,” she said. “We want to be cheerleaders for our favorite team member and what she’s doing. We want to seize the opportunity that she’s created and to spark a public conversation” about “fairness in our sports,” “safety in our sports,” and “privacy in our intimate spaces.”

Sousa said that the WNBA has no formal policy addressing transgender eligibility despite presenting itself as an inclusive league, leaving it “vulnerable” to the kind of dispute that has already played out in other sports.

She rejected the idea that Cunningham’s position amounts to excluding transgender people from sports altogether.

“This is not about excluding people based on their identity beliefs,” she said. “This is about protecting the category of sex.”

Legal and Business Stakes

Melinda Roth, a professor of business, finance, and sports law at New England Law in Boston, said Cunningham is within her rights to speak out publicly, regardless of whether her teammates or the league agree with her.

“Athletes of all genders, races, and sexual orientations are allowed to use their platforms to further things that might be important to them. Sometimes it is a big risk,” Roth told The Epoch Times.

“She should be able to use her star power. Not everyone agrees.”

Roth said any formal attempt by the league to restrict Cunningham’s speech would raise legal problems.

“There is a First Amendment right. [The league] could expose [itself] if they tried to restrict her,” Roth said, adding that coaches face a separate pressure, since they “are paid to win and produce.”

Roth pointed to Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin, who has continued to play in the NHL despite his public ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as an example of a league that has declined to formally restrict a star player over their off-ice views.

The bigger risk to Cunningham, Roth said, is commercial rather than legal.

“You could see sponsors pull out. Sponsors don’t want to be associated with controversy, especially when it may not be a popular position,” she said. “You can see products potentially boycotted. A boycott can really hurt a business.”

No sponsors have pulled out or severed ties with Cunningham since the controversy began, and her commercial standing appears to have strengthened rather than suffered. On Aug. 18, beverage company Once Upon a Coconut announced a new multi-year partnership naming Cunningham as one of its brand faces, with company CEO John Chiorando citing her toughness and authenticity as reasons for the deal.

Roth also pointed to the online harassment directed at athletes who speak out on either side of the issue.

“We are living in an age [where] athletes are being harassed more and more. Women, a large number from sports bettors, they tend to be threatened through [direct messages] on social media,” she said. “Athletes in general are very careful of what they say.”

She said close to 30 states now restrict transgender participation in women’s and girls’ sports at some level.

“Could the WNBA come out with something very different [from what] many of the states have already voted [on]?” Roth said, noting the league’s financial stakes as well.

“Franchise value [is] at an all-time high. The WNBA is small but growing. Follow the money. What does women’s sports mean if it isn’t necessarily women?”

The Pushback

Meanwhile, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a shirt reading “Trans Kids Belong” during an Aug. 2 game against the Fever.

“I come from a space of inclusion,” Reeve told reporters, according to Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, adding that “the narrative is problematic to suggest that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women’s sports.”

Reeve said “every kid has a right to sports regardless of gender; diverse, transgender,” while acknowledging the issue “gets nuanced” at the professional and Olympic level.

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association, which represents the league’s players, issued a statement this month saying it would not be drawn into the debate on the terms set by Cunningham’s critics or supporters.

“Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm,” the union said.

“We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.”

For now, the league has not taken any action. Both supporters and critics have continued to gather outside arenas as the Fever travel—a sign, according to commentators, that the debate the WNBA hoped to avoid is unlikely to fade before the season ends.