Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham is feeling pretty patriotic for this year's Fourth of July weekend.
Cunningham, who is averaging 9.6 points per game this season, has been the talk of the sports world over the past week due to her gesture towards Phoenix Mercury veteran DeWanna Bonner. After a scuffle broke out between Bonner and Caitlin Clark, the cameras panned over to Cunningham pointing at Bonner. That only ended up making the situation worse for both sides.
“So, what happened is… [DeWanna Bonner] is the one that did something extra, and then Caitlin got the tech. So I walked out there, and I was literally talking to the ref… I was like, ‘Now, Caitlin got one, but why didn’t [Bonner] get one? Because if Caitlin is gonna get one, then she should have got one. It shouldn’t have been one or the other,” Cunningham said on her podcast, via Indiana Fever on SI. “And I was just kind of pointing, and [Bonner] like, ‘Don’t you point at me!’ And I was like, ‘Oh, shouldn’t have said that.’ And I didn’t say a word. So stupid! Like, that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
While the shot of Cunningham pointing at Bonner has taken over the internet, she's going viral this Friday for an entirely different reason.
Cunningham shared a few photos, including one from her photoshoot with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, in honor of Independence Day. Her latest Instagram post racked up over 127,000 likes in just two hours.
"Living the American dream in the USA," Cunningham wrote for her caption.
Cunningham turned plenty of heads this spring.
SI Swimsuit had the WNBA community's undivided attention when they welcomed Cunningham to the family in May. Her rookie photoshoot took place on Captiva Island in Florida.
“It really was so fun,” Cunningham said, via SI Swimsuit. “You just feel so empowered, and something I really do love about it is like, they choose … different body sizes, shapes and sizes, different ethnicities, like they just like empower all types of women and it really was like frickin’ awesome. It was awesome.”
Cunningham will return to the hardwood this Sunday for a showdown with the Las Vegas Aces.
