The WNBA has a new punching bag — Sophie Cunningham. The Indiana Fever star had the temerity <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49306657/sophie-cunningham-finger-point-indiana-fever-wnba">to suggest</a> that locker rooms for girls be restricted to girls. For that statement, she’s been labeled a transphobe and, for good measure, <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/her-whiteness-sells-sophie-cunningham-004719034.html">a racist</a>. When she recently took an elbow to the face while defending Nia Coffey of the Minnesota Lynx, she was called for the foul.
Now Caitlin Clark, the original punching bag and Cunningham’s teammate, is being called <a href="https://x.com/megynkelly/status/2084283918702841939">a coward</a> by Megyn Kelly for sidestepping a question about Cunningham’s statements. Instead of wading into the issue, Clark responded with “it&#8217;s for the leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions.” And while she’s taking some other shots online for dodging the question, Clark did absolutely nothing wrong here.
As Dave Portnoy, speaking with his normal measured and reserved style, <a href="https://x.com/stoolpresidente/status/2084342199139910075">said of the &#8220;coward&#8221; take</a>: “Absolute moron/idiot to call Caitlin a coward for this answer. 1st of all you don’t even know how she feels on this issue and more importantly she doesn’t owe it to you or anybody else to be your political talking point. She just wants to play ball. Total coward cheap shot to call her a coward for not being your puppet.”
This is exactly right. If Cunningham wants to speak out, she can. If Clark doesn’t want to comment on Cunningham, she’s equally free. For starters, as Portnoy noted, they’re basketball players. Second, nothing either of them says is really going to move the needle. Politics may be downstream of culture, but we’re talking about the WNBA. Even as it’s <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/07/27/wnba-tv-audience-up-12-in-year-1-of-new-rights-deal-with-caitlin-clark-still-a-big-draw/">more popular now</a> than it’s ever been, largely thanks to Clark, it’s still not that popular.
Sorry, but that’s the cold truth. NBA games average 1.78 million viewers and Kamala Harris lost even with Steph Curry’s endorsement. With the WNBA up to an average of 742,000 viewers per game, the reach just isn’t there. It’s not just about popularity, though. Nor is it about “shut up and play.” It’s not even <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29130478/michael-jordan-stands-firm-republicans-buy-sneakers-too-quote-says-was-made-jest">Michael Jordan’s</a> “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”
It’s that the players themselves are free, or at least should be, to discuss whatever they want. It’s also that we shouldn’t expect everything to be all politics, all the time. It’s unhealthy. One’s convictions shouldn’t be tied to what celebrities and pro athletes believe. If you need Caitlin Clark to validate your positions, that’s a you problem, not a Clark problem.
Similarly, it’s fine to praise Cunningham for taking a principled and correct stand. It’s already an issue that roughly 85% of the population agrees with, though. It’s not the most popular position in the WNBA — Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a “Trans Kids Belong” T-shirt when the team played the Fever — so Cunningham deserves some credit for speaking up. Yet, doing so doesn’t exactly make her a hero.
Cunningham and Clark play games to distract and entertain people. Their decisions and opinions do not affect the wide world outside of sports. They don’t owe anyone other than their owners and teammates anything. To paraphrase Portnoy, they aren’t anyone’s puppets.
Also, as another basketball star once said in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2lseCPPCP4">a Nike commercial</a>, “I am not a role model &#8230; just because I dunk a basketball doesn&#8217;t mean I should raise your kids.” WNBA stars may not be great at dunking, but we still shouldn’t expect them to raise our kids, even if Cunningham’s offense was focused on protecting them. That’s a job for parents. They are the ones who can choose not to drive their kids to the locker rooms that Cunningham was discussing. And they are free to make that choice regardless of what any WNBA player says or does not say.
***
Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin&#8217; Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cookin-up-a-story/id1624969096">here</a>. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4

WNBA: JUL 22 Connecticut Sun at Indiana Fever

Sophie Cunningham Is No One’s Culture War Punching Bag

Caitlin Clark

Dave Portnoy

DW Opinion

Indiana Fever

Megyn Kelly

Sophie Cunningham

WNBA

Women's Basketball

A new proposal from Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) seeks to keep gender-confused boys off of girls&#8217; sports teams and out of their locker rooms.  
The <a href="https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/services/files/9DB266B1-2A2D-4FCF-B948-A031AC31AB5C">bill</a> introduced Tuesday by Blackburn and 10 other GOP senators would tie federal funding to whether schools protect girls from discrimination based on biological reality. The bill seeks to codify language into federal law that makes it clear that discrimination protections under Title IX are based on sex and not sexual orientation or so-called gender identity. 
“The Biden administration weaponized Title IX to force women to compete with men in sports and allow men to invade women’s spaces,” Blackburn told The Daily Wire. “Thankfully, President Trump restored common sense in Title IX, and now Congress must codify these protections for women into law to prevent future abuse.”
Blackburn’s proposal, called the “Title IX Clarification Act,” would ensure that discrimination under the provision is based “on the biological reality of sex” and would make federal funding contingent on recognizing that understanding. 
The bill’s introduction comes amid a nationwide controversy fueled by WNBA player Sophie Cunningham’s stance on keeping gender-confused boys out of girls&#8217; sports. 
“I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” Cunningham said in a recent interview with ESPN, drawing backlash from fellow WNBA players and coaches.
Her comments have angered WNBA fans and even led to pro-trans advocacy from Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-coach-protests-sophie-cunningham-with-pro-trans-shirt?author=Drew+Berkemeyer&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=10&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=WNBA+Coach+Protests+Sophie+Cunningham+With+Pro-Trans+Shirt">recently</a> wore a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt during a game. 
The Biden administration attempted to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/03/11/2021-05200/guaranteeing-an-educational-environment-free-from-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-including">expand</a> the traditional understanding of Title IX to include “gender identity” as being protected under the definition of sex. Critics argued that interpretation would force schools from keeping sports teams, bathrooms, and locker rooms separate on the basis of sex. 
Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump officially <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/initial-rescissions-of-harmful-executive-orders-and-actions/">rescinded</a> Biden’s interpretation of Title IX and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/">directed</a> federal agencies to protect from sex-based discrimination, not gender identity. The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-protects-womens-sports-in-landmark-ruling">recently held</a> in a landmark decision that states did not violate Title IX if they had laws in place keeping boys out of girls’ sports. 
“They may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote. “The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America.”
Blackburn said her legislation would bring common sense back to federal discrimination law. 
“The Title IX Clarification Act would ensure that common sense, not leftist ideology, governs federal education funding tied to Title IX requirements to protect young women,” she said. 
Other lawmakers backing the proposal are Senators Katie Britt (R-AL), Jim Justice (R-WV), Ted Budd (R-NC), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Rick Scott (R-FL), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Tim Sheehy (R-MT).
A House version of the proposal was introduced in May 2026 by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) and advanced through the Committee on Education and Workforce. It is backed by conservative groups like the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, and the American Principles Project.

Indiana Fever v Golden State Valkyries

Sophie Cunningham’s Trans Sports Stance Could Become Federal Law

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

Marsha Blackburn

Supreme Court

Title IX

Transgender Athletes

Women's sports

The WNBA’s double standard on free speech is officially out of bounds.
Women&#8217;s sports advocate Riley Gaines pulled no punches on Monday night, telling Fox News that league handlers tried to silence her support for Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham. Appearing on &#8220;Hannity,&#8221; Gaines said that arena officials asked her to put down a benign, completely non-political sign praising Cunningham while Left-wing propaganda was prominently displayed on the arena&#8217;s Jumbotron.
&#8220;The league often says they have a problem with people like Sophie bringing politics into sports. The league doesn&#8217;t have a problem with politics in sports. They have a problem with conservative politics in sports,&#8221; Gaines told host Sean Hannity.
Gaines recounted sitting in the Target Center during a Minnesota Lynx home game holding a small poster that simply read, “Sophie, thank you — a girl mom.” Despite strictly adhering to arena rules, an official approached Gaines and requested that she put the sign away.
Yet, as Gaines pointed out, Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve strolled the sidelines wearing a &#8220;Trans Kids Belong&#8221; shirt while others wore pro-trans shirts featuring an image of a knife even as the arena&#8217;s Jumbotron repeatedly highlighted fans draped in Pride and trans flags. &#8220;If Protect Women&#8217;s Sports is deemed political like they say, then so is Trans Kids Belong,&#8221; Gaines slammed.
After Gaines pushed back, she said she was ultimately allowed to keep the sign displayed, and the arena staffer returned and apologized.
The WNBA finds itself engulfed in an explosive culture war sparked by Cunningham, who has spoken out against allowing men to compete in women’s athletics. Cunningham ignited the firestorm by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue">telling</a> ESPN she wants to &#8220;protect young girls in a locker room,&#8221; later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunningham-triples-down-on-haters-with-ice-cold-instagram-post">doubling down</a> on Instagram with a blunt message to her critics: &#8220;I said what I said.&#8221;
While Cunningham’s common-sense stance has earned her praise from high-profile figures, including Gaines and White House Press Secretary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karoline-leavitt-rips-leftist-backlash-to-sophie-cunninghams-trans-sports-comments">Karoline Leavitt</a>, it has drawn intense hostility from leftist fans and league insiders. Gaines noted that Cunningham was relentlessly booed by the Minnesota crowd every time she stepped onto the hardwood.
Meanwhile, WNBA leaders continue to hide behind corporate double-talk. Asked point-blank about men in female sports, Fever head coach Stephanie White<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunninghams-coach-asked-where-she-stands-on-men-in-womens-sports?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Sophie+Cunningham%E2%80%99s+Coach+Asked+Where+She+Stands+On+Men+In+Women%E2%80%99s+Sports"> offered</a> a classic corporate dodge, claiming she wasn&#8217;t &#8220;educated enough from a scientific standpoint.&#8221;
The hostility has even boiled over into the stands. During a recent Fever road trip to Seattle, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was suspended from attending her team&#8217;s next five home games after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-co-owner-accused-of-cursing-out-teen-girls-over-xx-xy-shirts?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Co-Owner+Accused+Of+Cursing+Out+Teen+Girls+Over+XX-XY+Shirts">launching</a> an expletive-laden tirade against two 16-year-old female fans wearing gear in support of Cunningham&#8217;s position.
Despite the intimidation tactics, Gaines insists that Cunningham remains unshakable and uncancelable.

Riley Gaines

Riley Gaines Goes Off On WNBA, Says Staffer Tried To Take Away Sophie Cunningham Sign

LGBT

Sean Hannity

The debate over transgender-identifying athletes in women&#8217;s sports continued Sunday as Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase defended men competing in women’s sports.
The reigning WNBA Coach of the Year said sports are about &#8220;inclusivity.&#8221;
&#8220;For me, sports is about belonging. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about allowing everyone to be their authentic self,&#8221; Nakase said when asked about the recent Sophie Cunningham comments on the subject. &#8220;I’m all about women, little girls deserving to play, and that includes trans women.&#8221;
Cunningham, a guard with the Indiana Fever, recently spoke out against men competing in women’s sports. Since then, she’s had support, but also multiple WNBA coaches rejecting her position that women&#8217;s sports should be reserved for biological females.
Nakase joins the list of coaches who have recently been asked their stance on the controversy. Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White, Minnesota Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve, and Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama have all opined in the last few days.
White previously said she did not feel &#8220;educated enough from a scientific point&#8221; to weigh in on the issue.
&#8220;I don’t know that I would say that I’m educated enough from a scientific standpoint,&#8221; White said Friday. &#8220;I don’t ever believe that exclusion is an answer. I just don’t.&#8221;
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunninghams-coach-asked-where-she-stands-on-men-in-womens-sports">Sophie Cunningham’s Coach Asked Where She Stands On Men In Women’s Sports</a>
Whereas White fell back on her education, or lack thereof, Nakase cited criticism she has faced over her height and ethnicity as shaping her views.
&#8220;I’m big on that because I have been criticized for my height, for my ethnicity. I’ve been in those ‘you shouldn’t belong here’ many times, and for me I don’t want that space, especially Golden State, to ever feel like that,&#8221; Nakase said.
The coaches are being pressed as the place for the latest rallies on the issue has shifted to outside WNBA arenas.
Sunday’s game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Indiana Fever drew the largest gathering of Cunningham supporters, including Riley Gaines, Michele Tafoya, and <a href="https://x.com/xx_xyathletics/status/2084263764011241693?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jennifer Sey</a>, as well as a crowd of pro-trans protesters.
Security had to step in outside of the Target Center in Minneapolis when a pro-trans activist repeatedly grabbed and forcefully tried to take an &#8220;XX-XY&#8221; branded t-shirt from a Cunningham fan.
Dustin Gage posted the video of the altercation on <a href="https://x.com/GrageDustin/status/2083946263314043288?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a> during the pre-game fan rally XX-XY’s, Sey’s athletic clothing company, hosted.
Cunningham has stood her ground, taking pictures with Gaines and Sey at Sunday’s game.
Sey told The Daily Wire she expects to see more Cunningham supporters as the WNBA season nears the end. Sey said there&#8217;s another rally in the works for the Fever&#8217;s game in Chicago on August 8.

Illustration by Daily Wire staff

WNBA Coach Of The Year Picks A Side In Trans Athlete Debate

jennifer sey

News

Sports

Transgenders

An ESPN commentator urged fans to listen to Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve’s pro-transgender comments, all while Reeve took to the court wearing a &#8220;Trans Kids Belong&#8221; shirt on Sunday.
During Sunday’s clash between the Lynx and the Indiana Fever, ESPN color analyst Rebecca Lobo didn&#8217;t hold back in hyping up the Minnesota coach&#8217;s political message.
&#8220;I would encourage anyone to go and listen to Cheryl Reeve&#8217;s comments; incredibly thoughtful, easy to find online. I would just encourage anyone to go and listen,&#8221; Lobo declared during the broadcast.
Play-by-play caller Ryan Ruocco pointed out that Reeve was sporting the pro-trans statement on her chest following a week of mounting tension. The wardrobe choice and broadcast plug came in the aftermath of comments made by Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who ignited a league-wide culture war last month by speaking out against biological men competing in female athletics.
&#8220;I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn&#8217;t have to go against biological men,&#8221; Cunningham told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue">ESPN</a> in a profile, later defying online outrage with a blunt <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunningham-triples-down-on-haters-with-ice-cold-instagram-post">follow-up</a> on Instagram: &#8220;I said what I said.&#8221;
The two opposing figures met face-to-face at center court for a pre-game chat on Sunday. While the mid-court meeting appeared cordial, Reeve had spent Saturday taking direct aim at the rhetoric surrounding the debate.
&#8220;It is not the case that we have, quote, biological men in girls’ locker rooms, the way it’s being phrased, the innuendo there that somehow transgender women are predators of some kind in the locker room,&#8221; Reeve fired back to reporters, pushing for inclusion while claiming &#8220;exclusion is not the answer.&#8221;
The rift highlights a growing divide inside the WNBA. Cunningham’s fiery stance has drawn enthusiastic rallies of supporters outside arenas in Seattle, Portland, and Minneapolis. It has also earned her backing from high-profile figures like female sports advocate Riley Gaines and White House Press Secretary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karoline-leavitt-rips-leftist-backlash-to-sophie-cunninghams-trans-sports-comments">Karoline Leavitt</a>.
However, the debate has boiled over into ugly arena confrontations. During a recent Fever road trip to Seattle, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was reprimanded after reportedly launching an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-co-owner-accused-of-cursing-out-teen-girls-over-xx-xy-shirts?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Co-Owner+Accused+Of+Cursing+Out+Teen+Girls+Over+XX-XY+Shirts">expletive-laced tirade</a> against two 16-year-old female fans who were wearing gear in support of Cunningham&#8217;s position.
Meanwhile, Fever head coach Stephanie White <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunninghams-coach-asked-where-she-stands-on-men-in-womens-sports?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Sophie+Cunningham%E2%80%99s+Coach+Asked+Where+She+Stands+On+Men+In+Women%E2%80%99s+Sports">threw up her hands</a> when asked where she stands on the issue, offering a classic corporate dodge. White claimed she wasn&#8217;t &#8220;educated enough from a scientific standpoint&#8221; to say whether biological males belong in women&#8217;s sports.
While leadership equivocates and ESPN announcers point fans toward progressive talking points, Cunningham remains steadfast in her position, proving that the hottest court in basketball right now is the culture war.

Cheryl Reeve/Sophie Cunningham

ESPN Praises WNBA Coach After Trans Sports Jab At Sophie Cunningham

Basketball

ESPN

Transgender

Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever&#8217;s star guard and most well-known player in the WNBA, was asked Sunday to share her thoughts on men in women&#8217;s sports, a controversy that has erupted in the women&#8217;s basketball league following comments from Clark&#8217;s teammate Sophie Cunningham.
As Cunningham faces intense backlash from leftists over her comments on protecting women&#8217;s sports, Clark said the issue is not discussed in the Fever&#8217;s locker room.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes and find solutions, but our focus is on basketball. That&#8217;s what we talk about,&#8221; Clark said during her post-game press conference.
After her short answer, a reporter asked if she had any reaction to the controversy surrounding Cunningham.
&#8220;I just answered for you,&#8221; Clark replied.
Clark was pressed on the issue one day after Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunninghams-coach-asked-where-she-stands-on-men-in-womens-sports?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=Sports&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Sophie+Cunningham%E2%80%99s+Coach+Asked+Where+She+Stands+On+Men+In+Women%E2%80%99s+Sports">pushed back</a> on Cunningham&#8217;s remarks on keeping men out of women&#8217;s sports.
“I don’t know that I would say that I’m educated enough from a scientific standpoint. I don’t ever believe that exclusion is an answer. I just don’t,” White told reporters.
Cunningham sparked discussion on the issue last month during an interview for a profile piece that was published by ESPN. In the interview, Cunningham was asked where she stands on men in women&#8217;s sports, and she addressed the matter head-on.
“I think that I am here to extend love,” she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Star+Breaks+With+League+On+Explosive+Issue">said</a>. “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.”
Her comments resulted in a wave of support from many Americans, including the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karoline-leavitt-rips-leftist-backlash-to-sophie-cunninghams-trans-sports-comments">White House</a>, who oppose policies by schools, athletic associations, and professional leagues that allow men to compete against women. Cunningham&#8217;s comments were also met with backlash from many people on the Left, including WNBA players, coaches, and at least one team owner.
During a Fever game in Seattle last week, two young girls attended the game with XX-XY shirts and a sign supporting Cunningham and her defense of women-only sports. The young girls were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunningham-rips-wnba-team-co-owner-for-harassing-teens-girls-with-xx-xy-shirts?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Sophie+Cunningham+Rips+WNBA+Team+Co-Owner+For+Harassing+Teen+Girls+With+XX-XY+Shirts">heckled</a> by some Seattle fans and berated by Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton, who reportedly called the teenage girls &#8220;f*cking insane.&#8221; Keaton was reprimanded by the Storm and suspended from attending the team&#8217;s next five home games.
“Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You’ll be hearing from me soon,” Cunningham said. “Truly embarrassing of the co-owner. Unfortunately shows the type of leader she is.”
Clark is familiar with being on the receiving end of harsh backlash. Ever since she came into the league in 2024 — bringing a following of loyal fans from her success in college at Iowa — Clark has been public enemy No. 1 for many WNBA players. The WNBA&#8217;s hatred for Clark is evident even in the star player&#8217;s third season. Last month, when players placed votes for the WNBA All-Star Game, they determined Clark wasn’t even among the top 10 best guards, despite Clark putting up impressive numbers and setting league records, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/latest-stunt-shows-just-how-much-wnba-hates-star-player-caitlin-clark?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Latest+Stunt+Shows+Just+How+Much+WNBA+Hates+Star+Player+Caitlin+Clark">reported</a>.
Clark has also brought unprecedented attention to the WNBA and helped drive record-breaking attendance, viewership, and merchandise sales.

Indiana Fever v Washington Mystics

WNBA Star Caitlin Clark Responds To Trans Sports Firestorm

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham&#8217;s comments defending women&#8217;s sports continued to reverberate across the WNBA on Sunday, as Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve appeared to protest the Fever star by wearing a &#8220;Trans Kids Belong&#8221; shirt during Minnesota&#8217;s 108-100 victory over Indiana.
Reeve&#8217;s shirt marked the latest public response to Cunningham, who has become one of the league&#8217;s most polarizing figures after saying biological males should not compete in girls&#8217; and women&#8217;s sports.
Before tipoff, Cunningham and Reeve met briefly at midcourt in what appeared to be a cordial conversation. Reeve later <a href="https://www.latimes.com/sports/sparks/story/2026-08-02/lynx-coach-wears-shirt-supporting-trans-kids-joining-protests">told reporters</a> the two discussed the responsibility that comes with having large public platforms but declined to elaborate on the specifics. &#8220;Both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate,&#8221; Reeve said after the game. &#8220;There are some things that we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on.&#8221;
The atmosphere inside Target Center reflected the controversy surrounding Cunningham&#8217;s remarks. She was loudly booed during player introductions and again nearly every time she touched the ball throughout the afternoon. Some fans inside the arena also wore shirts displaying the same &#8220;Trans Kids Belong&#8221; slogan as Reeve.
The tension spilled onto the court during the second quarter when Cunningham absorbed an elbow to the face while defending a Minnesota player. Despite appearing to take the contact, officials assessed Cunningham with a defensive foul instead. The ruling prompted confusion from the game&#8217;s broadcast crew and loud cheers from the home crowd after officials briefly reviewed the play and allowed the call to stand.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Sophie Cunningham got ELBOWED in the face&#8230;
Refs call a foul on Sophie Cunningham 🤔 <a href="https://t.co/IiDJGMT0UO">pic.twitter.com/IiDJGMT0UO</a>
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) <a href="https://x.com/BrickCenter_/status/2083971409924223143?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
Outside the arena, supporters and opponents of Cunningham&#8217;s position staged competing demonstrations before the game.
Women&#8217;s sports advocates gathered wearing XX-XY Athletics apparel and carrying signs reading &#8220;Thank You Sophie,&#8221; &#8220;Pro-Women, Not Anti-Trans,&#8221; and &#8220;Trust the Science.&#8221; Nearby, pro-transgender activists assembled with signs supporting transgender athletes and used megaphones to challenge Cunningham&#8217;s supporters.
Video from the demonstrations showed heated verbal exchanges between the two groups, with security personnel intervening after at least one physical confrontation.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🚨 BREAKING: The trans supporters just assaulted a Sophie Cunningham supporter outside Target Center in Minneapolis.
Security has stepped in. <a href="https://t.co/wW0IsAtFnp">pic.twitter.com/wW0IsAtFnp</a>
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) <a href="https://x.com/GrageDustin/status/2083946263314043288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
The demonstrations marked the third consecutive Fever road game to feature organized protests framed around Cunningham&#8217;s remarks. Similar rallies took place in Seattle and Portland after the Fever guard publicly stated that young female athletes &#8220;shouldn&#8217;t have to go against biological men.&#8221;
The Seattle demonstration ultimately resulted in disciplinary action from the WNBA after Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunningham-rips-wnba-team-co-owner-for-harassing-teens-girls-with-xx-xy-shirts?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Sophie+Cunningham+Rips+WNBA+Team+Co-Owner+For+Harassing+Teen+Girls+With+XX-XY+Shirts">confronted</a> two teenage girls wearing XX-XY Athletics shirts, cursing at them and leaving one in tears. The league later fined the Storm and suspended Keaton from attending the team&#8217;s next five home games.
Despite the backlash, Cunningham has repeatedly said she does not intend to back away from her position. &#8220;I&#8217;m here to play basketball, but I&#8217;m also here to be me,&#8221; Cunningham <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49502120/sophie-cunningham-unconcerned-rallies-transgender-participation-women-sports-distraction-fever">said before</a> Friday&#8217;s game in Portland. &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to shadow that or hide or dim my light just because maybe people don&#8217;t agree with that.&#8221;
The controversy has increasingly overshadowed Indiana&#8217;s recent road trip, with organized protests, fan demonstrations and public responses from coaches and team officials following the Fever from city to city as Cunningham&#8217;s profile continues to grow off the court.

Indiana Fever v Seattle Storm

WNBA Coach Protests Sophie Cunningham With Pro-Trans Shirt

Indiana

LGBTQ

Minnesota

Protest

trans

trans kids

transgender athlete

There is sadness that comes from feeling isolated in your own community. It is the loneliness of keeping your mouth shut. Of nodding. Of editing yourself because you already know the social cost of candor.
Over the years, I have come to a difficult realization: Seattle thinks it is inclusive but may very well be the least inclusive city in America. The WNBA incident was a very typical Seattle moment and didn’t come as a surprise to those of us who live here.
This city has remarkable qualities. It is beautiful, economically vibrant, and filled with talented people. But a city is more than its skyline or its natural beauty. A home is where you feel free to be yourself—where you can speak honestly without wondering whether your neighbors, colleagues, or even friends will quietly decide you are a black sheep among swans.
I no longer have that feeling here in Washington State.
As someone who holds political views outside the prevailing consensus and who openly identifies as a Zionist, I often feel that parts of my identity are not merely disagreed with but are disdained. There is a profound difference between disagreement and exclusion. I welcome debate and expect criticism; what I will never understand is the sense that certain beliefs automatically place someone outside the bounds of what is considered “acceptable” in society.
That realization has changed how I think about my future.
For the first time, I know I will not spend the rest of my life in Seattle. That is not because I stopped loving the mountains, the water, or the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. It is because I no longer feel welcomed by a culture that believes there is only one way to think; a city cannot truly call itself inclusive if inclusion depends on ideological conformity.
I do not write these words out of anger. I write them out of sadness.
I wanted Seattle to remain a place of innovation, kindness, and opportunity — I wanted it to succeed. But it needs to rediscover something just as important: the ability to welcome people whose convictions differ from the majority&#8217;s. A confident society does not fear dissent. It invites it. That just isn’t the case here, and it starts at the top.
From the embarrassing behavior of Seattle Storm owner Celeste Keaton to the inability to confront the problems around homelessness, public drug use, and soft-on-crime policies, the disintegration of this once great city is palpable. When one party controls every lever of state government for decades, it all but eliminates accountability. And anyone who speaks up is branded a bigot, racist, or, in my case, an AIPAC monster and baby killer.
Until that happens, many will continue to live as quiet dissenters — carefully measuring our words, concealing ourselves, and wondering whether there is still a place for us in a city that prides itself on celebrating diversity while vilifying diversity of thought.
My hope is not that Seattle conforms to my views. My hope is that it becomes more curious. More considerate. More willing to believe that thoughtful, decent people can disagree without becoming enemies.
If Seattle truly wants to be known as one of America&#8217;s most welcoming cities, it should ask itself a simple question: Is everyone welcome — or only those who think the right way?
For me, the answer to that question has become painfully personal. It is why, despite everything I once loved about this city, I know I will never call Seattle my permanent home.
***
Jessica Piha resides in Kirkland, Washington, with her dog Evee.

The Seattle Hellscape Is A Natural Setting For The Sophie Cunningham Controversy

Celeste Keaton

Democrats

Seattle

Seattle Storm

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White dropped the ball when pressed on whether biological males belong in women’s sports, offering up a classic corporate-style dodge while her own star player, Sophie Cunningham, continues to throw down pure common sense.
Asked point-blank about her personal stance on biological men competing in female athletics, White punted faster than an NFL punter on fourth-and-long.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know that I would say that I&#8217;m educated enough from a scientific standpoint. I don&#8217;t ever believe that exclusion is an answer. I just don&#8217;t,&#8221; White hemmed and hawed, falling back on her childhood days of playing with boys because &#8220;there weren&#8217;t girls&#8217; sports.&#8221;
Pressed further on whether she would welcome a biological male onto a WNBA roster, White doubled down on the tap-dance: &#8220;Again, it&#8217;s like, I don&#8217;t know&#8230; I&#8217;m not educated enough in terms of transgender and transitioning to give you a smart answer.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White weighs in on the debate over transgender athletes following Sophie Cunningham&#39;s comments about keeping biological males out of women&#39;s sports, which has sparked rallies ahead of recent games.
Asked if she would welcome a biological male into… <a href="https://t.co/p7N9g6rJpr">pic.twitter.com/p7N9g6rJpr</a>
&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2083549937199882307?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
White’s soft answer on a hard-hitting issue is irritating, especially when her own locker room features one of the most outspoken defenders of women&#8217;s sports in the entire league.
At the same press conference, two other players from the team were being interviewed when they were asked about Cunningham&#8217;s comments. One of the women, Aliyah Boston, immediately shut down the questions, getting up to leave and muttering, &#8220;Have a good day.&#8221; A representative for the team interposed, &#8220;We’re going to wrap up here.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Indiana Fever shut down a question about Sophie Cunningham&#39;s comments on women&#39;s sports before abruptly ending a postgame press conference.
After Aliyah Boston answered a separate question, an OutKick reporter attempted to ask Boston about Cunningham&#39;s recent remarks on… <a href="https://t.co/M80LLCn9jZ">pic.twitter.com/M80LLCn9jZ</a>
&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2083710541462155723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
While her coach claims she needs more &#8220;layered conversations,&#8221; Fever guard Sophie Cunningham isn&#8217;t hiding behind press-release jargon. Cunningham has spent the past several months cutting through the noise with straightforward reality checks, starting last November when she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-throws-cold-water-on-transgender-narrative">bluntly agreed</a> with NBA star Michael Porter Jr. that elite eighth-grade boys could likely outplay pro women.
&#8220;Men are just stronger, bigger, athletic,&#8221; Cunningham declared on her podcast. &#8220;They just are a different build. So if you put them up against females&#8230; yeah, they’re gonna win, duh.&#8221;
Fast forward to July 2026, and Cunningham hasn&#8217;t backed down an inch. In the midst of a league and players’ union heavily leaning into transgender inclusion, she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue">laid it all on the line</a> to ESPN, saying, &#8220;I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn&#8217;t have to go against biological men. &#8230; &#8220;I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest.&#8221;
Days later, refusing to cave to online critics, she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunningham-triples-down-on-haters-with-ice-cold-instagram-post">posted</a> a saluting emoji on Instagram with a simple warning to the mob: &#8220;I said what I said.&#8221;
Cunningham&#8217;s bold, common-sense stance earned high praise from female sports advocate Riley Gaines and even White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who slammed left-wing critics for being &#8220;out of touch&#8221; with average Americans on an &#8220;80/20 issue.&#8221;
The battleground over Cunningham’s stance turned downright ugly in late July during a Fever road trip to Seattle.
While the WNBA loves to preach about &#8220;inclusion,&#8221; Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was caught allegedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-co-owner-accused-of-cursing-out-teen-girls-over-xx-xy-shirts">launching</a> an expletive-laden tirade against two 16-year-old female fans sitting in the stands wearing XX-XY Athletics gear in support of Cunningham. The wild confrontation left one teenager in tears after the adult owner screamed at them and dropped bizarre religious jabs, while nearby fans turned their backs despite sitting under arena banners reading &#8220;No Hate in these United States.&#8221;
The Storm was forced to issue an apology for the owner&#8217;s unhinged behavior, which completely overshadowed the action on the hardwood.
While coach Stephanie White remains sidelined by political correctness, Cunningham keeps calling it like it is.

Phoenix Mercury v Indiana Fever

Sophie Cunningham’s Coach Asked Where She Stands On Men In Women’s Sports

This is republished with permission from the author. The original, from <a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/">House of Strauss</a>, can be found <a href="https://substack.com/@houseofstrauss/p-209105305">here</a>.
***
I am kindly asking the WNBA to stop generating so much news. Please. I can barely keep up. The league’s main Twitter account posted and deleted a video where <a href="https://x.com/HaterReport/status/2082709528588517869?s=20">two of the sport’s most prominent stars bet on a game they were about to play against each other</a>. A similar incident might qualify as the biggest NBA news item of the year, but it’s not even the main WNBA story out there right now. <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49483396/storm-apologize-co-owner-confronts-fans-cunningham-support">This is</a>.
The wild scene among spectators at Fever-Storm on Tuesday broke sports-world containment and became a political flashpoint. The vignettes are surreal because it’s like archetypal NPR tote bag owners are acting like classic inebriated bleacher hooligans. But these people aren’t tilted off booze. They’re drunk on politics. These Seattle louts are so unhinged over people agreeing with Sophie Cunningham’s support for a supermajority position that it’s now helping the side they despise.
Sophie Cunningham’s comment of, “I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn&#8217;t have to go against biological men,” apparently set the stage for a Seattle standoff on Tuesday. Ahead of the Fever-Storm game, protesters and counterprotesters streamed to the steps of the hilariously named Climate Pledge Arena.
There’s a state ballot measure called Washington Initiative 638 which aims to keep K-12 girls&#8217; sports exclusive to females, and it’s scheduled for the November ballot by the force of over 400,000 resident signatures. It was spearheaded by hedge fund man Brian Heywood as “not a partisan issue,” but no state Democrat supports the measure. Indeed, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins (D) and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen (D) refused to even hold legislative hearings on I-638.
The “save women’s sports” I-638 supporters didn’t achieve a mass gathering on Tuesday. As <a href="https://www.theringer.com/2026/07/29/wnba/sophie-cunningham-transgender-women-in-sports-comments-wnba">Seerat Sohi of the Ringer argued</a>, this cohort could all so easily have been ignored. But they weren’t.
From Yahoo Sports:
<blockquote>
<a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/teams/seattle/">Seattle Storm</a> minority owner Celeste Keaton has been fined by the WNBA and suspended for her team’s next five home games following <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/storm-apologize-co-owner-comments-191134139.html">an incident Tuesday night involving a pair of Sophie Cunningham fans</a>, according to the <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/storm/storm-owner-suspended-sophie-cunningham-after-fan-incident">Seattle Times’ Percy Allen</a> and <a href="https://x.com/primetimeMitch/status/2082691122418102588">USA Today’s Mitchell Northam</a>.
The incident reportedly occurred when the two young women, wearing shirts for a brand advocating against the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports, held up signs reading “We love you Sophie” and “Thank you Sophie for speaking up for girls” while sitting courtside for the <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/teams/indiana/">Fever</a>-Storm game. Their appearance came a week after Cunningham made comments against transgender inclusion.
</blockquote>
I’d say that’s a loaded characterization of Cunningham’s position from Yahoo Sports, but you get the general gist of the incident. From what I can tell, Cunningham and these girls aren’t broadly opposed to “transgender inclusion.” They’re specifically against biological males in women’s sports, a stance that New York Times polling <a href="https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/f548560f100205ef/e656ddda-full.pdf">tells us 79% of the country shares</a>.
Here’s an aspect that might be obscured if you’re only reading about this situation in a publication like Yahoo: The optics are comically favorable to what I’ll call <a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/how-sophie-cunningham-became-the">the non-Left</a>. The two teen girls come off as <a href="https://x.com/BrandiKruse/status/2082500178226155685">polite and well-adjusted</a>. Co-owner Celeste Keaton, who apparently berated the girls with “F*cking insane!” is obviously <a href="https://x.com/YahooSports/status/2082821382736380290">far older and also out of shape</a>. If the male equivalent yelled at girls for some different reason, mainstream journalists would freely describe this individual as “gross-looking.” So on the one side, you’ve got presentable teenagers quietly conveying their majority-backed views, and on the other side you’ve got an angry fat franchise partner verbally abusing them.
I mention this not to be mean, but to describe reality and also highlight how it doesn’t always fit conventional media narrative. I grew up on the baked-in assumption that the progressive protester represents ascendant youth and the person yelling at them represents aging decline. While polling suggests younger people are relatively more open to the inclusion of biological males in women’s sports, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/poll-americans-oppose-trans-women-competing-female-sports-2-3-gen-z-rcna203658">even a solid Gen Z majority</a> opposes the idea. One reason a teen might physically show up to protest males in girls&#8217; sports is that they, unlike a liberal boomer yelling at them, have skin in the game.
My impression is that in sports journalism circles, it’s largely assumed that non-lefty Indiana Fever fans are all MAGA GRIFTER CHUDS. These types are angry men who probably look like they just stepped off the set of &#8220;Deliverance.&#8221; None of them care about women’s sports. All of them just enjoy triggering the ladies out of mean-spirited revanchist resentment.
A dominant narrative in WNBA media circles is that Caitlin Clark has a moral obligation to <a href="https://awfulannouncing.com/wnba/elle-duncan-calls-on-caitlin-clark-confront-bad-faith-actors.html">cool off these out-of-control freaks</a>. To be clear, a lot of conservatives online enjoy using the WNBA as a piñata, but there have been scant examples of Fever fans acting tangibly abusive IRL.
So it’s quite counter-narrative to see, in the wake of Cunningham taking up this “protect girls” position, fans acting out of control from the other side. I can’t vouch for the veracity of descriptions in every clip, but multiple examples of allegedly abusive Seattle Storm fans were posted from Tuesday’s action.
The aforementioned girls were also yelled at by a <a href="https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2082627754374111450">mustachioed man who looked a bit like a skinny Taylor Lewan</a>. He said, “Security: Take the trash out.” Conservative political commentator Brandi Kruse claims that two Seattle Storm fans attempted to trip a teen wearing an <a href="https://www.xx-xyathletics.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqv8ygnLI2iRCjssCk_zPK2jCyYI18Gz22qhGmmbaEO9ZrI-LM7">XX-XY athletics</a> shirt. Kruse posted a photo of the two alleged offenders, but I’m not linking to it. Absent video, I lack solid evidence that this happened, even though it’s plausible based on the night’s events. I am, however, linking to <a href="https://x.com/BrickCenter_/status/2082544018379219020?s=20">this video</a> of a Storm fan allegedly spitting at a Fever fan. Maybe there’s some other context here, but barring AI magic, I can at least establish that this dude hawked a real loogie.
Black Sports Online proprietor <a href="https://x.com/BSO/status/2082594185199358460?s=20">Robert Littal posted</a>:
<blockquote>
Curiously, there is no mainstream attention or visceral social outrage about this fan interaction at a WNBA game&#8230;.. The Storm, the WNBA, ESPN, USA Today, etc etc no one has said anything and it is on tape so not like someone made it up&#8230;
</blockquote>
Littal, hardly a Trump supporter, is getting at a massive double standard. It’s an article of faith in mainstream sports media circles that politically activated fan misbehavior only goes in one (MAGA) direction. That assumption arguably fuels transgression from the side they align with. I’d hazard that the people lashing out at teen Sophie fans believe themselves to be good and righteous. If you’re wholly bought in on the idea that your enemy is cartoonishly evil, and you’re generally averse to countenancing their perspective as potentially valid, that can be interpreted as a justification for abuse. These aren’t human beings. They’re just avatars for “hate.” Why not harass them?
This is how an old woman finds herself aggressing courtside teenagers during a nationally televised basketball game. She’s likely lost herself in this sanctimonious certainty, totally oblivious to how the world might regard her as psychotic.
She’s in a bubble, of course. And an amusing one at that. Quoting <a href="https://x.com/jessesingal/status/2082569631768719611?s=20">HoS guest Jesse Singal</a>:
<blockquote>
Maybe the Seattleiest, richlibbiest Seattle richlib story ever. Keaton&#8217;s actually the long-time partner of Storm coowner Lisa Brummel (est. 9-figure net worth). Keaton is a &#8220;Feng Shui &amp; Intuitive Consultant&#8221; and an &#8220;ordained holistic minister.&#8221;
As a clairsentient and clairvoyant, my main divination modality is through reading Tarot cards &amp; by empathically tuning in to the Client.&#8221; (All via LinkedIn.) This is just a *deeeeeeply* 2026-America story, when you think about it.
</blockquote>
I laughed at the silliness of her biography but also saw notes of transferred religiosity in this woman’s background. Communion with God replaced with clairsentience and clairvoyance. A crusade against heretics replaced with a vulgar sermon for high schoolers. A steadfast belief in morality undergirded by absolute spiritual certainty.
Maybe there’s no way for mainstream sports outlets to get through to a woman like this, but it’d be nice if they did more humanizing of her target. Those teen girls don’t see themselves as advancing “hate.” They doubtless believe they’re protecting women because, on the same field of competition, males have obvious physical advantages over females.
It’s reflexive among many of my peers to sneer at anyone who takes up the “save women’s sports” stance. This is somehow both a “<a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/how-sophie-cunningham-became-the">non-issue</a>” and a contemptible cause. It’s “a distraction” but somehow also important enough that one must never cave to the majority. It’s simply all a pretext for being mean to a marginalized group, even if any sane person can reason out why males in female sports could be a problem.
Okay, but I-638 is a real bill, designed to curtail <a href="https://x.com/hecheateddotorg/status/2082517679559319660?s=46&amp;t=oGFkfjOaJhGL-HV3dqLoGQ">actual incidents in Washington state</a>. It’s a “for or against” proposition. There’s a shelf life on this cool kid media game of perpetually pretending these bill supporters are prima facie freaks, absent articulated counter positions. You can act like such people are “weird,” but who looked especially weird on Tuesday night, in images that went viral?
I’m not saying this sort of optically toxic progressive activity loses the midterm for Democrats, but I do wonder. The election should be a layup. The party in power almost always gets crushed, and I shake my head whenever I drive past a gas station.
But if your side keeps making cameos as loud and angry proponents of a fringe position, there’s a cost to this that even sympathetic prestige media can’t save you from. The evidence was strong that <a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2024/trump-hammered-democrats-on-transgender-issues-now-the-party-is-at-odds-on-a-response/">the transgender sports issue helped Donald Trump win the 2024 election</a>. It’s not “concern trolling” to observe that digging in on males in girls&#8217; sports can deprive a major political party of power.
At first, it appeared that Sophie Cunningham might distance herself from the protesters. In response to accusatory questions, the Fever read a PR statement denying that “Sophie had any knowledge of this demonstration and no contact with its organizers.”
On Wednesday night, Sophie Cunningham <a href="https://x.com/sophaller/status/2082675804874604615?s=46&amp;t=oGFkfjOaJhGL-HV3dqLoGQ">tweeted</a>:
<blockquote>
I truly believe there is a safe space and love for EVERYBODY. Biological girls, biological boys, trans women, and trans men. Everyone is welcome at my table! You can disagree and still be kind.
Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You’ll be hearing from me soon (hearts emoji) yay for gifts. Truly embarrassing of the co-owner. Unfortunately shows the type of leader she is.
</blockquote>
I don’t know if this is purely an extension of Cunningham’s moral intuition. Perhaps that’s unfair, and I’m just too cynical. I do, however, know that Sophie has quite a grasp of optics and popularity. A day later, after looking at the scenes, she chose to endorse the pleasant-seeming teen fans and dump on the angry old coot. You could argue that Sophie Cunningham is purely being rational here. You could argue she’s surrounded by a league and media ecosystem that regards rationality as immoral.
***
Ethan Strauss is the creator of the Substack House of Strauss. He is a former NBA PR gopher, basketblogger, and NBA beat writer.

Sophie Cunningham Is The Moral Compass Standing Up To The WNBA Coots

Nothing screams &#8220;support women&#8217;s basketball&#8221; quite like a team co-owner berating two 16-year-old girls until they cry.
That&#8217;s the state of the WNBA in 2026, folks. It&#8217;s honestly a mystery wrapped in an enigma why the sport isn&#8217;t more popular.
That&#8217;s exactly what unfolded Tuesday night during the Seattle Storm&#8217;s game against the Indiana Fever. Two teenagers wearing XX-XY Athletics shirts. This is a brand built around — and I know this is a radical concept — protecting women&#8217;s sports for actual women.The two girls were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-co-owners-tirade-at-sophie-cunningham-fans-ends-in-fallout">told</a> they were &#8220;f*cking insane&#8221; for holding a sign that read &#8220;Thank you Sophie for speaking up for girls.&#8221;
This comes amid the fervor surrounding Sophie Cunningham, the Fever guard who&#8217;s made it her personal mission to protect teammate Caitlin Clark from the maniacal manhandlers who seem more intent on trying to cause her real, serious harm than on trying to win games. And, more controversially, Cunningham says out loud that biological men shouldn&#8217;t play women&#8217;s sports.
Isn&#8217;t it a shame that this now counts as a hot take? We&#8217;ll let 10-year-olds chop off their God-given goods, no problem; but suggest that a 16-year-old girl shouldn&#8217;t have to guard a grown man in the paint, and suddenly it’s as if you screamed “bomb” on an airplane.
Naturally, the brave teens (braver than me: I wouldn’t attend a WNBA game nor willingly set foot in Seattle) had to put their signs away to protect the fragile feelings of the fruity vanguard, while the multi-colored, rainbow marxist next to them kept her neon “No Hate In These United States” sign up the entire game.
I don’t know, girly pop.
It seemed pretty hateful to me when the co-owner of the team, Celeste Keaton, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbZou8oMQEL/?hl=en">swore at and belittled</a> the two young athletes who paid to be there, for the crime of supporting fairness in the sport she claims to have devoted her life to. Newsflash for Klass-less Keaton: If fans wanted to watch burly, powerful bundles of XY chromosomes play basketball, that league already exists. It’s called the NBA. It&#8217;s on most nights at 9 p.m.
The highly agitated and morally bankrupt co-owner has been fined and suspended for the next five home games. But to me, this actually seems more like a reward than a punishment; not having to watch the Seattle Storm night after night, but then again, I&#8217;m a straight conservative.
It also seemed pretty hateful when a grown man in a WNBA hat (interesting choice) heckled the same girls, yelling &#8220;get out&#8221; and &#8220;security, take out the trash&#8221; while they cried.
Is it possible to just carve Washington State out of America? Could we give them to Canada? The benevolent folk can apply for residency in other states, using multiple forms of ID, of course, but the rest can stay in their sad, vampire-ridden land and float off into the northern Pacific. Our military&#8217;s schedule is pretty light right now; I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;ve got time to blow a gorge across the state line.
Sure, the scenery is stunning. But so is a Renaissance painting of a plague, but you wouldn’t want to live inside it. Seattle literally ranks #1 in adults having feelings of depression. I don&#8217;t make the rules; I just read the Census data. Some things are worth losing the view for. Baby, meet bathwater.
Oh well, I’m just glad Sophie, her teammates, and those young ladies made it out alive. But they didn’t leave with their heads hung low. The Fever crushed Keaton’s Storm clouds 105-95, marking Indiana&#8217;s fourth consecutive 100-point game — a new WNBA record for the longest such streak in league history. Clark led the crusade with 32; Cunningham flipped the booing crowd the bird by shooting 3-for-3 from three in the first quarter. 
 
<a href="https://x.com/MAGAVoice/status/2070740086074102191">We see you, Sophie. We see you.</a>
And increasingly, so does the rest of the country. Her Adidas partnership has become one of the league&#8217;s bigger commercial stories this season, with her player-exclusive sneaker selling out within hours of its release. Turns out normie Americans like common sense, Title IX, and rooting for pretty blondes who don’t apologize for either.
The WNBA doesn&#8217;t have a talent problem. It has a leadership problem. When your co-owners are cursing out teenage girls for saying men shouldn&#8217;t play women&#8217;s sports, in a women&#8217;s sports league, you&#8217;ve stopped being an inclusive institution and started being an ideological one; and ideological institutions don&#8217;t grow audiences, they shed them.
Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham are giving this league its biggest audience ever. Its own ownership keeps handing that audience reasons to watch literally anything else.
Fix that, and the mystery solves itself.

WNBA: JUL 18 New York Liberty at Indiana Fever

They Came For Caitlin Clark – Will The WNBA Destroy Sophie Cunningham Next?

Let’s say you ran a sports league and you had two choices in how to market that sports league. First choice: All-American, fun, inspiring, generally normie. Second choice: militantly lesbian, trans, anti-white, and the players bet on their own games.
Which would you choose?
The NBA seems to be making its choice every single day. Yet another WNBA scandal cropped up this week, and it&#8217;s precisely what you think it is.
I am an NBA fan. My son is an even bigger NBA fan. Back in the 1970s, we probably wouldn&#8217;t have been NBA fans. Most people weren’t back in the &#8217;70s, and there were a bunch of reasons for that. The NBA was broadly perceived as a thuggish, drug-infused league. They had no national TV coverage because of that perception.
In 1977, a player for the LA Lakers named Kermit Washington nearly killed Rudy Tomjanovich in the middle of a game by punching him in the face. A fan actually assaulted a referee during the 1976 NBA Finals. The ownership groups were totally mismanaged; the amount of blow and hookers wading through the NBA in the &#8217;70s was extraordinary.
The NBA was plodding. They didn&#8217;t have a three-point line. The American Basketball Association (ABA), which was its big competitor and had its own financial problems, had three-pointers and dunks. The NBA had serious problems.
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So the NBA decided to solve that problem. The Celtics drafted Larry Bird. The Lakers drafted Magic Johnson. And then the entire league was built around them. They&#8217;d been huge, high-wattage college stars; Bird was white, and Magic was black. The NBA also absorbed the ABA. Stars like Dr. J entered the NBA, and the NBA decided to change its style. They added the three-point line in 1979. By 1982, NBA games were now live, not tape-delayed, and by 1983, the NBA had decided to pursue a serious anti-drug policy to wipe out the cocaine problem.
The NBA also decided to put serious focus on policing on-and-off-court violence and behavior. They were fining players and suspending them, and the NBA mostly decided to protect its stars, which it still does, which is why a lot of people will complain that stars in the playoffs get all the calls.
This is how you build a league.
Now let&#8217;s turn to the WNBA, the subsidized little sister of the NBA. It has lost money every single year it&#8217;s been in existence. The NBA basically pays its bills.
Its quality of play? Let’s just say they ain’t dudes. There are men&#8217;s suburban over-40 basketball leagues that play better basketball than what was played in the WNBA All-Star game.
That alone would be a problem, but its brand is even worse because it has become militant lesbians who are decent at basketball by female standards, but certainly not by male standards, and are simultaneously obnoxiously insistent that the only reason people won&#8217;t watch them is racism and sexism.
That was the WNBA brand. 
And then the WNBA received the greatest gift of all time: Caitlin Clark. That’s because Caitlin Clark was breaking records in college, and her entry into the WNBA meant a spike in viewership and people actually giving a crap because she was really good.
But there is one problem for the WNBA. The league is still plagued by radical political leftism that has somehow become intertwined with the very character of the league. They let the character of the players dictate the character of the league, and so the players whine incessantly about the fact that Caitlin Clark gets attention, instead of them celebrating the fact that people are actually watching their crappy games.
They keep saying that she&#8217;s not good, or that the people who are following Caitlin Clark are only doing so because she&#8217;s white and racist.
There were people who did this throughout Larry Bird&#8217;s career. There were two differences: The league rejected it, and Bird would trash-talk the living hell out of everybody and would own you if you tried to do this.
There is a large-scale trend of Caitlin Clark getting randomly manhandled. Even that gave the WNBA an opportunity, because it turns out that Caitlin Clark&#8217;s team also has a very pretty forward named Sophie Cunningham, who is All-American in her attitude and viewpoints, and has become Caitlin Clark&#8217;s protector on the court, which led to the viral moment when another player told her not to point at her, so Cunningham proceeded to point at her for a meme-worthy 22 seconds.
Cunningham knew the cameras were on her. She knew exactly what she was doing. Smart marketing. Yet another opportunity for the WNBA, right?
Wrong. Why?
Because Sophie Cunningham has the wrong kind of politics. Last week, she said that boys aren&#8217;t girls and girls’ sports should be protected from the boys playing with them, and all hell broke loose.
This is an 80/20 issue. Most Americans don&#8217;t believe that boys should play against girls. And you&#8217;re talking about a women&#8217;s sport league.
A 14-year-old high school freshman boy starting varsity at any decent public school in America would torch these ladies. That is not sexist. That is reality.
Naturally, the WNBA top voices decided to come out in stern opposition to Sophie Cunningham. That’s because the WNBA isn&#8217;t the women&#8217;s NBA; it is the LNBA or LGBT NBA.
All of that came out into the open this week. Brandi Kruse, a journalist in Seattle whom I know from my days back on a Seattle radio station, took a bunch of girls to the Indiana Fever game in Seattle, and they were wearing XX-XY shirts. They stand against men in women&#8217;s sports.
And then an owner of the Seattle Storm, Celeste Keaton — who seems like a real charmer — showed up to scream at these teenage girls.
According to the girls, she first tried a softer approach: “I hope Jesus can forgive you for what sin you&#8217;ve done.” One girl recalled, “And then she told us that we were effing insane.” Asked whether Keaton actually said the curse word, the girl answered that she had.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Storm center, Stefanie Dolson, who is 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds — which makes her the Shaq of the WNBA, except she stinks, averaging 3.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game with the mobility of quicksand — wore a shirt that said: “Trans rights are human rights.”
Sophie Cunningham applauded the girls. She wrote on X: “I truly believe there is a safe space and love for everybody; biological girls, biological boys, trans women and trans men. Welcome to my table! You can disagree and still be kind. Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You&#8217;ll be hearing from me soon. Yay for gifts! Truly embarrassing of the co-owner. Unfortunately shows the type of leader she is.”
Sophie Cunningham is trying to play it as mainstream as possible. She&#8217;s even using the politically acceptable language here, which I would not recommend because it isn’t going to win her any points.
It is incredible that this was even a controversy. The WNBA eventually suspended Keaton for the next five home games and fined her.
But the lasting impression here is pretty obvious if you are traditionally conservative: If you&#8217;re rational in any way, if you are not a radical LGBT activist, you do not belong at a WNBA game.
They are actively alienating well over half of the American population.
The WNBA could be successful; after all, there are a lot of women&#8217;s sports that are: women&#8217;s tennis, women&#8217;s golf. (Not so much women’s soccer, which tends to spike around the World Cup and then fall apart for the same exact reasons, because it&#8217;s very important to be incredibly woke.)
But if you want people to watch your product, you might want to think about this: To which crowd are you trying to appeal? I have two girls, 12 and six. Do I want to bring them to a WNBA game where they are being preached to about the virtues of LGBT radicalism?
It&#8217;s enough of a burden for me to pretend that the games are actually entertaining and interesting. I would never allow these people to shovel politics into my kids’ brains.
That&#8217;s the problem for the WNBA: The league can&#8217;t separate itself from its politics.
For them to do what they actually need to do to become successful, they would need to acknowledge they&#8217;re totally out of step politically with the rest of America.
They won’t.

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