Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham has called for more honesty among the sports media.
Speaking to reporters at her team’s media day on Wednesday, Cunningham addressed a recent social media exchange. The exchange appeared to reference her calling out Yahoo Sports for an X post. The post claimed she “was not thrilled” about her recent one-year contract extension with the team.
Cunningham’s Social Media Response
Cunningham responded to the X post on Monday. She wrote, “I’m gonna shut this down right now. I’m not mad about the money…. I just wanted more years because I love it here. I wanted to get a house so I could bring my dog and donkey to Indy with me. That’s it. That’s the truth. I think we have something very special here in Indiana!!”
Addressing Media at Media Day
Cunningham appeared to address the issue again at Wednesday’s media day session.
“Media is going to do what media does and I think you guys know that. You guys are a part of that. And I think if everyone watches the full clip that I’m very calm, cool, and collected. You know, I think sports and media in general, we need more honesty. We love clickbait. I know that’s what pays the bills and whatnot,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham added that she hopes to take an honest approach as an aspiring sports broadcaster.
“I’ve been on both sides of media, positive and negative. And I want to be someone who brings smiles, who brings positivity. And so, I really hope that I can bring that to the broadcasting space. I think if you have conversations with your friends and do all that, of course, anyone can clip a little something and it can just blow up and be not what you meant at all,” she said.
Cunningham continued, “And so, I think as much negativity as I got on that, so many people were like, ‘Hey, we love the authenticity. We love the honesty. We think that more players should speak like that.’ And so, for me, it just opened up a different perspective of, ‘Hey, I want to tell people stories.’ And I wanted to be positive. I wanted to be them. And so when all this stuff happens, now I get to be you guys and I get to share the story.”
Cunningham’s Contract and Baptism
After signing a one-year, $665,000 contract Sunday, Cunningham posted a video on TikTok Tuesday of her adult baptism.
“I got baptized when I was little but I wa