The Indiana Fever’s Lexie Hull seldom backs out of a challenge. That tendency cost her visible black eyes after a collision with the Seattle Storm’s Gabby Williams during an August 25 game.
The incident, simply due to the extent of what was going on on the court, was difficult to explain. However, Sophie Cunningham did exactly that, and she did it so well that Hull commented she would show her kids the clip to explain the injury someday.
“I’ll show my kids this one day. Thanks for the recap,” she wrote on Instagram under the clip of the explanation. And well, Hull can be forgiven for feeling this way considering the extent of Cunningham’s breakdown.
It began with an explanation of the increased physicality that the guard believes is a result of leniency from referees. Cunningham believes it leads to emotions flaring and “people doing things that they probably shouldn’t be doing.” That first led to a collision with Kayla McBride, whom Cunningham called a “hell of a shooter.”
“She’s a great, great player, so I am not going after her in any way. She had an extra movement after the ball and just elbowed and nailed Lexie right in the f***ing face,” she said, before claiming that the foul should have been upgraded to a flagrant one. The language may as well have been the reason Hull believes her kids are not ready for the clip yet.
Cunningham also believes that it would have been upgraded had it been a Fever player who made the contact. However, it appears to be the second incident that led to Hull getting black eyes.
“Gabby’s awesome. She’s like one of my good friends. She did not mean to, but her and Lexie on accident nailed each other. That’s where Lex immediately had like a huge knot. That’s what gave her the black eye,” Cunningham explained.
She went on to reveal that she was horrified to see her picture and ended up facetiming Lexie Hull when she saw it. And well, the concern is understandable, especially considering the initial pictures that the player had released on TikTok.
