Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has never been shy about speaking her mind. Cunningham has repeatedly blasted WNBA leadership this week and has spoken openly about the possibility of a player strike this offseason. She kept the pressure on during a recent podcast episode.
Cunningham urged the league to rein in the physicality during Friday's episode of her Show Me Something podcast.
“There was a clip, it was a two minute video going around of all the fouls that they did not call on their all-stars or their players,” Cunningham said. “And it was like you knew the agenda. They made it too obvious. And I think the refs they truly do have a hard job and at the end of the day. Everyone is texting them just trying to get clarity of why is this called, why is this not called. And at the end of the day, like they respond well this meets the criteria. Well then the criteria needs to change. If our game is growing and it’s changing then our criteria can’t be from the 1700’s.”
Cunningham further argued that the level of physicality from the regular season should be what the playoffs are like.
“We want the league to be more physical but at this point, how the season has been going, like the regular season, that’s really the physicality playoff basketball should be,” Cunningham explained. “We’re out there killing each other, everyone is getting injured. That’s not fun for the fans to watch. It’s not fun to play. Keep basketball, basketball. Because we are very highly skilled competitive basketball players who are very elite at their craft. That’s what people want to see.”
The Fever are probably the best team in the WNBA to make this argument. Indiana was absolutely ravaged by injuries during the regular season.
Caitlin Clark only played in 13 games after sustaining multiple injuries. The Fever also lost a host of other players, including Aari McDonald and Sydney Colson, to season-ending injuries. Even Cunningham herself went down with a season-ending knee injury.
It will be fascinating to see how the WNBA responds, if at all, to the firestorm of calls to improve the league's officiating this offseason.
