Currently, the Indiana Fever are trying to upset the Las Vegas Aces. At the same time, Sophie Cunningham is enduring a grueling rehab from her ACL injury.
In the meantime, she is making time to assess what her role is on the Fever and she has come to a startling realization. Essentially, Cunningham believes it is her obligation to do her best in protecting Caitlin Clark, as per The Young Man & The Three Podcast.
She said that she tries to be like NBA player Draymond Green, offering clarification as to what that means.
“I’m not saying I am that role,” she said. “I promise you I’m not. I had my intrusive thoughts got the best of me one time.”
Additionally, Cunningham said that she felt she needed to step up and protect Clark because she has the temperament to do so.
“What I was saying giving him his flowers because when you are on a team with a superstar people do go for them,” Cunningham said. “I don’t care what anyone says there is a different type of effort and extraness to try to maybe get in their head or try to throw them off their rhythm or whatever and a majority of the time those superstars, they don’t have that kind of feisty or sassiness to kind of back themselves up and they need their teammates to do that.”
“And I have first handed seen it this year and I’m like alright if we’re not going to protect our star someone has to.”
Is Sophie Cunningham the Draymond Green of the WNBA?
Since joining the Fever, Cunningham's profile has only continued to rise. She is known for taking on the “enforcer” role and is equally notable for her commentary off the court. Which, in turn, has caused controversy and may rub people the wrong way.
She gets fined for calling out the WNBA officiating. In the next breath, Cunningham alleges that players won't be excited about playing in certain expansion cities.
As a result, she has become compared to Draymond Green, who engages in similar activity. Also, fans and analysts alike are quick to weigh in.
