Sophie Cunningham Fires Back at Fan Calling Out Constant Caitlin Clark Mentions
There's no question that Sophie Cunningham has experienced a massive boom in popularity during her 2025 WNBA season with the Indiana Fever. A large chunk of this boom came after Cunningham defended her Indiana Fever teammate, Caitlin Clark, by throwing Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon to the ground shortly after Sheldon shoved Clark in a June 17 game.
Cunningham and Sheldon were both ejected because of this moment, which incited a brief brawl between the Fever and the Sun. Cunningham earned a lot of praise from fans for acting as Clark's enforcer, and while she was fined $400 for her actions, a June 20 article from Sportico showed how her value skyrocketed in the wake of this ejection, earning back that $400 and much more.
The article noted that Cunningham added 700,000 followers on TikTok and more than 244,000 newcomers on Instagram just three days after the incident. This growth equated to about $1 million in terms of what a brand would pay for that amount of growth, and Cunningham capitalized on this through several brand deals, one of which directly referenced her scuffle with Sheldon.
Cunningham now has over 1.3 million Instagram followers, adding about 600,000 since that ejection heard around the world. Much of this is owed to her proximity to Clark, as the social media traction she gleaned from shoving Sheldon came because of who she was defending.
Sophie Cunningham Claps Back at Fan Over Caitlin Clark Mention
Cunningham is surely aware that her relationship with Clark has influenced her own popularity and attention. And this is why it behooves her to keep speaking about Clark.
The most recent example of her doing so came during a December 4 episode of her Show Me Something podcast, when Cunningham conveyed that she tried to convince Clark to play in the new Project B women's basketball league.
"I tried to get [Clark] to play in this [league], and she was like, 'No!'" Cunningham said when speaking about her joining Project B.
This comment has gone viral, as it's the first time fans have heard Clark and Project B directly linked. However. Cunningham referencing Clark seemed to irk Instagram user @aime.aaaaa, who commented on the @overtimewbb accounts clip of Cunningham speaking about No. 22 and wrote, "sophie cunningham stop talking about cc challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]".
Cunningham quickly clapped back at this user by writing, "people stop asking/talking to me about her….. IMPOSSIBLE."
uhmmmmm lmfaoooooooo pic.twitter.com/cF0tLiuKUa
— correlation (@nosyone4) December 6, 2025
It seems that Cunningham might be tired of the narrative that she's milking her relationship with Clark for clout. But that probably won't stop her from speaking about CC.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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