SI

City of Detroit, Cleveland Roast Sophie Cunningham for Her Comment on New WNBA Teams

Cunningham had it coming.

Kristen Wong

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) looks on during the second half against the Dallas Wings at the American Airlines Center.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) looks on during the second half against the Dallas Wings at the American Airlines Center. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
In this story:

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham made headlines this week when she unashamedly threw shade at a few American cities following news of the WNBA's expansions plans.

The WNBA is set to welcome three new franchises over the course of the next five years: Cleveland will join in 2028, Detroit in '29 and Philadelphia in '30. Cunningham was asked for her thoughts on the chosen cities for the league's expansion and took a savage shot at Cleveland and Detroit in particular.

"You want to listen to your players, too. Like where do they want to play?" Cunningham said Tuesday. "Where are they going to get excited to play and draw fans?... I don’t know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."

Cleveland Cavaliers players Donovan Mitchell and Tristan Thompson naturally took issue with Cunningham's comments and fired back at the Fever guard on social media. So, too, did the cities themselves.

The official Twitter accounts for the city of Detroit and Cleveland delivered strong messages to Cunningham in the wake of her not-so-subtle diss.

The city of Detroit wrote:

"The last time we were home to a WNBA team (Detroit Shock) we ranked top five in attendance for five straight seasons, No. 1 in attendance for three straight seasons and set a single-game attendance record of 22,076 fans at Game 3 of the 2003 WNBA Finals.

"Additionally more than 775,000 people were excited to come to Detroit for the 2024 NFL draft. Detroit is a sports town. We’re sure we’ll see the same excitement for the WNBA returning."

Beat 'em with the facts. The Detroit Shock, one of the league's original expansion teams who won three WNBA titles in 2003, '06 and '08, relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma before settling in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2016. They are now the Dallas Wings.

As for Cleveland, the city was much nicer in their clap-back, referencing an old quote from Cunningham's teammate Caitlin Clark:

"We’re proud to have been chosen to host a WNBA team and any player who comes here will feel that legendary passion Cleveland sports fans show our teams!" the city of Cleveland wrote.

It's a little heavy-handed on the enthusiasm, but that's arguably on brand for Cleveland when it comes to promoting the city.

Cleveland was previously home to the Rockers, one of the W's original eight teams, who posted a 108-112 record across seven seasons before the franchise folded in 2003.

More WNBA on Sports Illustrated

feed

Published
Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

Home/WNBA