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Fever’s Sophie Cunningham Throws Shade at Cleveland, Detroit Over New WNBA Teams

Andy Nesbitt

Sophie Cunningham wished the WNBA picked some different cities to expand to.
Sophie Cunningham wished the WNBA picked some different cities to expand to. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
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The WNBA made some big news Monday when it announced three new expansion teams—Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia—will be joining the league in the coming years.

While that is great news for the three cities picked, Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham didn't seem all that impressed by the selection and threw some shade at Cleveland and Detroit, calling them cities that not many players would be excited to call home.

Cunningham, who spoke at the Fever's pregame shootaround before Tuesday night's WNBA Commissioner's Cup in Minneapolis, named a few other places she would have wanted to be picked:

"You want to listen to your players, too. Like where do they want to play?" she said of the WNBA's selection process. "Where are they going to get excited to play and draw fans? I think Miami would have been a great one. Nashville is an amazing city. Kansas City, amazing opportunity. There’s a huge arena downtown that nobody is using."

She later took this shot:

"But man, I don’t know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."

Here are her full comments:

Cleveland is set to join the league in 2028, with Detroit joining in 2029 and Philadelphia getting started in 2030.

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Andy Nesbitt
ANDY NESBITT

Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.

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