Sophie Cunningham Has 'Suck It' Response to Critics Questioning Fever Future

Sophie Cunningham responded to an article suggesting the Indiana Fever should part ways with her in free agency this offseason.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) looks on against the Minnesota Lynx. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Candace Buckner of The Athletic published an article earlier this week that made a case for why the Indiana Fever should part ways with Sophie Cunningham (who is set to become an unrestricted free agent) this offseason.

The article, which claimed Cunningham was too "turbulent" to be teammates with Caitlin Clark, received a ton of backlash on social media because of how it felt like a thinly veiled personal attack on Cunningham from a journalist who clearly has an axe to grind.

Cunningham and her co-host, Drew Hanlen, responded to the article during an episode of her "No Hesitation" podcast that was published on Thursday.

After noting that they weren't going to spend too much time on the article's contents because they wanted to keep the show about basketball, Hanlen called out two basketball-related inaccuracies in the article.

The first was that the article questioned why would want a bench player that only averaged eight points. Hanlen shut this down by indicating that Cuningham was a top-five bench scorer in the WNBA this season, which is a valuable commodity.

The second was the article saying, "Cunningham's effectiveness on the court didn't shine". But Hanlen noted that Cunningham was fourth in effective field goal percentage at 60.8% in the WNBA this season.

Then Cunningham offered her own response.

"That's why I literally don't even care what anyone says about me anymore. I've said this so many times is: if you're going to live by the praise, you're going to die by the hate. And the majority of these people have never picked up a ball in their entire lives, and they're just, like, thirsty to be relevant in some type of way," Cunningham said.

"No matter what anyone says to me, I'm going to continue to do me. I know what I bring to the table. It's not always in the stat sheet. And so, for you to not say I'm effective or any of that, whatever," she continued.

"Suck it," she concluded before moving on the a discussion about the WNBA playoffs.

Sophie Cunningham and Drew Hanlen shut down the Athletic hate on Sophie. Sophie says the majority of these people have never picked up a ball in their life and are thirsty to be relevant and get attention. The people who say she is not effective can suck it. pic.twitter.com/ZnqydLQZsm

— Andy froemel (@FroemelAndy) October 9, 2026

Fever Front Office Has Already Asserted Outside Noise Won't Impact Cunningham's Fever Fate

It's fair to wonder whether the Fever will account for Cunningham's polarizing nature when deciding how hard to pursue her in free agency this offseason.

Fever GM Amber Cox was asked directly whether any of the outside "stuff" influences how she'll analyze Cunningham's potential future with the Fever earlier this week and simply said, "No".

Cunningham has also made it clear multiple times that the outside noise doesn't impact her, and this response she had to The Athletic article reiterated that.