Sophie Cunningham Jokes She Should Get Her Money Back After Last Year’s WNBA Fines

Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are officially playing basketball again as they battle Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings in their highly anticipated 2026 WNBA season-opener. One of Indiana’s goals, like that of every other team in the W, is to win a championship. Another one (that perhaps most applies to Sophie Cunningham): Get fined less.

Ahead of Saturday’s game, Cunningham got honest about the state of WNBA officiating on the latest episode of her podcast, Show Me Something. She addressed Wings’ No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd’s recent eyebrow-raising comments on the league’s refereeing during which the rookie guard said she was “confused” about the way things were being called: “I thought you could be physical in the W and anytime you touch someone, it’s a foul. So I’m not really sure whether to be physical, whether to—I don’t know. I’m still figuring that out.”

Same, girl, same, Cunningham said.

“I have so many opinions now that I know that. Maybe [Fudd] didn’t get fined because it’s preseason. I’ve been fined a lot, but not more than last year. This podcast has really done some damage,” Cunningham joked.

She went on to discuss how WNBA players and refs have been having closed-door meetings on how the officiating can be better this season.

“All I’m saying is, I think she has a very valid point,” continued Cunningham. “But you know what? New year, fresh start, and we’ve had meetings with the refs, and I think that they have owned up for last year, truly. Like in all of our meetings, they’re like, ‘We’ve got to be better.’ ... Wait does that mean I get my money back? If they’re starting to agree with what I saw the entire time, should I be able to get my money back?”

Sophie Cunningham’s costly WNBA fines from Fever’s 2025 season

It’s no secret that Cunningham has been slapped with a handful of fines for both her on- and off-court actions. In June 2025, Cunningham received two separate fines for her Flagrant 2 foul on Jacy Sheldon during the Fever’s tense win over the Sun.

A month later, Cunningham made headlines again for criticizing WNBA referees in a TikTok video set to the soundtrack of Sabrina Carpenter’s pop song, “Manchild.”

"Stupid," the pop song goes. "Or is it... slow? Maybe it's... useless?" Cunningham wrote, "@ some refs" in the caption while lip-syncing the lyrics.

Then last August, Cunningham revealed the WNBA fined her $1,500 over additional comments she made about WNBA refs during the debut episode of her podcast.

"What happens is [the WNBA] emails our GM and she pulls me aside... and she just smiled and goes 'Hey, they’re gonna fine you again.' I even told them—I credited them that their job was hard! I did say that and I said that I would not be good at it. I did say that, like, look at the whole picture? What are we doing?" Cunningham said.

Hopefully Cunningham, who signed a one-year, $665,000 deal with the Fever this past free agency, can save more of her money this season and lets her game do most of the talking.

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