Mac Engel: Sophie Cunningham is the gift the WNBA has no idea how to properly use

Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Aug 21, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

FORT WORTH, Texas — The athlete far more little girls can identify with, and aspire to be, than we want to admit is not Caitlin Clark, but her Indiana Fever teammate who comes off the bench and averages 8.8 points per game.

Sophie Cunningham is irresistible content, and famous. Who cares if she averages a little more than 23 minutes per game? Why you’re famous doesn’t matter now. Just be famous.

In a development no one with the Fever — or the WNBA — saw coming, a decent reserve player with three starts this season has morphed into one of the most prominent faces of the league, and women’s sports.

She is part Livvy Dunne, part Pat McAfee, part decent pro basketball player who is one of the fortunate, and opportunistic, to take social media’s unguarded possibilities to create a name, and a following, for herself.

The WNBA may be Clark’s league, but the show is her teammate, Cunningham. Clark’s game and her “from the logo” 3-pointers are a top draw, but right behind those are Cunningham’s antics, theatrics and personality.

Cunningham, Clark and the Fever played the Dallas Wings on Thursday at the American Airlines Center. Clark was the reason thousands of tickets sold, but people were there to watch a role player.

Cunningham’s path to fame

It helps, immeasurably, that Cunningham is white with blonde hair and she’s pretty. Do not delude yourself into thinking that the power of these three traits, when combined, aren’t as powerful today as they were decades ago.

She’s also bright, funny, irreverent and not afraid to express her thoughts on her social media channels.

Cunningham’s social media following is one of the biggest in the WNBA, just behind Angel Reese and Clark. It’s miles ahead of more established players such as Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson and teammate Kelsey Mitchell.

From a basketball perspective, Cunningham will never be picked for an All-Star game. She can’t even crack her team’s starting lineup. From a popularity standpoint, she is crushing her league, and most of those All-Stars.

She enjoyed a decent career in relative obscurity in her first six years in the WNBA with the Phoenix Mercury. It wasn’t until she joined Indiana last year did her name enter the algorithm sphere, and it hasn’t left.

The WNBA’s challenge

A player this popular should be a wonderful tool for the WNBA, a league that needs household names. The problem is that Cunningham does not fit into the box that the league wants to market.

The WNBA wants to market its players much the way the NBA does its stars: through highlights. Cunningham’s highlights are hard fouls, a few 3-pointers, taunting, serving as a ring girl at a UFC fight, her sense of humor, and now commentary that has a Fox flair.

She recently created headlines when she expressed her thoughts on the topic of transgender athletes in sports when she said that young girls “shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” That comment pushed her into a different realm of celebrity; one that makes PR and marketing people want to throw their phones into the toilet.

She’s become the right vs. left vehicle that all sports leagues loathe. Now she’s also actively commenting on the state of WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s future employment.

Cunningham has become a favorite among the media that covers this league; she is a layup for media members looking for an easy talking point about social commentary that will engage/enrage audiences.

Naturally players around the league have noticed, and taken exception to, her popularity that has so little to do with what she does on the floor.

Sophie Cunningham’s game merits a spot on a WNBA team, but the level of fame she enjoys is one of those organic creations that the league didn’t see coming, nor can it slow.

Normally, a league like the WNBA would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars with the hope of a player reaching the level of her fame.

She has the fame, but the league has no idea what to do with Sophie Cunningham.