While Sophie Cunningham is averaging a respectable 9.5 points and 2.5 rebounds this season, her popularity has grown through some highlight moments on the court. Her scuffle with Jacy Sheldon in June last year and her pointing-finger gesture towards DeWanna Bonner last month are two of the biggest examples so far. Now, the Fever guard has shed light on her mindset of leveraging these moments to her benefit after they happen on the court.

“There’s nothing that I did or do that lets me live this life; I’m just embracing it and having fun. But I’m also someone who is not ignorant. I know, if you use this platform, you can, once the ball stops bouncing, you’re setting yourself for success,” Cunningham said on the Sons and Daughters podcast’s July 9 episode.

“Players need to start doing that because we don’t make enough money. Even now, after the CBA, we don’t make enough money to retire and not do anything once we’re done. So, I did not know how I was going to, but I will say that moment last year was just me being feisty. That was definitely me being feisty.”

Cunningham’s incident with Sheldon occurred during the Indiana-Connecticut game on June 17 last year. It stemmed from an initial flagrant that Sheldon committed on Caitlin Clark, where she hit the Fever guard in her eye while guarding her.

Subsequently, in the dying moments when Sheldon was driving towards the paint for an offensive play, Cunningham brought the Connecticut guard down, resulting in a scuffle. The fans were quick to conjure these two incidents, giving Cunningham the status of Clark’s protector.

This scuffle also skyrocketed Cunningham’s fan following. In the three days after the incident, Cunningham gained 700,000 TikTok followers and 244,000 Instagram followers according to Social Blade. Even her overall brand value saw “unprecedented growth” after that incident.

“We work with some pretty big athletes that have gone viral for some pretty big things, but this has been something that I haven’t seen before, this type of growth in this short amount of time… was very new territory,” said Addison Abdo, senior director of management company STN who represents Cunningham, as per Sportico.

Notably, in a similar turn of events this season, Sophie Cunningham caught the attention for her 22-second finger-pointing gesture towards DeWanna Bonner. Initially, it came amid an altercation between the Indiana and Phoenix players.

However, fans turned it into a cultural moment, using it in memes and social media edits. John Cena, Tom Brady, and even the White House shared those images on social media.

With 1.5 million Instagram followers and counting, it’s safe to say that Cunningham’s strategy has worked so far, as she’s become part of the zeitgeist beyond the paint.