The WNBA’s front office had barely breathed amid the controversy when Sophie Cunningham’s explosive interview started to trend. Just weeks after she became the center of controversy for her stance on transgender athletes’ participation, the Indiana Fever star’s comments were aimed at WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert by invoking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s name.
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“You do have to have a person in power who is bold, who is confident, who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves all the time. So I do feel like, as a whole, that could be a position that’s maybe open at the end of the year, but that’s not my call,” Cunningham told USA Today Sports’ Meghan L. Hall in an exclusive August 19 interview.
“(Cathy Engelbert’s) done a lot of good things, but with where our league is trying to go, I feel like you just want someone who also wants that. That’s just a hard position to be in, in her shoes, us as players ― we always want more, more, more because we see how good it can be, but … that’s up to Adam Silver at the end of the day.”
Although Adam Silver is the NBA commissioner, since the NBA has the controlling stake in the WNBA, it makes him the overseer. The other reason why Sophie Cunningham mentioned Silver could be because he was the one who brought Cathy Engelbert.
In the last few weeks, Engelbert has come under heavy scrutiny. First, she was criticized for a lack of public involvement in representing WNBA leadership. Things intensified after the Alyssa Thomas-Caitlin Clark incident on June 24.
Thomas was unhappy with Engelbert’s silence while the Phoenix Mercury star was getting threats online. “We still have yet to hear anything from Cathy. It’s no surprise you can see what’s being said on social media. It’s unfortunate,” Thomas told the media in late June.
In her ESPN interview earlier this month, Sophie Cunningham said that she wanted to protect women’s sports. She added that “young girls” shouldn’t have to play against “biological men” in sports.
Following Cunningham’s July 21 comments, former NBA players like Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White furthered the WNBA’s problems. They declared their intentions to enter the 2027 WNBA draft, citing ambiguity of the word “women” in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
While the league’s participation policy came under heavy scrutiny, the league was late in its response. While Freedom posted on social media on August 7, the Cathy Engelbert-led Anti-Hate Task Force didn’t formally address the trans athlete debate until August 12. In fact, the league didn’t even reach a conclusion regarding the debate.
“We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league. There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others.”
Yet, in light of this response, neither Freedom nor White have backed down from their stance. That means despite the league declaring their arguments as based in ‘bad faith,’ this controversy is far from over.
Sophie Cunningham feels that this reactionary approach needs to change, and the league needs to proactively tackle challenges. The Fever guard has both faced criticism and received support from people inside and outside sports for her stance on trans athletes. However, one of the reasons Cunningham has become so popular is becuase this ability to speak her mind.