The Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, saw the Minnesota Lynx defeat the Indiana Fever 108-100, but Sophie Cunningham somehow still became the center of the conversation. Amidst a hostile crowd, post-game discussions surrounded a controversial refereeing call involving Cunningham, which some fans believe was given incorrectly. Now WNBA analyst Ben Daniels has echoed a similar sentiment, blasting the league’s officiating.
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“Sophie Cunningham gets elbowed in the face, and somehow this is a foul on Sophie Cunningham. The worst part is these dummies, these stooge referees reviewed this play too, and still came to the conclusion that the foul is on Sophie Cunningham.”
The sequence happened in the second quarter, when it appears that Minnesota’s Nia Coffey attempts to take the ball away from a defending Cunningham. In the process, she seemingly ends up hitting Cunningham on the face with her elbow. The on-court call was a defensive foul against the Fever guard.
Daniels believes that it should have been given as an offensive foul against the Minnesota forward, as he noted on his podcast. The disputable call came in the midst of a crowd that already held significant animosity towards Cunningham over her past comments on trans athletes.
It was a disappointing night for Cunningham and Co. as Kelsey Mitchell’s 37 points and Caitlin Clark’s double-double of 19 points and 10 assists went in vain. Cunningham was loudly booed as the saga around her comments about transgender athletes in women’s sports continues to unfold. The drama was not limited to inside the arena, as people both in support of and against Sophie Cunningham’s stance appeared for a rally outside the venue prior to the game. This is the third consecutive Fever game that has attracted such a rally.
This is not the first time that officiating has come under scrutiny in the WNBA this season. The infamous Caitlin Clark- Alyssa Thomas incident is still fresh in memory. Thomas’s fist to Clark’s throat went uncalled on the court. Thomas was only later awarded a flagrant foul 2 for this incident, and suspended for a game along with a $1000 fine.
Just a couple of days back, with just 17.9 seconds left on the clock, the referees missed an out-of-bounds call involving A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart when the Las Vegas Aces faced the New York Liberty. Replays showed a Liberty ball was given as an Aces possession, despite the ball never touching Stewart as it went out of bounds. Stewart mentioned post-game that even Wilson thought it was a Liberty ball and was seen walking away afterwards.
The league announced plans to combat these structural issues by installing a dedicated WNBA Replay Center. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced a multimillion-dollar investment for this initiative during a press conference during All-Star weekend.
It is intended to provide immediate, high-quality footage to enhance transparency and correct human errors, and the system is expected to be operational by the 2027 season. For now, Daniels and the fans will have to do with the current system, and Sophie Cunningham will hope not to receive elbows to the face on court.