Sophie Cunningham’s popularity has been one of the biggest social media explosions of the 2025 WNBA season — and ironically, it all started with the moment she went viral defending Caitlin Clark. Since the now-infamous June 17 game where Cunningham threw Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon to the floor after Sheldon shoved Clark, Cunningham’s brand has skyrocketed into a new universe.
Both players were ejected, but the public reaction told a very different story. Cunningham instantly became known as Clark’s on-court protector, an “enforcer” figure fans didn’t know the Indiana Fever needed. And while she was fined $400, a Sportico report days later showed she made that money back thousands of times over. Cunningham gained nearly a million followers in the three days after the incident — a surge valued at over $1 million in brand power. She capitalized immediately with deals, partnerships, and even merch referencing the viral scuffle.
Her online presence has only grown since. Now sitting at more than 1.3 million Instagram followers, Cunningham knows exactly why her name is hotter than ever: her connection to the most famous rookie in sports, Caitlin Clark. And she isn’t running from it — she’s leveraging it.
But not everyone loves that.
During a recent episode of her Show Me Something podcast, Cunningham casually revealed she had tried (and failed) to convince Clark to join the new Project B league. The clip went viral instantly, marking the first time Clark’s name had been tied to the new league. But an Instagram user wasn’t having it, commenting:
“sophie cunningham stop talking about cc challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]”
Most athletes would ignore it.
Sophie didn’t.
She fired back with a perfectly sharp response:
“people stop asking/talking to me about her….. IMPOSSIBLE.”
Translation?
Sophie talks about Caitlin Clark because everyone asks her about Caitlin Clark — and because, whether fans like it or not, the Sophie–Caitlin dynamic is one of the most watched storylines in the WNBA right now.
And Sophie Cunningham is clearly not backing down from the sp
