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Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham is gelling quite nicely with her new teammates this season, and her pre-game outfit before Sunday’s matchup against the Las Vegas Aces proves that point.
Her shirt, in particular, had quite the cheeky message of just how tight she is with a certain duo.
Cunningham, who has recently seen her popularity in the WNBA grow after defending Caitlin Clark on the court against the Connecticut Sun, donned a shirt with herself, Clark and fellow guard Lexie Hull on it with the words “Tres Leches” printed as well.
“Tres Leches” translates from Spanish to “Three Milks” – as we said, quite the cheeky message from Cunningham.
However, in the spirit of athletes showcasing their support and bond with teammates, Cunningham leaves no reason to doubt how much she loves her women in the locker room on and off the court.
She was also doing it with her words recently, as she spoke in fiery fashion to reporters about having to physically defend Clark this past Tuesday against Sun players. She called out the WNBA and its referees for “not protecting” Clark.
She got into a physical altercation with Jacy Sheldon after the latter poked Clark in the eye, which quickly led to a skirmish when Marina Mabrey shoved the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year onto the hardwood.
Cunningham, Sheldon and Sun guard Lindsay Allen were ejected from the game with about 40 seconds left after Cunningham fouled Sheldon hard underneath the basket on a fast break.
“During that, it was just part of the game,” Cunningham told reporters. “I think the refs had a lot to do with that. It was a build-up for a couple years now of them just not protecting the star player of the WNBA. At the end of the day, I’m going to protect my teammates. That’s what I do.”
Last season, while Clark was breaking rookie and league records, there was a lot of debate about whether the league was protecting her on the court, as teams got very physical with her to potentially disrupt her game.
Since Cunningham joined the Fever this season, she has been vocal even on the sidelines when Clark or any of her teammates are getting roughed up. Additionally, when she has checked into the game, Cunningham is sure to step between anyone who is messing with her teammates, as evident during the incidents with Clark.
As a result of being a good teammate to one of the league’s faces, Cunningham’s popularity has skyrocketed, and that shows in her social media following. She had fewer than 400,000 followers on TikTok prior to last Tuesday’s game against the Sun. She now has 1.3 million and counting on that platform.
On Instagram, the number was more than 300,000, and it now stands at more than 839,000.
If Cunningham was not already showing herself as the Fever’s “enforcer” enough, she has the credentials to back it up, as she is a black belt in Taekwondo.
Cunningham and the Fever, though, want to win games as well as make a physical statement when needed. They have dropped back-to-back games now after losing to the Aces on Sunday, when she had nine points, six rebounds and one assist over 24 minutes.
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