{"id":24958,"date":"2026-08-02T08:14:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24958"},"modified":"2026-08-02T08:14:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:14:49","slug":"sophie-cunningham-question-spurs-wnba-pr-to-shut-down-interview-sends-indiana-fever-teammates-fleeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24958","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham Question Spurs WNBA PR to Shut Down Interview, Sends Indiana Fever Teammates Fleeing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5747522\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5747522\" class=\"wp-image-5747522 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-2026-08-01T155558-151.jpg\" alt=\"Indiana Fever players and the head coach run off after PR shuts down a question on Sophie Cunningham\" width=\"1250\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5747522\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photos via: Outkick on X and Sophie Cunningham on Instagram)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The postgame interview for the Indiana Fever came to a screeching halt on Friday when a reporter for Outkick started to ask a question about <strong>Sophie Cunningham<\/strong>. But before the question could even get asked, the team&#8217;s PR director shut down the interview, allowing players <strong>Aliyah Boston<\/strong> and <strong>Makayla Timpson<\/strong> to rush away without talking about their teammate.<\/p>\n<p>Coach <strong>Stephanie White<\/strong> was also spared the ordeal of having to discuss Cunningham, who has been both praised and condemned for telling ESPN last month she does not believe girl athletes should play against biological boys who are transitioning.<\/p>\n<p>Outkick posted a clip of one of its reporters attempting to ask the Fever players and coach about her, saying &#8220;Speaking of outside noise, Sophie came out with\u2014&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>PR director <strong>Jackie Maynard<\/strong> immediately jumped in and said &#8220;we&#8217;re going to wrap up there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thank you. Have a good day,&#8221; Boston said, before standing up and getting a move on. White stared at some papers for a second before she and Timpson followed Boston&#8217;s lead and blitzed out of the room.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed_container\" id=\"339f2273c274339abc8dddc29be7dec0\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Complete chaos at the WNBA podium.<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie White&#039;s answer on men in women&#039;s sports was just the beginning&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Caitlin Clark never faced reporters after her triple-double. <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/72x72\/1f914.png\" alt=\"\ud83e\udd14\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em;max-height: 1em\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then our questions were cut short by PR, and the exchange never made it into the WNBA&#039;s official\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fc7XWuew4Z\">pic.twitter.com\/fc7XWuew4Z<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; OutKick (@Outkick) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Outkick\/status\/2083559904065839268?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Outkick posted the clip on X, and noted the final &#8220;question&#8221; had been cut from the Fever&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fw0SU19AUH0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube video<\/a> of the postgame interview. The outlet also pointed out Fever star <strong>Caitlin Clark\u00a0<\/strong>did not speak to reporters after another big game.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, White had said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/sports\/basketball\/wnba\/fever\/2026\/07\/31\/fevers-stephanie-white-fires-alex-sarama-addressed-transgender-athletes\/91131100007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">she wasn&#8217;t &#8220;educated enough&#8221;<\/a> to comment on whether trans boys and men should play against girls and women.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t ever believe that exclusion is an answer,&#8221; White said. &#8220;I just don&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The question came after Cunningham&#8217;s much-publicized July interview with ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I\u2019m like, \u2018I never once said that,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn\u2019t have to go against biological men.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>She later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DbJM_axGhAp\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">doubled down on her remarks, <\/a>following some blowback from players, fans, and pundits. Plenty of other fans have supported Cunningham, and her Adidas shoes became <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/sneakers\/news\/sophie-cunningham-adidas-shoes-skyrocket-on-resale-market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a must-have item for many of them.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One of those fans who went to watch Cunningham play last week was berated by Seattle Storm co-owner <strong>Celeste Keaton<\/strong>, who called the teen fan and her friend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/sports\/seattle-storm-owner-suspended-by-wnba-for-calling-young-indiana-fever-fans-wearing-anti-trans-shirts-fcking-insane\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;f*cking insane&#8221; <\/a>for cheering for Cunningham. Keaton was suspended over the viral incident.<\/p>\n<p>Watch above.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/sports\/sophie-cunningham-question-spurs-wnba-pr-to-shut-down-interview-sends-indiana-fever-teammates-fleeing\/\">Sophie Cunningham Question Spurs WNBA PR to Shut Down Interview, Sends Indiana Fever Teammates Fleeing<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Photos via: Outkick on X and Sophie Cunningham on Instagram) The postgame interview for the Indiana Fever came to a screeching halt on Friday when a reporter for Outkick started to ask a question about Sophie Cunningham. But before the question could even get asked, the team&#8217;s PR director shut down the interview, allowing players&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-2026-08-01T155558-151.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}