"Over the night, over a million on both" - Sophie Cunningham reveals that her social media following went crazy after fighting with Jacy Sheldon

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"Over the night, over a million on both" - Sophie Cunningham reveals that her social media following went crazy after fighting with Jacy Sheldon originally appeared on Basketball Network.
For the wrong reason, Guard Sophie Cunningham has become one of the most popular players in the WNBA.
Cunningham joined the Indiana Fever this season after playing her first six seasons for the Phoenix Mercury. Early on, she was a quiet contributor for the Fever, but after their heated game against the Connecticut Sun last June 17th, she has become a star in her own right.
In the 3rd quarter of that game, Fever star Caitlin Clark got involved in a scuffle with Sun guard Jacy Sheldon after the latter poked Clark's eye while trying to defend her. Sheldon was assessed a Flagrant Foul 1 because of that play, while two of her teammates got technical fouls.
Sophie became a heroine for starting a fight
Then, with less than one minute left in the game and the outcome already settled, Cunningham gave up a hard foul on a driving Sheldon, starting a fight. Sophie was assessed a flagrant 2 and an automatic ejection.
But instead of being vilified, Cunningham emerged as a heroine for standing up for Clark and clocking Sheldon as payback for what she did to Caitlin. The WNBA fined Sophie $400 for that unsportsmanlike play, but the fine was nothing compared to the boost the incident gave her social media accounts.
"I went from 200,000 on TikTok before the fight, and then I had like 350,000 on Instagram. Over the night, over a million on both. Insane… I've worked my whole life to become a WNBA basketball player. And now people know me as WWE," she said.
It's not only her social media following that's increased, but also her scoring average
As of July 31, 2025, Cunningham's TikTok account has 1.6 million followers and 13.6 million likes. Meanwhile, her Instagram account has 1.1 million followers. Last April, the Seattle Storm's Skylar Diggins-Smith was the No.10 most followed WNBA player on Instagram. Today, Sophie has overtaken her in the Top 10.
"It's unprecedented growth," said Addison Abdo, who represents Cunningham as a senior director at sports management agency PRP. "We work with some pretty big athletes that have gone viral for some pretty big things, but this has been something that I haven't seen before—this type of growth in this short amount of time … was very new territory."
But Cunningham's social media following has not only gone up since that unfortunate incident. Her scoring average in her last nine games has increased to 12.7 points per game, significantly higher than her season average of 7.7 points per game.
The Fever are 6-2 during that span, including 3-1 since the All-Star break, despite Clark still being injured. At 15-12, Indiana has the sixth-best record in the entire WNBA and the third-best mark in the Eastern Conference, just 2.5 games off the leaders, New York Liberty.This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.