WNBA fines Sophie Cunningham again — this time $1,500 — for criticizing refs: 'I am someone who says what everyone else is thinking'
The Indiana Fever guard was fined $500 for using references to "some refs" being "stupid," "slow" or "useless" on a social media post on a July 23 TikTok post lip-synching to Sabrina Carpenter's "Manchild."
Cunningham later posted: "this is funny to me… like ok 👍🏼 you got it bud! Cause there's not more important things to be worried about with our league right now"
Her latest misstep with the league came with a heavier penalty. Cunningham was fined $1,500 for comments she made on the debut episode of her podcast "Show Me Something".
'I'm not even going to lie to you. I am someone who says what everyone else is thinking or talking about," Cunningham said on the July 30 episode. "Not just with the refs, but with Detroit, with Cleveland. I want people to hear what I just said: I am the only one. But if you ask our league, they feel the same exact way...
'If I was a ref, I know I would mess up all the time. Like, I'm not saying that your job is easy, but when it is a simple call right in front of your face multiple times, what are you doing? What are you doing? … They're just so inconsistent, like that's one thing. If you're on the other team, and you're going to be fouling the **** out of me, cool. But let me do it to you… I think players across the league, and new fans across the country are like, what is going on with the refs? And I'm like, 'I don't know.' And you fining me $500 is not going to do ****."
Cunningham jokingly predicted she'd get fined for that comment. The WNBA wasn't laughing. On this week's podcast, she confirmed she was indeed fined again.
"They fined me $1,500. I'm like, 'This is just the beginning.' I'm like, 'You're kidding.'
'They email our GM and she pulls me aside and says, 'Sophie, I've got to talk to you,' and this is front of everybody. I'm like, 'What did I do now?' And just smiled and she goes, 'Hey, they're going to fine you again.' I was like, I even told them I credited them that their job was hard. I did say that. I said that I would not be good at it. I did say that. Like, look at the whole picture. What are we doing? Ugh. But yeah, so I got fined for that.'
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