Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy and conservative activist Riley Gaines joined the growing number of Sophie Cunningham supporters who have rushed to the Indiana Fever star’s defense during the team’s recent three-game road trip.
While many WNBA fans have opted to boo the 29-year-old forward over her public objections to transgender athletes in female sports, Cunningham loyalists have followed her from Seattle to Portland and on to Minneapolis to offer ‘thanks’ to their new culture-war hero.
Gaines caught up to the bandwagon in Minneapolis on Sunday, where she was able to grab a courtside photo with Cunningham before Indiana’s 108-100 loss to Minnesota.
The game proved contentious both on the court and in the stands, where Cunningham was jeered throughout much of the matinee.
She also took an elbow to the face from Lynx forward Nia Coffey, who avoided an offensive foul as Cunningham was whistled for a personal instead. Officials even took a moment to review the play for a hostile act before ruling no such action occurred.
‘Sophie just got 17 of her teeth knocked out and they called her for the foul,’ Portnoy wrote on X, adding ‘Sick league’ and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s handle.
And to be clear, Cunningham did not lose any teeth from the elbow.
Cunningham faced boos on Sunday in Minneapolis, where she also took an elbow to the face
Lynx forward Nia Coffey caught Cunningham with an elbow, but wasn’t called for a foul
Cunningham reacts after being caught with an elbow. Refs ruled she committed the foul
Many others agreed with Portnoy’s anger.
‘The WNBA is a legitimate clown show,’ one critic wrote. ‘Sophie Cunningham gets a UFC elbow to her jaw and it’s a foul on her???? It gets funnier by the day how unserious this league is.’
‘This is intentional bullying, condoned by the @wnba,’ another added. ‘They’re essentially promoting violence against women.’
Others claimed Cunningham was the victim of racism: ‘Another foul on Sophie Cunningham for being a white woman in the way of a black elbow.’
However, officials did have their backers on Sunday as it was Cunningham who made the initial illegal contact on defense before taking Coffey’s elbow to the chin. And with the refs ruling that the elbow was inadvertent and not a hostile action, it was Cunningham’s contact on Coffey that was ultimately penalized.
Gaines caught up to the bandwagon in Minneapolis on Sunday, where she was able to grab a courtside photo with Cunningham before Indiana’s 108-100 loss to Minnesota
Portnoy is a vocal Fever fan and strong supporter of reserve forward Sophie Cunningham
‘This is absolutely a foul on Sophie,’ one wrote.
‘SHE WAS DRAPED ALL OVER HER EASILY A FOUL ON SOPHIE IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE YOU DONT KNOW BALL,’ read one capitalized comment.
Of course, that was far from the only controversy on Sunday in Minneapolis, where protestors and counter-protestors were lining the streets before tip-off.
Even Cunningham was pulled into a discussion on the topic by Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who later wore a shirt reading: ‘Trans Kids Belong.’
‘I think it’s great,’ Reeve said of the talk. ‘I think both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate. There are some things that we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues. I think it’s how you handle things. It was nice to be in person, for sure.’
Reeve wore a ‘Trans kids belong’ shirt during the game, which her team won, 108-100
Sophie Cunningham (left) and Cheryl Reeve (right) have pre-game discussion on Sunday
Cunningham supporters have been seen in Seattle, Portland and now Minneapolis
A person holds a sign after comments made by Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham
Reeve stopped short of divulging their entire conversation in her post-game comments, but did speak before the game about her stance on the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
‘I come from a space of inclusion,’ said Reeve, who also serves as the Team USA coach. ‘The narrative that I think is problematic is to suggest that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women’s sports.
‘This is what’s bothersome. There is a faction of people in our country that are making this a massive issue.’
The league does not have any transgender players who were assigned male at birth, nor have there ever been any such players in the WNBA. And while a few cases of transgender athletes at the NCAA level have made national news, trans student athletes are rare in the extreme. In 2024, NCAA president Charlie Baker estimated there were fewer than 10 competing at the time.
Cunningham has been at the center of a bitter trans debate over the past week after comments she made to ESPN that young girls ‘shouldn’t have to go against biological men’ when playing sports.
While the Fever forward has been supported by protestors outside various WNBA arenas over the past few days, the tide turned in Portland on Friday night when the 29-year-old was vociferously booed by the partisan home crowd.
Rallies organized outside the arena brought opposing groups face-to-face as supporters of Sophie Cunningham clashed directly with pro-trans demonstrators
On court, it appeared that she had called the fans ‘losers’ with a hand signal after scoring a 3-pointer, but Cunningham has since taken to social media to reveal what really happened.
Alongside a video of the moment, she noted: ‘I didn’t call them losers but I did talk s***.’
In a follow-up post, she then appeared to further stoke the flames by posting a video of herself with a finger to her lips, as if trying to quiet those booing her.
In another post, she shared a clip of the moment she handed a young fan her game-worn shoes as a thank you for supporting her.
Just days earlier, the same organizers made national news in Seattle when the owner of the WNBA’s Storm told two young Cunningham supporters they were ‘f***ing insane’ for demonstrating courtside. As a result, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton has been banned from her team’s next five home games by the WNBA.
