Sophie Cunningham Speaks Out, Gets Support at Fever-Wings Game - Including From Senate Candidate

The WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) has been facing a controversy over the question of biological men playing in women's sports.

The issue got kicked into overdrive after Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham weighed in, supporting women and saying biological men should not be playing in women's sports. Then the league refused to take a position. Two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, said they would be declaring for the WNBA draft to make a point. But the WNBA still couldn't seem to figure out what a woman was.

Cunningham was still speaking out this week.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham suggested that WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert could be OUT as commissioner by the END of the year after the organization FAILED to define what a woman is.

“You do have to have a person in power who is bold, who is confident, who wants the… pic.twitter.com/aknAZye9G8
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) August 20, 2026

“People are like, ‘You have a platform. Use it,’ and then once you use it, it's like, ‘Go back to playing basketball'...I think I could do both,” she said. So she's not going to stop speaking out.

She also had an interesting comment about the WNBA Commissioner Catherine Engelbert, whose contract is up at the end of the year.

“You do have to have a person in power who is bold, who is confident, who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves all the time. So I do feel like, as a whole, that could be a position that's maybe open at the end of the year, but that's not my call,” Cunningham told USA Today.

That doesn't exactly sound like an endorsement.

Engelbert sounded defensive on Thursday: “People are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness.”

There was another rally in support of Cunningham and not having biological men in women's sports at the Fever vs. Dallas Wings game in Dallas. There were a lot of people inside wearing XX-XY shirts in support.

Biology is not hate, we support #8 ❤️

Texas Values & other groups held a press conference and rally outside of American Airlines Center before the Dallas Wings v Indiana Fever game in support of Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham’s stance on women’s sports! @sophaller… pic.twitter.com/oWSOcEEU5x
— Texas Values (text txvalues to 797979 for update) (@txvalues) August 20, 2026

They probably had more people out because of the controversy about the mother and daughter who were forced to cover up their XX-XY shirts at the Atlanta Dream-Indiana Fever game on Sunday.

Among the people attending in support of women were Republican Senate candidate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his daughter.

Ken Paxton at the Fever vs Wings game tonight with his daughter wearing an XX-XY shirt. pic.twitter.com/M0eHKoDYhB
— Austin Conservative (AC) 🇺🇸🤘 (@AustinConserve) August 21, 2026

Cunningham signed people's signs and other items.

Everyone in Dallas wants a Sophie Cunningham autograph...even the Dallas fans want a selfie with Sophie.

The WNBA needs to start supporting their superstars like Sophie.

She's a true American hero 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/rzhL8FUfha
— J (@JayTC53) August 21, 2026

The game did not go the Fever's way, with them losing the game, 85-91. Caitlin Clark was neutralized to some degree and did not appreciate one foul from Paige Bueckers.

Paige Bueckers was trying to intentionally foul Caitlin Clark but the refs didn’t wanna call it lol

She tells Caitlin to “calm down” 😂 pic.twitter.com/zotUAeMmDu
— Kyle Ingram (@SnapshotKyle) August 21, 2026

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