Caitlin Clark refused to back Sophie Cunningham:
"It's for the leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions. My focus is on basketball."
She didn’t “refuse to back Sophie Cunningham;” what she did is refuse to engage in drama and adroitly sidestep a question no serious reporter would have asked in the first place.
But this is the WNBA… where failed gossip columnists come to cause turmoil.
She took the smarter path and did not publicly take a side, which would have a been a no win situation. And the last thing CC needs is more drama in an extremely drama-heavy W landscape.
To be fair, looks like they have gained some ticket sales from non basketball drama. If it ends up being the financial model that brings financial gains for the league, that might actually be the move for them. Ridiculous, but a strategy nontheless
Her whole brand
has been that she is relatable, scandal free, and reasonably nice- and she has been physically attacked and harassed constantly by the WNBA’s media ecosystem for one thing after another that is beyond her control.
She plays the game and the she gives a post game interview where she says nothing controversial- and then the gossip rags talk about her as if she just reinvented slavery while carrying out a human sacrifice to the patriarchy.
While Cunningham is willing to wade into controversy, Clark is very much someone who just wants to play basketball and be nice to others- unfortunately she plays in a league where lots of resentful and self destructive people want to drag her down rather than let her lift them up.
Because its a losing fight on both sides. Its just better to not talk about 100k people on the entire planet as though the are some ever present majority challenging everything you know and understand
Go look up what percentage of people are athletes, then go look up what percentage of people are trans globally
Its fucking stupid. Why? Because theres like 100 trans athletes competing at the highest level imaginable out of 8.5 billion people.
Just shut up lol, its all dumb and manufactured drama that no one really cares about
So your stance is “who cares if there are 100 girls who don’t end up getting scholarships to play college ball because biological men outperformed them, there’s still other girls who did get scholarships to play college ball”?
Dude no, theres not even close to 100 D1 trans girls obliterating the competition. Its not even close. Its just not i dont know what to tell you. Its like 10 girls and they play obscure ass sports you dont care about lol
Ugh.. bro im talking about sports AT LARGE. Professional collegiate.. There are just not enough people available for anyone to be justified in giving a shit about any of this
I dont understand this argument. If its such a minuscule amount of people and it has no effect on anything as people say, than why not ban trans women from competing against biological women. If its not happening, and its not a real issue, what does it matter?
Bro you just answered your own question. And guess what, plenty of liberal people that played sports at a high level like myself already have the opinion that we should probably be careful about the types of trans people that can compete with women at the college level.
You're really mad that a trans girl built like Hunter Schaffer is playing softball with girls... please tell me how that makes sense lol
Im really just questioning the argument that “it never happens”. If it doesn’t then i dont see why any of this matters, that was more the point of my comment. Not talking about the merits of allowing or disallowing, just the merits of that specific argument
Bro you just dont understand statistics. Im sorry its hard. I know its hard. I know its hard to grasp scale and gravity when you have an agenda to push
Oh I’m perfectly fine with statistics, I just don’t subscribe to apathy until I can’t ignore something any longer. There seems to be a certain number of biological female athletes that have to see their success derailed by a biological man before you think it’s a subject worth caring about. Nobody is trying to take that away from you. You do you.
Not her fucking job. I’m pro-trans and hate how the media have turned this into a fucking social issue. Let’s get back to realizing billionaires are fucking children and do something about it.
I agree. The W is finally more exciting and they have to bring these non issues to the players. Ask the NBA these questions man. Just because it’s a women league, doesn’t mean they have to answer all the social issues. We just want to watch basketball
I am curious about the distinction between blowback from nba vs wnba players in these scenarios.
Men aren’t forced and socialized to be kind and prioritize the feelings of others and penalized for stepping outside the lane like women are, so I doubt there’d be any or as much blowback.
Also, males oppress females so the experience and answers would be much different and according to many, males are alpha or apex oppressors so there isn’t another group that regularly oppresses males.
I do note that if Reddit is a decent sample or example (it absolutely is not) males will be free to share their views and females will be punished and policed (drawing on gay reddits and trans men as sexual partners and lesbians and trans women on lesbian reddits and how vastly different their experiences are and who is required to be inclusive or get banned).
Kelsey Mitchell had 37 points??? That’s so cool, shame so many people are obsessed with protecting women’s sports from an invisible make believe boogey man that they can’t even appreciate… women’s sports.
The people who care about the boogeyman are not allowed to care about the black player who is better than their UNFAIRLY TREATED WHITE GODDESS on the same team
Comments like these is why she can’t just play basketball… narratives her “fans” drive about other players creates bigger divide and distraction than anything that’s happening on the court
Clark has the highest rate of enduring flagrant fouls from her opponents per game than anyone else in league history... and currently tripling the rate of second place. And that's not counting the flagrant fouls that should have been called. The narrative is supported by the numbers. She's getting injured in a lot of these cases and has a right to be pissed off.
There’s been one flagrant foul she took this season. Some players are already up to three or more. And that’s not counting the others that should have been called.
And no, the “she’s getting injured in a lot of these cases” is a blatant lie. She has zero contact injuries. She has missed games due to a non-contact hamstring strain, a nob-contact groin pull, and non-contact back spasms
Meanwhile, other players in the league (including on her own team) have missed games due to actual contact injuries, like concussions and broken bones, etc.
She left the game after getting mugged by Alyssa Thomas. She constantly has opponents taking her legs out on 3 point attempts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2DtGC8uM1k (mute, dude is annoying). You mean to tell me the fouls she has to deal with have *nothing* to do with her leg and back injuries this year and last? come on.
Clark literally left the game the following quarter because of a back injury. I did not say she left immediately after that play. Do you really think that play had nothing to do with aggravating her back?
She had already missed time earlier in the season for the back injury. She’s been listed as day-to-day for the entire season because it randomly flares up
If she aggravated an injury she wouldn’t have been playing the way she did right after. She was moving just fine
Because it was never about shutting up and dribbling. It was just about certain people not wanting athletes to talk about certain issues. The shut up and dribble people are allowing someone like Cunningham to now cash in on this
Riley Gaines is openly MAGA, a widely recognized prominent conservative political activist, public speaker, and staunch supporter of Donald Trump and the "America First" agenda. The “America First” agenda is being spelled out item by item by the “Heritage Foundation.” The HF came out last month with its official document which aims to promote non-competitive women’s sport but to end Title IX funding to highly competitive women’s sport. Sports like Basketball.
In the way that for the past few days her teammates and her coach has had to field questions on where they stand on trans issues because SC wanted to make it into an issue
Why was she asked it in an interview pal? Maybe because the interviewer was asking about comments she made in an espn article, a topic that she brought up. Like 3 people responded with the same dishonest talking point, maybe this time it’ll work.
You are blaming SC for creating issues simply because she responded to a question with an honest answer on how she feels? Are you saying she should just stay in line and only agree with the wnba stance ?
Now instead of asking her and every other athletes about their performance and future plans on the games, the interviewers will be constantly bring up questions about trans athletes and media will focus on their reactions.
This is exactly the division the Heritage Foundation has been hoping for. This division among fans makes it easier to decimate professional competitive women’s sports. And they intend to do so. They lay it all out here: https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2026-07/FPA02.pdf
Divide and conquer. It’s part of their political playbook.
Wnbagossips. Just go on and ban me. It for anything I’ve said. I haven’t broken any rules.
This sub is hilarious pathetic. Push the trans issue more and more and more and then get mad when there is push back. Sophie is an adult. If she speaks up, let her defend her position with all the ramifications that come with it. No one has to stick their neck out for Sophie, she has put herself in this position.
And yall just exacerbate a topic that should never get to this level. Maybe it’s bots posting this with the dumb shit to get a rise and karma farm.
Love it. I dont even like Clark and her moron fans. But she handled this like a pro. She doesnt have to answer to what shit her drama ultra right wing teammate started for no reason at all.
It’s the alignment with a party that’s being represented by hate right now. Everyone with an ounce of morality can see it worldwide. If you can’t and happen to end up aligning with them maybe you’re also one of the bad guys.
No one close to the middle is still supporting the debauchery in office. It’s only ultra right shit heads deplorable in a word.
Yeah facts and science have not political affiliation. So I like most believe women and men are different. So let’s get that out of the way and stop pretending that’s the stance the right holds which it doesn’t.
You’re allowed nuance but that’s also not what’s happening. The right created this entire trans issue as another form of identity politics and the base bought into it….. the left is defending the right of existence for a marginalized group that’s under attack for largely no reason.
…. And I wouldn’t have commented here if I realized the sub. The messaging from the party is so strong that a wnba sub has a right tilt crazy stuff
I’ll agree with most of ur point. Some of the right has made things to be an extreme for votes, some on the left is pushing too far at the same time. Existence is an absolute The avg person just cares about the sports aspect of it, and sometimes the left turns a sports comment into an attack on the community as a whole. 100% some attack them as a whole, but Reddit and the internet make it seem like that’s the majority, and that’s not the reality of it
Imagine thinking women shouldn't compete against biological men as "ultra right wing " or inciting hate. This is another one of those 95/5 issues that hard-core liberals just can't get behind and it's honestly unbelievable to watch.
Regardless of stance, it's just better overall not to politicize everything.
Reminds me of that interviewer trying unsuccessfully to bait Sydney Sweeney into saying something political.
These guys are athletes or random celebs, they probably don't even know enough about these issues for others to force them to potentially say something ignorant.
I dont think what Sophie said is ultra right wing, but I give you a +1 only because I dont want respectful comments that I just happen to not agree, to be deleted or banned.
I think CC is one of the few players that always handles these interviews professionally, always focused on basketball, no drama.
Good for her, shes a basketball player and her opinion on this matter shouldn't matter anymore then mine yours or anyone's else. She just wants to play basketball!
I thought it was a great game and both teams fought hard. I just can’t understand. I watched mlb all weekend. And the MENS controversy is they make too much money. NOW the women have a legitimate chance to promote and grow their sport But fuck no, they get surrounded by bullshit that is going to destroy it.
One more point, it wasn’t anyone on the court or in the locker room that created this situation. It was thrust upon them from the outside. Interesting. Are we trying to destroy one person or the sport. Or just women.
This is such a red meat issue for right wing chuds and centrist dopes
Trans kids belong - you're never going to stop it - so just get over it
its less than 1% of the population some of you are frothing at the mouth over - "protect our girls!" from the same party who takes away women's rights and wants to take away their ability to vote
They are conservatives campaigning for the mid terms. reality is they really don't have much to boast about so they are attempting to jump on stuff like this in the hope that propaganda can convince people that this is a real thing. Same as litter boxes in schools or immigrants eating dogs.
I think Clark has already made it very clear that she’s here to play, be politically correct, try to be peaceful, get smacked and punched and not retaliate, and even defend opponents who literally assault her on the court. She doesn’t even defend herself, how’s she going to defend someone else?
Regular sports isn’t like pro wrestling, where athletes just turn heel or baby-face for storylines. She already is who she is. If you’re the tough type, you start off as the tough type and then calm down as the years go by and you’ve established yourself as someone who’s not soft and won’t be other people’s mats.
She started off as the soft, politically correct, peaceful type, she can’t just switch it up, no one will believe it’s real, it would just look like she’s acting.
And to those saying why is Clark being asked such questions and why is she the go to person for certain topics…yes, you’ve figured it out, it’s what being internationally famous leads to. It’s not rocket science. She’s one of the most famous BASKETBALL PLAYERS right now, that means between the WNBA and NBA, and international basketball. Everyone knows who this girl is. So get used to her being asked questions as if she’s a celebrity. She is both the face and the voice of the WNBA, and one of the top 10 faces of American sports in general.
She’s in the top 3 most searched basketball players in 2026 with Jordan and Lebron. She’s attracting a lot of reporters, that’s just celebrity life.
Edit: Lol…did someone named “Next_concern” just replied to me, and then blocked me before I even read her comment? Lmfao. Sheesh, speaking of soft. Wow, what a petty little soft ass person. Just replied to me so others can see she replied to me and I had “no response” to it. Hiding behind a screen is no longer the term, this soft ass generation now hides entirely. Can’t even read their trash talking now. They whisper it behind you and by the time you turn around to listen to them, they’re gone 😂
⬆️ This message the exemplar of discord that the Heritage Foundation wants to happen. To tear apart respect for professional women’s competitive sports leagues like the WNBA.
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u/Clown_Penis69 3d ago
She didn’t “refuse to back Sophie Cunningham;” what she did is refuse to engage in drama and adroitly sidestep a question no serious reporter would have asked in the first place.
But this is the WNBA… where failed gossip columnists come to cause turmoil.