The Indiana Fever announced on Tuesday night that Sophie Cunningham would be out for the remainder of the season after suffering a knee injury during Sunday’s game against the Connecticut Sun. The Sun’s Bria Hartley fell into Cunningham while making a pass, knocking into her leg and sending her to the floor, after which she needed to be helped off the court. Cunningham’s family members were quick to talk smack about Hartley, but the shooting guard insists there’s no bad blood.
After Cunningham’s injury on Sunday, the Fever player’s mom and sister lashed out at the WNBA and Hartley. “@WNBA maybe you should focus less on fining players for commenting on your poor officiating & more about hiring officials that are able to call a consistent game and protect your athletes. Pathetic. Praying for you. @sophaller 🙏🏽❤️,” Cunningham’s sister, Lindsey, wrote on X. In a post that has since been deleted, Cunningham’s mom, Paula, had an angrier take: “Hartley is a disgruntled player having trouble everywhere she goes; she’s plain mean and plays out of control.”
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On Tuesday, Cunningham cleared things up on her podcast, Show Me Something. “I know Bria, and I’m actually really good friends with Bria,” Cunningham told her co-host, Summer House’s West Wilson. “There was no ill intent. I think it was a basketball play, and I was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. She fell. There’s no way she would go in there and potentially try to hurt me.” Cunningham noted that there are some players who she thinks might intentionally get rough, but Hartley isn’t one of them.
The WNBA star also admitted to talking her mom down. “I promise you, Bria and I are supercool, and she would never try to hurt me,” Cunningham recalled telling Paula after seeing her post.
All in all, Cunningham seemed in remarkably good spirits for someone with a torn MCL who’s heading into surgery on Friday. On the bright side, she can now devote more time to her podcast, which is already No. 1 on the WNBA-meets-Bravolebrity chart.
