Last week, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham invoked the lyrical stylings of Sabrina Carpenter to critique the WNBA’s officiants. In a TikTok video posted on Friday, Cunningham tagged “@ some refs” as she lip-synced the lyrics to “Manchild,” mouthing, “Stupid, or is it slow? Maybe it’s useless.” Come Wednesday, she wrote on X that she had been fined over the video.
@sophiecham I’m just trollin #fyp
“I got fined $500 for this TikTok 🤣🤣 ,” Cunningham wrote. “idk why 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.”
Cunningham is far from the first WNBA player to take issue with the league’s referees. Earlier this month, Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese told ESPN that the officiating system “has to be fixed” after her team had been hit with what she felt was an unfair number of foul calls. “I’m tired of this shit,” she said. Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum has also called the league’s officiating “fucking absurd,” and fellow Fever player Caitlin Clark has gotten into her own share of scuffles with referees over bad calls. Fever coach Stephanie White even spoke about the issue with the Indianapolis Star last month. “Everybody’s getting better except the officials,” she said. “So we got to find a way to remedy it. I mean, you’ve heard every coach talk about it, so I don’t know what the answer is.”
@sophiecham so unbothered it’s probably not healthy #fyp
Responding to the outcry, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert told the press ahead of All-Star Weekend that “we hear the concerns.” She added, “I realize consistency is the name of the game, so I think it’s something we definitely look at and evaluate.”
Cunningham, for her part, is back to posting TikTok videos and claims to be “so unbothered it’s probably not healthy.” All is right in the world.
The Cut has reached out to the WNBA for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
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