Sophie Cunningham Refuses to Compete Against Brittney Griner: A Controversial Decision in Women’s Basketball

In a surprising turn of events, Sophie Cunningham, the veteran WNBA guard known for her gritty play and vocal leadership, has announced her refusal to participate in an upcoming game against the Atlanta Dream. Cunningham’s decision, which has sparked heated discussions among fans, analysts, and fellow athletes, stems from her concerns about the competitive integrity of the league, particularly regarding her opponent, Brittney Griner.

A Reflection on Competition

Sophie Cunningham, long respected for her fierce on-court presence and team-first mentality, delivered a stunning statement this week: “I never thought I would make such a decision, but after deep reflection, I realized that the competitive spirit of this game has been compromised.”

Her concerns center primarily on Griner’s playing style, which she described as aggressive, excessive, and often crossing into unsportsmanlike conduct.

“She constantly relies on pushing, pulling, and even dirty fouls to gain an advantage while the referees turn a blind eye,” Cunningham said. “As a professional athlete, I find this behavior repulsive.” Her words resonated with a segment of players and fans who’ve voiced similar frustrations about the enforcement of rules and the tone of physicality in the women’s game.

The Impact of Griner’s Presence

Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and former WNBA champion, has long been a lightning rod in the league. Her towering presence and physical style divide opinion—some call it dominance; others, like Cunningham, call it excessive.

Cunningham emphasized that the WNBA should prioritize skill and sportsmanship: “This league should be a showcase of talent and respect—not a battleground defined by unchecked aggression.”

Her remarks reignited ongoing debates about the evolving identity of the WNBA and whether players like Griner represent a new standard or a step away from basketball’s traditional values.

Gender Identity and Controversy

Adding further fuel to the controversy, Cunningham made statements that touched on gender identity and fairness in sports. “While Brittney has publicly identified as female, there have been persistent rumors that she may have been born with a Y chromosome or even as male,” Cunningham stated.

The comment sparked a firestorm.

Critics called it irresponsible and harmful, while supporters argued she was expressing concerns held silently by many. The issue of gender identity in sports—particularly the participation of transgender or intersex athletes in women’s leagues—has become a global flashpoint, and Cunningham’s remarks have placed her at the center of that storm.

A Call for Accountability

Cunningham framed her decision as more than personal discomfort. She sees it as a stand for accountability and integrity in professional women’s basketball.

“I believe we need to hold each other accountable for the way we play and represent the sport,” she said. “Turning a blind eye to behavior that undermines the spirit of the game does a disservice to everyone—especially the next generation of athletes watching us.”

For some, it was a bold and principled stand. For others, it was divisive.

Reactions from the Basketball Community

The reaction has been as split as the WNBA fanbase itself.

Several current and former players offered measured support, acknowledging the importance of open dialogue while expressing discomfort with how Cunningham framed her criticisms.

“We should be lifting each other up,” one anonymous WNBA player told reporters. “This kind of public callout doesn’t help unity in the league.”

Others, including some longtime fans, saw Cunningham’s refusal to play as an overdue conversation starter. Social media lit up with hashtags like #StandWithSophie and #GrinerDebate, highlighting the clash between performance, personality, and fairness in the modern WNBA.

The Future of Women’s Basketball

As Sophie Cunningham prepares for what may become a defining moment in her career, the entire league faces difficult questions. Will her decision empower other players to speak up about their concerns—even if unpopular? Or will it fracture the fragile unity of a sport still fighting for greater visibility and respect?

The WNBA now stands at a crossroads.

How the league responds—publicly and privately—will shape not only its future policies but its cultural identity. Is it a space for hard conversations or just polished narratives? Can it balance inclusion and competitive fairness? These are no longer abstract questions—they are now front and center.

In Conclusion

Sophie Cunningham’s refusal to compete against Brittney Griner has exposed the raw tension lying beneath the surface of professional women’s basketball: questions of fairness, style of play, gender identity, and athlete accountability.

The coming weeks will test the WNBA’s leadership, its fans, and its players. And whether one agrees or disagrees with Cunningham’s actions, no one can deny this moment has forced the league to confront issues it can no longer ignore.

As the headlines swirl and conversations intensify, one truth remains: women’s basketball is evolving, and how it handles conflict may define its legacy just as much as any championship.

SEE MORE: Caitlin Clark’s impact on the WNBA could eclipse ‘a billion dollars’

The impact of the Indiana Fever star goes well beyond the basketball court. In her second season, Clark is also changing the league’s bottom line.

When the WNBA returned to action last week, Ryan Brewer, like many who follow the league, was curious to see how Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark might top her rookie-of-the-year season.

Yet the interest of Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus and an expert at valuations, goes beyond Clark’s box-score averages. After Clark’s phenomenal popularity spiked attendance and merchandise sales and drew historic television ratings wherever the Fever played in 2024, Brewer was asked by the Indianapolis Star to evaluate her economic impact on the WNBA. He determined Clark was responsible for a staggering 26.5% of all WNBA economic activity last season, including revenue from merchandise, ticket sales and television.

When Brewer crunched the numbers to analyze her potential impact in 2025, he arrived at a valuation that “is quite impressive,” Brewer said.

“If things just go as they were, and we have an expanded season of 22 home games with modest inflation, I’m looking at $875 [million],” Brewer told NBC News. “And I could easily see that eclipsing a billion dollars on the economic impact of Caitlin Clark this year.”

The WNBA’s 29th season opens at a time when its basketball is impossible to untangle from its bottom line. And Clark has played a propulsive role in both.

For the first time since 2008, the WNBA expanded this season to add a 13th team, the Golden State Valkyries. Next season, two more will debut in Toronto and Portland. As the WNBA’s footprint grows, so do its coffers. In 2026, the league will enter the first year of an 11-year media-rights deal worth a reported $2.2 billion overall that is expected to triple its current media-rights revenues. (One of the media partners is NBC, which shares a parent company with NBC News.)

Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark against the New York Liberty on July 6, 2024, in Indianapolis.Darron Cummings / AP file

Anticipating the arrival of the new media revenue, the players union opted out of its collective bargaining agreement with the league last October and will spend the upcoming months negotiating a new deal that the union hopes will lead to higher salaries.

Clark earned $76,535 as a rookie and this season will receive a slight pay raise, amounts dwarfed by her endorsement portfolio that reportedly includes an eight-year, $28 million deal with Nike. It would be “impossible” to pay Clark what she is worth to the league, her agent told ESPN in February. That could be because although viewership across women’s sports was already on the rise by the time Clark emerged as a superstar at the University of Iowa, her popularity has supercharged the WNBA’s own.

While an average of 17,035 fans attended the Fever’s 20 home games — more than the city’s NBA team, which shares the same arena, averaged over 41 games — overall WNBA attendance increased from an average of 6,615 in 2023 to 9,807. Last season, as Fever games produced the most-watched WNBA games ever on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, CBS and NBA TV, leaguewide viewership also broke records, including an average of 1.2 million per ESPN broadcast.

The WNBA, as a private company, does not disclose revenue figures, a league spokesperson said. Yet the league reported last year that its merchandise sales through Dick’s Sporting Goods had increased by 233% over the previous season. A spokesperson for Fanatics, the WNBA’s official e-commerce partner, said that Clark ranks in the top 20 of its top-selling athletes across all sports, and sixth among all basketball players, including the NBA.

The rising tide associated with Clark continued to lift other boats: All WNBA merchandise sold by Fanatics increased by more than 500% last season versus 2023, the spokesperson added.

Clark’s effect shows few signs of abating in 2025. Earlier this month, 1.3 million viewers tuned in on ESPN to watch an Indiana preseason game played at Clark’s alma mater, Iowa — an audience that was bigger than all but two NBA preseason games on ESPN since 2010 (and both of those games included LeBron James), per Sports Business Journal.

Of this season’s 10 bestselling WNBA games on StubHub, all 10 involve the Fever, according to a spokesperson for the online ticket retailer. When the Fever are the visiting team, the average price of tickets sold jumps by 140%. And the average price of a ticket to catch Clark and Indiana on the road this year is $312, according to the company.

Clark is “not just driving demand for the Fever, she’s elevating interest across the entire league,” Adam Budelli, a StubHub spokesperson, said in a statement.

Last year, Sportico pegged the value of the Fever franchise at $90 million, slightly less than the estimated league average. Yet in Brewer’s analysis, the net effect of Clark’s presence drove his valuation of the Fever to closer to $340 million. Brewer also calculated that Clark’s presence, should the interest in her performances be maintained, would result in an economic impact of approximately $41 million to the city of Indianapolis.

Clark wasn’t the only rookie last season to draw significant interest to the league. Her rivalry with Chicago’s Angel Reese, dating to college, led an average of 2.5 million viewers to watch their May 17 matchup, the most ever for a WNBA game on ESPN. Yet as Brewer analyzed attendance and viewership figures from the 2024 season, these indicated that Clark’s influence was singularly responsible for the surge of new interest in the WNBA.

Of the 24 WNBA-related broadcasts that drew at least 1 million television viewers last season, 21 involved her, according to an analysis by Sports Media Watch that included the league’s draft and All-Star Game. All three WNBA games that drew more than 20,000 fans included the Fever.

“It’s important to recognize that there is this rival and there are other rivals, but Caitlin Clark is illuminating the sport,” Brewer said. “She particularly is the one who’s driving in a new kind of demographic that is reaching new kinds of people from the traditional WNBA fan base that is causing this growth rate and also accelerating interest in corporate sponsorships.”

To analyze her economic impact, Brewer in part created models that projected the WNBA’s attendance for last season based on the league’s growth in the years pre-Clark. He then compared it to the actual attendance change and found about 60% of that increase is attributable to Clark.

“Her ability to fill up stadiums is amazing,” he said.

And that interest has been felt strongly in Indianapolis, where a $78 million practice facility solely for the Fever is under construction.

In 2024, after Indiana drafted Clark No. 1, Visit Indy, a nonprofit that promotes tourism to the city, sprung into action. It placed paid advertising throughout Iowa, including on social media, to test whether Clark’s die-hard collegiate fans might have an appetite to make the trip to Indiana to watch her as a pro. Soon, visits to pages on Visit Indy’s website dedicated to the Fever increased by 501%, said Chris Gahl, Visit Indy’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. Fever home games also corresponded with a bump in booked hotel rooms in the city, he said.

Part of Gahl’s job is to persuade those in charge of booking large, corporate meetings and conventions to host them in Indianapolis. Last year, he found a new way to entice nearly 50 planners to check out the city for the first time: Taking them to a Fever game.

The planners, who were predominantly women, “would not have traveled here and visited here were it not for the invitation for them to come see a home Fever game,” Gahl said.

“An Indiana Fever home game is a very hot ticket.”