WNBA’s sexiest star Sophie Cunningham sends brutal message about Caitlin Clark with Taylor Swift comparison as American sport’s bitchiest feud tips off again

Sophie Cunningham is sitting in a hidden corner of a bar in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It’s a pivotal day of March Madness and fans are filling up The Stumble Inn. A few will inevitably stagger out.

But Cunningham doesn’t trip over her words as she sends a message to the WNBA. To those players and fans who hope to see Caitlin Clark falter and fall.

‘If you’re trying to be jealous or knock her down, then you’re not in it for the right reason,’ Cunningham tells the Daily Mail.

‘The impact that she’s had – not only on women’s basketball, but on female athletes as a whole – it’s like a Michael Jordan effect.’

Cunningham, a six-year veteran of the WNBA, is now a teammate of Clark at the Indiana Fever. She was by the pool when she discovered she had been traded to ‘one of the hottest teams in the whole world right now’. ‘Heck yeah,’ Cunningham thought, ‘we’re about to go win a championship’

She has played with and against some of the most influential players in women’s basketball. But no one has seen anything like Clark’s rookie season.

WNBA star Sophie Cunningham opened up on the future of the WNBA and Caitlin Clark

Cunningham is now teammates with Clark after being traded to the Indiana Fever

‘The impact that she’s had… it’s like a Michael Jordan effect,’ Cunningham says of Clark

Clark’s clash with Chennedy Carter (L) sparked nationwide discussions about her treatment

The 23-year-old, after being selected first overall by the Fever, spearheaded a record-setting year for women’s basketball.

She cemented herself as one of the biggest stars in sports and helped turn heads towards the WNBA. And yet? Clark still found herself engulfed in scandal.

She became a lightning rod for debates about race and sexuality and the gender pay gap. Joe Biden offered his two cents on her salary and Chennedy Carter sent her crashing to the floor.

That collision sparked a national conversation; Carter and other rival players were accused of jealousy and bullying Clark. Even during this offseason, some in the WNBA have bemoaned the attention given to the Fever and its biggest star.

‘Maybe there is some beef there,’ Cunningham says. ‘But I think now they’re really realizing everything she’s bringing to the table… you’re not going to see a lot more Caitlin Clarks.’

Cunningham continues: ‘There’s been trailblazers before… who have been able to lay that platform for us to have what we have today… it’s not like she just came in here and changed it.

‘But I also think that you have to embrace everything she’s done… if you’re not looking at that as a positive and everything that she’s done – not only for women’s basketball as a whole, but the WNBA and women athletes – then I don’t really know what you’re thinking.’

In 2024, during her rookie year, Clark helped the WNBA enjoy a record-breaking season

Cunningham played against the No 1 pick during her final season with the Phoenix Mercury

The WNBA superstar watched a Kansas City Chiefs game alongside Taylor Swift

Cunningham compared her role to that of Sabrina Carpenter (R), who opened for Swift on tour

That means ’empowering’ each other. Or ‘lifting each other up’. Or, to put it another way: Cunningham’s job is to be Sabrina Carpenter to Clark, the WNBA’s Taylor Swift.

It was Cunningham’s analogy. It was meant as a joke – ‘it really was,’ the 28-year-old laughs. But her point remains a serious one.

Carpenter opened for Swift on her recent Eras Tour and Cunningham explains: ‘Taylor Swift, Caitlin Clark, they’re going to do their thing. They’re going to have all the eyes, they’re going to have anything you can ask for.

‘But I just said I’m going to be the Sabrina Carpenter in the corner, being her biggest supporter, doing whatever the team needs… she does a great job of making everyone else around her better. (But) in order to win, it really does take everybody.’

Cunningham adds: ‘We’re not taking away from anything that she’s done. We want to help her. We want to all win. And I think, let her be the Taylor Swift and we’ll all be right there supporting.’

Clark has already sat alongside Swift to watch the Chiefs and Cunningham – a Missouri native – wants to take her new teammate to another game at Arrowhead Stadium.

Day to day, though, she will be there for Clark to ‘lean on’. And Cunningham will pass on all she mined over six seasons at the Mercury alongside WNBA legends such as Diana Taurasi.

‘I’ve learned how to become a pro. I’ve learned what she does in order to be great,’ Cunningham explains. ‘Caitlin is going to (get) there. But when you don’t have that experience, sometimes you need someone to kind of lean on. So I’m just going to be there for whatever she needs.’