Sophie Cunningham Surprises Fans With Her Classy Response To Toronto Crowd After Being Booed [VIDEO]
Cunningham had an unexpected message for fans.
Sophie Cunningham heard plenty of boos Tuesday night in Toronto.
The Indiana Fever guard put up 12 points off the bench to help lead the Fever to a 101-95 win over the Toronto Tempo at Scotiabank Arena in the team’s first-ever trip to the city.
Every time Cunningham touched the ball, the Toronto crowd let her hear it with loud boos, following her controversial comments on transgender athletes in women’s sports that resulted in a lot of issues across the WNBA.
Still, Cunningham did not let the reaction bother her. Instead, she praised the Toronto fans after the game.
Cunningham Praises Toronto Crowd After Game
Sophie Cunningham (Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images)
During her postgame media availability, Cunningham gave credit to the Tempo crowd and the city.
“Shout-out to the Tempo crowd in the city,” Cunningham said. “I think we’ve had so much fun. It’s my first time being in Canada. It’s a lot of our first times being in Canada, but the crowd was absolutely amazing.”
Cunningham then pointed to the passion inside the arena.
“You’re going to get boos, you’re going to get cheers,” she said. “But just the fact that they’re so passionate, they’re loud and they’re putting on for the city, I think it’s amazing. So, shout-out to you guys for coming out and supporting.”
The boos followed recent controversies surrounding Cunningham and her personal views. A WNBA subreddit recently banned her name, but moderators later clarified that only non-basketball discussions about her violated its rules.
Her supporters ran into issues of their own during Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Dream, when arena staff made fans wearing XX-XY Athletics t-shirts cover them up.
The WNBA later responded to both situations. The league said it had no connection to the subreddit and said fans should not have had to cover their shirts.
With all this off-court drama settled for now, Cunningham and the Fever are shifting their focus back to the court.
Indiana hits the road to play the Dallas Wings on Thursday before heading into a tough back-to-back weekend set against the New York Liberty and Chicago Sky. After that run, the Fever get five days of rest before hosting the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 28. From there, the league heads into a long midseason break for the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Germany.
The regular season resumes Sept. 17, with the playoffs starting Sept. 27.
