Sophie Cunningham does not do subtle. In a “No Hesitation” podcast episode released this week, the Indiana Fever guard took apart A’ja Wilson’s decision to confront a fan at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and her verdict came down to two words. Grow up.
The moment happened in Game 2 of the Aces-Fever first-round series on Tuesday, September 30. A fan sitting behind the basket pointed at Wilson and told her she had fouled. Wilson walked straight at him, teammates and officials pulled her back, and she was assessed a technical foul.
Security escorted the fan out of the building. He was allowed back in later after the Fever determined he had not broken any conduct rules.
Cunningham’s problem with it
Her argument is about consistency. WNBA players have spent years asking for bigger crowds and more attention, and the crowd that finally shows up behaves like a crowd.
“If you’re asking for all these fans to come [support] and you have real sports fans do something that a sports fan would probably do, we’re going to go for them just saying you fouled?” Cunningham said. “Like grow up, what are we doing?”
She put herself in the same frame, too. “I can say that because I got [expletive] on the entire season. People came after who I am, my character, what I stand for. I’ve heard the worst of the worst. It’s part of it. Who cares?”
No discipline, and that is the part that bothers her
Wilson got a technical in the moment. Beyond that, no fine and no suspension has been announced by the WNBA. Cunningham thinks the absence of punishment says something about who Wilson is.
“But she’s like the LeBron James of our league, and, so, of course they’re not going to suspend her,” Cunningham said.
That is her read, not a finding from anyone at the league office. The WNBA has not said it reviewed the incident, has not announced any investigation, and has not explained its thinking either way. Wilson, for her part, called the fan’s behavior unacceptable after the game and objected to him stepping toward her and pointing.
Why this one keeps traveling
The series itself is finished. Las Vegas took it 2-1 and closed Indiana out 94-83 in Game 3, with Wilson scoring 36 points. The Fever went home and the Aces moved on to the semifinals.
What survives is the argument, and it is bigger than the two players in it. The WNBA’s audience has grown fast, and a good chunk of that new audience is loud and not going anywhere. Cunningham is saying the league has to decide how much of that it absorbs before it starts policing the people buying tickets.
She is right that a guy pointing from the second row is a small thing to escalate over. She is also skating past the volume of abuse Wilson absorbs that most players never see. Both of those can be true at once, and neither one needed a technical foul.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.