From California Post · · 1m 40s
Sophie Cunningham won't join Kanter Freedom's stunt
A WNBA player who already said the controversial thing declines to become the face of someone else's campaign.
In brief
A WNBA player who already said the controversial thing declines to become the face of someone else's campaign. Cunningham kept her position on trans eligibility but refused the role Kanter Freedom wrote for her, because a playoff push is the only thing she wants her energy going to. Originally reported by California…
She talks, but on her terms
Cunningham has spoken all summer about the WNBA's most divisive subject. What she will not do is play a supporting role in someone else's show.
Four words of distance
Asked by ESPN about Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declaring for the WNBA draft, she gave an answer that put clear space between her beliefs and their campaign.
“I'm gonna let them do them.”
He keeps using her name
Kanter Freedom has repeatedly invoked Cunningham while escalating his protest. He showed up at Indiana's Aug. 23 game in a shirt defining a woman as an "adult human female" and got ejected after words with Sky guard Natasha Cloud.
The text she never confirmed
He calls her "my friend" and says she texted him "What happened?" after the ejection. Cunningham has not backed up that account or signed on to his wider push.
Same position, no reversal
She still supports keeping transgender girls and women out of girls' and women's sports, while rejecting the claim that she hates transgender people.
“I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth.”
Four games, fifth seed
The Fever are 26-14 and fighting for home court with four games left. Cunningham, at 8.3 points a night, says feeding off-court noise with her brain and energy would cost a team she thinks can go deep.
The takeaway
Cunningham kept her position on trans eligibility but refused the role Kanter Freedom wrote for her, because a playoff push is the only thing she wants her energy going to.
