Sophie Cunningham takes vicious elbow to face, and fans fume at what refs did next

Inja News آگوست 3, 2026 3 minutes read

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The Sophie Cunningham train rolled through Minnesota on Sunday, and, somehow, it made it through in one piece.

Barely.

Cunningham — who has morphed into the WNBA’s most polarizing player — has jumped head first into the trans culture war over the past two weeks, and things are starting to escalate.

PS: You will NEVER guess which side is starting to do the escalating.

Just kidding. It’s the left. It’s always the left. Duh.

CHERYL REEVE SENDS CLEAR MESSAGE TO SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM WITH ‘TRANS KIDS BELONG’ SHIRT DURING FEVER-LYNX GAME

Anyway, Cunningham and the Fever lost to the Lynx, 108-100, in a game that featured a dueling protest outside the arena, signage inside the area, and ESPN treating Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve wearing a pro-trans shirt like the falling of the Berlin wall.

Seriously, it was incredible, even for them.

Nia Coffey and Sophie Cunningham collide during a WNBA game at Target Center.

Cunningham, meanwhile, finished with three points on just 1 of 2 shooting, but was also on the receiving end of one of the nastiest elbows this side of the Mississippi.

Naturally, Sophie was then called for a foul, sending social media into a frenzy:

Amazing. What a scene. What a sport.

Look, I don’t know whether it was a foul or not. I have no clue. If you want the Xs and Os of the game, go check out ESPN — assuming they’re done gushing over the Lynx coach.

Optically, though, this is such a bad look for the league. A bad look, but not a surprising one. This league can’t get out of its own way, as we’ve documented this entire summer.

Remember when Caitlin Clark was thrown to the ground like a rag-doll last month and there was no foul called? That’s what started this PR nightmare for the WNBA.

Sophie Cunningham reacts during game play against the Portland Fire.

Since then, it’s been all downhill. The Clark fallout. The predictable narrative shift to racism. And now, everything’s been on fire since Cunningham told ESPN a few weeks ago that men don’t belong in women’s sports.

That reignited the culture war for both sides, and it’s been off to the races ever since. We’ve got protests outside the arena. Booing inside the arena. OutKick questions being cut off after the game because the WNBA is scared to answer them.

It’s just chaos.

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Credit to Sophie, though. She’s clearly not backing down or bending the knee.

We’ll see where this week takes us.

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