Sports

How Sophie Cunningham Accidentally Became the Best WNBA Meme Over A Very Petty Gesture

By Kristen Wong Sports Illustrated

Don't call Sophie Cunningham the enforcer, anymore. She's now the pointer.

A year after soaring into mainstream popularity, the veteran Fever guard has been having a relatively quiet second campaign in Indiana. Then, during the Fever's win over the Mercury on Monday night, she was seen sassily pointing at ex-teammate DeWanna Bonner during a testy on-court exchange. In a matter of hours, she became another viral sensation and arguably the best meme to come out of the WNBA so far this season.

Let's back up to what exactly went down during Monday's game. Bonner's relationship with the Fever has been awkward ever since she left the team mid-season in 2025 citing a "fit" issue." Now paired with her fiancée Alyssa Thomas on the Mercury, Bonner has faced her former team a handful of times following the tense break-up, which typically culminated in some general chippiness and feisty words exchanged, but not too much more than that.

In the fourth quarter of the Fever's 86-77 win on Monday, however, things reached a boiling point. Tensions escalated after Caitlin Clark fouled Bonner and the two got into a brief dust-up with Bonner aggressively gesturing at Clark afterward. That caused Cunningham, a.k.a. Clark's bodyguard, to point right back at Bonner while holding eye contact for an unusually long amount of time.

Five players between the Fever and Mercury were assessed technical fouls after the incident, and one player was ejected. The unexpected best thing by far to come out of that scuffle, though, was this instantly iconic Sophie meme:

Truly a bottomless supply of online memes thanks to Cunningham's stone-cold reaction combined with her sassy pointing finger.

She's even been getting requests from Fever fans to mimic her viral gesture in photos:

Sophie Cunningham points her way into internet stardom: What Fever guard said about DeWanna Bonner clash

Cunningham, as most of her fans already know, has always been one to speak her mind. Any episode of her podcast, Show Me Something, will tell you as much. The 29-year-old got into hot water last season for taking not-so-subtle shots at the WNBA's officiating and also publicly criticized Bonner's decision to quit on the team last year.

She's also never been one to back down from a fight, as proven by her infamous retaliation foul on Jacy Sheldon after Sheldon appeared to get away with a dirty move on Caitlin Clark in a 2025 Fever-Sun game.

"That's professional sports," Cunningham said of the flared tempers between the Fever and Mercury on Monday night. "Sometimes things get chippy and that's O.K. It's O.K. for women to stand their ground a little bit and to have some extracurriculars at times, because you have to stand your ground."

Following her hard foul on Sheldon, Cunningham got tapped for several high-profile endorsements including the security company Ring, Arby's and Adidas, not to mention her lucrative podcast deal. It'll be interesting to see what other off-court opportunities open up for her after the pointing hullabaloo (An Uncle Sam ad? A partnership with pet laser pointers?), though Cunningham and the rest of the Fever might want to focus on their season at hand first. Indiana (10-8) has dropped three of their last four games and Clark, who missed most of last season due to quad and hamstring injuries, exited early from Wednesday night's loss to the Mercury after suffering another injury to her back.

More WNBA from Sports Illustrated



This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Sophie Cunningham Accidentally Became the Best WNBA Meme Over A Very Petty Gesture.

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This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 7:23 PM.

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