Sophie Cunningham’s TikTok Account Has Exploded Since Viral Defense of Caitlin Clark
WNBA fines are temporary. Increased follower count is forever.
It’s been a busy week for Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.
On Tuesday, Cunningham found herself at the center of the fracas that broke out between the Fever and the Connecticut Sun. What started out as a bit of trash talk and shoving between Caitlin Clark and Jacy Sheldon quickly devolved into a bit of chaos near the end of the game.
In the final minute of action, Cunningham committed a hard foul against Sheldon, seemingly in retaliation for the action that had been aimed at Clark, which resulted in both Cunningham and Sheldon getting ejected. In addition, Cunningham received a $400 fine for the Flagrant 2 she was assessed and a second fine of an undisclosed amount for her role in the brawl that followed.
But according to a report from Jacob Feldman at Sportico, Cunningham may very well have already made up the difference in her fine, though by an unconventional means: her follower count.
Since Cunningham’s move in defense of her teammate, she’s seen her TikTok follower count rise rapidly and steadily from roughly 302,000 to more than 1.2 million. Cunningham celebrated her feat of clearing one million followers with, of course, a TikTok dance.
She also posted a video seemingly in reference to her hard foul, mouthing along to the lyrics “I mean I could, but why would I want to?” from the song “Hands to Myself” by Selena Gomez.
In addition to the rise in her follower count, Cunningham has apparently also seen a surge in jersey sales, with them now listed on the Fever’s online store as shipping “on or before July 8.”
“It’s unprecedented growth,” Addison Abdo, who represents Cunningham at sports management agency PRP told Sportico. “We work with some pretty big athletes that have gone viral for some pretty big things, but this has been something that I haven’t seen before—this type of growth in this short amount of time … was very new territory.”
Cunningham is a veteran. While it is her seventh season in the WNBA, it’s just her first with the Fever, having arrived during what was a busy offseason for Indiana as they retooled their roster in hopes of competing for a title.
We’ve seen the Caitlin Clark effect and the rise in interest in the WNBA in general manifest in several interesting ways. Yes, ratings and ticket sales are up across the board, but so are some more specific and direct engagement methods, like voting trends in the upcoming WNBA All-Star Game, or in Cunningham’s case, her follower count
News
After my wife died, I kicked her daughter out of the house because she wasn’t my blood relative — Ten years later, the truth that came out broke my heart/hi
“Get out! You’re not my daughter! Don’t ever come back!” Those words—the ones I screamed that night—still echo in my…
The daughter-in-law cared for her mother-in-law for eight years, while the daughters barely paid her any attention. When the elderly woman passed away, all her assets and land were inherited by her daughters, and the daughter-in-law received nothing. But on the forty-ninth day, while cleaning her mother-in-law’s bed, she discovered something beneath the mattress…/hi
My name is Elena, and I joined the Reyes family in the beautiful colonial city of Oaxaca de Juárez when…
He Slipped Sleeping Pills Into My Tea Every Night — So One Evening I Pretended to Drink It… and What I Saw After Closing My Eyes Revealed a Secret Hidden Inside Our House That Changed Everything Forever/hi
🕯️ THE TEA AT NINE I never used to fear silence.But now, even the sound of boiling water makes my hands…
The Divorced Pregnant Wife Was Admitted to the Same Hospital Where Her Husband Was a Doctor — And What He Did Next…/hi
The tall white building of the city’s most prestigious “Jeevan Rekha Hospital” glowed under the sunlight. Inside its busy corridors,…
Having to be rushed to the emergency room, the elderly mother was stunned to discover that the doctor treating her was…/hi
Having to be rushed to the hospital, the elderly mother was stunned to discover that the doctor treating her was……
Lu Beicheng’s Runaway Fiancée/hi
After marrying the celibate officer, I lived as a widow for three years. So, after being reborn, the first thing…
End of content
No more pages to load
