"You're literally dumb as f–k" - Sophie Cunningham has a message for people who argue that Caitlin is not the WNBA's face originally appeared on Basketball Network .
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is arguably the most popular player in the WNBA today. However, there are certain people who don't buy the "Caitlin Fever" and don't think that the former Iowa standout is the face of the league. Well, Clark's Fever teammate Sophie Cunningham has an NSFW message for them.
During the first episode of her "Show Me Something" podcast with West Wilson, Sophie admitted that she is annoyed with people who don't think Caitlin is the WNBA's new face.
"It literally like pisses me off when people are like, 'She's not the face of the league,'" Cunningham stated. "What? No, there's really good, well-known people in our league. I'm not discrediting them; we have a lot of bad as—s in our league, like hell yeah to that — I'm all for that. But when people try to argue she's not the face of our league or our league would be where we're at without her, you're dumb as s–t. You're literally dumb as f—k."
The WNBA looked like a dying league before Caitlin arrived via the 2024 Draft. Since then, the league's numbers have surged. According to an official press release, the WNBA's 2024 season finished with its best attendance numbers in 22 years while setting the record for digital consumption and merchandise sales.
Clark's debut on May 14, 2024, versus the Connecticut Sun was the most watched WNBA game since 2001. Four months later, the Fever's September 19th game at the Capital One Arena versus the Washington Mystics set the WNBA single-game attendance record with 20,711.
To prove these two games weren't just flukes, Indiana's total home attendance of 340,715 was also a single-season record for a WNBA team. Meanwhile, overall WNBA attendance improved by 48 percent compared to the previous campaign.
The Fever saw its franchise value increase by 273 percent compared to the previous year, the biggest improvement in the WNBA last year. With a value of $335 million, Indiana ranks third overall in the league, behind only big markets such as Golden State ($500 million) and New York ($420 million).
After the historic 2024 campaign, the Indianapolis Star hired valuation expert Ryan Brewer from Indiana University Columbus to study Caitlin's economic impact on the league last year. He concluded that Clark was single-handedly responsible for 26.5 percent of the WNBA's 2024 economy. He also projected that the "Caitlin Effect" could hit a billion dollars this year.
"If things just go as they were, and we have an expanded season of 22 home games with modest inflation, I'm looking at $875 million," Brewer told NBC News. "And I could easily see that eclipsing a billion dollars on the economic impact of Caitlin Clark this year."
A survey conducted by media outlet "The Athletic" recently revealed that 53.8 percent of WNBA players agree that Clark will be the face of the league five years from now. However, there are still players who oppose that, even if the numbers don't lie. But as Sophie said, those people are just in denial.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
