Sophie Cunningham has emerged as a true superstar in the WNBA.
The 28-year-old saw a surge in popularity as a result of her fierce attitude on court, dominance in defence, and being dubbed Caitlin Clark’s enforcer.
Cunningham’s transformation into force to be reckoned with can be traced back to her heated game against the Connecticut Sun in June.
In the third quarter, Clark was in a scuffle with Sun guard Jacy Sheldon after the latter poked her eye.
Sheldon was issued a flagrant foul, and the matter was seemingly closed.
However, Cunningham later gave up a hard foul after essentially shoving Sheldon to the hardwood, which led to a brawl.
Cunningham was ejected, with her behaviour later going viral and being hailed by Fever fans for defending Clark.
The guard was handed a $400 fine, but this was a small price for the boost that incident would give her social media following.
How many followers did Sophie Cunningham gain?
As of August 6, Cunningham — a black belt in Taekwondo — now has 1.2 million Instagram followers and boasts 1.6 million on TikTok.
“I went from 200,000 on TikTok before the fight, and then I had like 350,000 on Instagram,” she said.
“Over the night, over a million on both. Insane… I’ve worked my whole life to become a WNBA basketball player. And now people know me as WWE,” she joked.
Cunningham is now tied with Kelsey Plum as the eighth most followed WNBA player on Instagram.
“It’s unprecedented growth,” said Addison Abdo, who represents Cunningham as a senior director at sports management agency PRP.
“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.”
Caitlin Clark shuts down Sophie Cunningham
However, Cunningham’s social media stardom has led to her teammate Clark reminding the guard what her real job is.
Cunningham’s new TikTok video has her make a public plea for a swimsuit brand to sponsor her and Lexie Hull.
“We are off to our game tonight. Convince us there’s a swimsuit brand that wants to partner with two Indiana Fever mermaids,” Cunningham wrote.
Although Clark, who is still absent for the Fever with a lingering groin injury, issued a jestful dig.
“Swimsuit brands plz comment ‘focus on basketball,’” replied the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year.
She also predicted in another comment that Cunningham’s prediction would fall on deaf ears.
“And no one responds,” Clark wrote.
To be fair to Cunningham, she has been enjoying an impressive run of form for the Fever, which has seen her force her way into the starting lineup.
She is averaging 11.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.0 steals in the last seven games.
Cunningham is also chipping in with 2.3 three-pointers per game.