Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham is attempting to clarify her controversial comments about the WNBA returning via expansion to Cleveland and Detroit.
After Cunningham alluded that WNBA players wouldn’t want to play in either city as opposed to more tourist-friendly cities like Nashville and Miami, Cunningham said she was more referring to the “off-court lifestyle” options that cities like Nashville and Miami offer.
She also said she appreciates the history that Cleveland and Detroit both bring to the league.
“I’m thankful for what they’ve done for our history of the sport,” Cunningham mentioned about Cleveland and Detroit, per Indiana reporter Tony East. “I think it would be fun to kind of get some teams outside the NBA market.”
One quick note: Cunningham specifically mentioned Broadway, Nashville’s popular entertainment district, as a draw to WNBA players. Any longtime Nashvillian will tell you is the city’s honky tonk Elephant Graveyard, only frequented by tourists and college students.
If WNBA players moved to Nashville, they’d soon learn to avoid Broadway at all costs.
Fever wing Sophie Cunningham offers clarifying thoughts about her comments on WNBA expansion from earlier this week: pic.twitter.com/pkXuXywI6E
— Tony East (@TonyREast) July 3, 2025
Cunningham is certainly well within her right to prefer the WNBA to expand to other cities, but her mentioning Kansas City the other day as a better destination than Cleveland or Detroit kind of nullified her point.
We’re sure some players would love to move to Nashville and Miami, but the goal there is more expansion in a reasonable timeline to join those cities without taking away from Cleveland and Detroit. However, with the new CBA looming, the W should prioritize its own players first before worrying about adding more teams.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Sophie Cunningham tried to clarify unpopular comments about Cleveland and Detroit