WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham has been a major trending topic recently, largely thanks to an on-court moment that instantly transformed into one of the internet’s favorite viral reaction memes.
Here is exactly what has been happening with the Indiana Fever veteran:
The Viral “Pointing” Meme
During a highly charged, emotional game between the Indiana Fever and her former team, the Phoenix Mercury, tensions flared across the court. Following a heated exchange with Phoenix forward DeWanna Bonner, Cunningham locked into a hilarious, intense 22-second staredown while maintaining a rigid, direct pointing gesture.
The freeze-frame of her point quickly escaped the context of women’s basketball and exploded across platforms like X and Instagram. The meme reached mainstream pop-culture status when WWE icon John Cena shared the image without context to his 21 million followers, and figures like Brittany Mahomes openly laughed about it in Cunningham’s comment sections. Cunningham leaned fully into the joke, posting a photo carousel of the moment captioned entirely with pointing emojis (👉🏼👆🏼👇🏼👈🏼☝🏼).
Defending Caitlin Clark
Beyond the meme, Cunningham made headlines for her comments on the Show Me Something podcast regarding the physical targeting of her superstar teammate, Caitlin Clark.
During that same physical matchup against Phoenix, Clark was subjected to an aggressive throat-punch/flagrant 2 foul by Alyssa Thomas, which later resulted in a one-game suspension for Thomas. Cunningham openly criticized WNBA officiating for failing to protect the rookie:
“If you see the videos of like literally kneeing and cheap-shotting C [Caitlin Clark]… if she did that to any of our teammates, we’d be pissed. But they are definitely targeting her and the league and the refs do nothing to protect her.”
Current Status (2026 Season)
Cunningham is currently in her first season with the Indiana Fever after spending the first six years of her career with the Phoenix Mercury, having signed a one-year deal to play in the Midwest. While she’s been a crucial, highly efficient piece for the Fever lineup this year (hitting a career-high 43.2% from three-point range), she briefly made news this week for sitting out workouts due to an illness, though she is expected back shortly.
