Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham made a winking reference on Friday to an on-court skirmish that concerned her slamming an opposing participant to the bottom.
Tuesday’s brawl on the Fever and Connecticut Solar sport stemmed from Solar guard Jacy Sheldon turning into bodily with Cunningham’s teammate Caitlin Clark throughout a play and poking her within the eye.
The 2 opposing gamers engaged in a heated verbal alternate earlier than Clark evenly shoved Sheldon, prompting gamers from each groups to collect round.
Sheldon’s teammate Marina Mabrey got here in late and pushed Clark to the bottom. Mabrey was fined an undisclosed quantity and issued a technical foul, which was later upgraded to a flagrant 2 foul, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou reported.
Heads cooled as the sport went on, however Cunningham reignited the strain within the fourth quarter, when Sheldon made a steal and bolted towards the opposite facet of the court docket. Cunningham knocked her to the ground within the final minute.
The Fever participant’s transfer led to an all-out shoving match between gamers on each side. She was additionally fined an undisclosed quantity for the exhausting foul.
Cunningham’s recognition on-line surged after her exhausting foul. As of Friday, she had 1 million followers on TikTok, with many new followers saying they’re tuning into video games simply to observe her.
Cunningham nodded on the exhausting foul play in a TikTok video, lip-syncing “Can’t hold my palms to myself, I imply I may however why would I need to?” from Selena Gomez’s hit track “Palms to Myself.”
She captioned the video “it’s a joke… the sound was too becoming! comfortable sport day.”
“Girllllllllll, u have turn out to be a nationwide treasure off that night time alone. Formally a Fever/ Enforcer Sophie fan,” one TikTok consumer wrote.
“Legend,” widespread health influencer Joey Swoll commented.
“Do i watch basketball? No. Do i really like Caitlin Clark and now Sophie? Sure,” one other consumer wrote.
