Does Adam Silver genuinely think we’re going to accept there’s no wrongdoing when we’ve all seen the receipts? After everything Pablo worked for, after everything he showed us?
She’s getting numbers on the level of your average starter, but is putting up numbers like she’s coming off the bench. Players with half as much floor time are scoring just as many if not more points than her.
You could point to her overall splits and try to argue they’re good, but I’d argue that for a shooting guard with the level of floor time she has, these numbers are beyond unacceptable even if the percentages look good on paper. If you’re spending 20-30 minutes on the floor and only making three shots attempts, you better be making at least one or two of them. Three shot attempts on 32 minutes and only making one, and doing this night after night after night, would be enough for any normal team to not only re-evaluate that player’s place in the game plan, but also their spot on the team as a whole. This game was not a one-off - this is just who Cunningham is.
You could argue she’s an “enforcer” for Clark, (which in my mind, goes towards marketing and therefore is outside the scope of this discussion), but why does that warrant $600k a year and an average of 32 minutes of floor time per game, instead of retaining better players like Natasha Howard? And of all the times this year that Caitlin was perceived to be “targeted” or “attacked” by players, when did Sophie step into her enforcer role like she did with Jacy Sheldon last year? She doesn’t seem like that great of an enforcer to me.
She’s also very poor on defence. Her steals, blocks and DREBs are pathetic, her defensive rating is in the toilet and significantly below league average.
Hell, just the other day, she put up statistically the WORST PERFORMANCE IN LEAGUE HISTORY by a player whose team came out with a win, with a -28 +/- and 3 points on 17 minutes of floor time. Normally I don’t like +/- as a stat because I find it’s fairly dependent on who’s at the floor at the same time as you, but I also hold the belief that when someone’s +/- is at an extreme, like +15-20 or -15/20, that’s when the stat starts reflecting what you as a player are bringing or not bringing to the game. With a -28…well…that’s poor beyond even my wildest imagination.
So again, without talking about “marketing” or “raising viewership/sales” and all that stuff - from a basketball standpoint, why does Sophie Cunningham deserve a spot in this league and the number of minutes she’s getting?
https://www.blogto.com/sports\_play/2026/08/toronto-blue-jays-rookie-weatherman/
"A lot of my former teammates would come up to me after seeing rain on the weather apps, asking me to give them the report and the chances that we will play," said Bateman.
When Dunn asked Bateman about his accuracy, he estimated that he was somewhere around 90 per cent accurate during his four seasons in the minor leagues. He followed that statement up in Ron Burgundy fashion, saying that he didn't want to brag.
"I do have a very big hobby for weather. I went to school for it, and took a few classes for it," Bateman said. "It's just something that's pretty important in baseball."
2 POINTS 😩
3 REBOUNDS 😵💫
0 ASSISTS 🙅
0 STEALS 🤔
0 BLOCKS 🫨
0 FG%
0 3PT%
28 MINUTES 😱😱😱
Sophie demonstrates her support for American farmers by laying a string of goose eggs in her 28 minutes vs the Aces 🪿🥚🍳
She also becomes the fourth player in WNBA history to complete the MVP Triple Crown in winning Regular Season MVP, Finals MVP and ASG MVP
Alongside Lisa Leslie, Maya Moore, and Candace Parker
Why didn’t the second coming of Malala feel the need to advocate for those girls? Don’t they matter too? Now’s her chance to protect them from a known danger to women’s locker rooms!
Where has her advocacy been to arrest everyone in the Epstein Files? Will she be releasing her manifesto in her next SI Swimsuit Edition profile?
And if she wants to protect women and girls from dangerous men, shouldn’t Donald Trump be at the top of her list, as one of the most famous and notorious Epstein Listers? Shouldn’t she be salivating at the prospect of taking him down? Donald Trump’s a convicted rapist, after all - she knows he’s a danger to women and girls and creeps on them in locker rooms, but can’t seem to name a trans woman who’s done the same. When will we see her grand declaration of war on the Leader of the Free World, and her endorsement for the Democrats who want to oust him from office?
So, the NBA has this famous informal benchmark called the 40-20 Rule - coined by legendary coach Phil Jackson, which states that a true championship contender must win their 40th game before they lose their 20th.
It’s a predictor that’s seen a surprisingly high success rate (approximately 91%), with only four teams in NBA history having won the championship without also fulfilling the 40-20 rule.
However, the 40-20 rule also operates on the premise of an 82-game season - which would make a direct application to the WNBA impossible, since they only play 40-ish games a season to begin with. It’s also hard to try and find one applicable number across the entire history of the W, since the number of games has grown and shrunk as the league’s popularity has waxed and waned over the years.
So my question is…do you think we should we have our own 40-20 rule, but scaled down to match the WNBA season length? Maybe 20-10, halving the NBA standard since we have roughly half the games, and update as the number of games increases? Or should we hold off on having a standard like that until the number of games stabilizes after this upcoming expansion boom? For people who are good at math and stats, what do you suggest?
Also, for anyone curious…if we were to apply the 20-10 Rule to this year, the only team that’s met the rule so far is the Lynx, and the only remaining teams still eligible to meet the standard are the Valkyries, Aces and Wings. So if that doesn’t sit right with you or feel correct, feel free to give your two cents as to what you think is missing.
I know losing Gausman, Varsho and George is going to break my heart, I know they’re almost certainly gone - but the waiting for the end to come is somehow even more agonizing. I hate that it’s going to end like this…
I’m also just scared of what’s to come. I keep hearing people saying that the Jays should be listening to offers on people like Ernie and Varland…if they really went through with it and traded them, that would be a thousand times worse. My heart wouldn’t be able to take it 😭 it almost feels like waiting for a roller coaster to drop, you just wish it would be over with already instead of continually slowly moving to the summit, you know?
Does anyone else feel this way?
Mine as it stands right now -
- A’ja Wilson
- Olivia Miles
- Jess Shepherd
- Kelsey Mitchell
- Paige Bueckers
Honourable mentions to Marina Mabrey, Allisha Gray and Breanna Stewart
Saw that Meg got married over the weekend (congrats!) and the Fire posted congratulating “Megan and David DiLeo”, with a picture of Meg in a Fire uniform with the name DiLeo.
Do we have any word on whether this is going to be a permanent change moving forward for Meg, or if that was just something cute they did for the congratulations post?
I haven’t seen any updates for her last name on the official Portland Fire roster or the WNBA websites as of yet, I figured the change from Gustafson would be immediate, no? Unless they’re waiting for paperwork to go through, idk, I’m not married lol
In the post-game presser against the Dream last night, Sandy Brondello referred to Angel as a “protected species”, a common term in Australian verbiage (where Brondello is a citizen) used to refer to someone who receives preferential calls/treatment from referees.
However, the use of the term “species” sparked backlash against Brondello for its historically negative and dehumanizing connotations when referring to Black people and Black women.
Coach Brondello took to social media to apologize directly to Angel and the Dream organization by name, and explained that in her frustration with Nyara Sabally’s injury, she not only placed her frustrations with the refereeing on Angel instead of the officials, but also used a term that unintentionally reinforced anti-Black stereotypes.
Even if you want to put forth Olivia Miles, Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell or anyone else for MVP this year, arguing that their offensive stats are somehow better than A’ja’s, it doesn’t change the fact that none of those candidates come even close to comparing to her on the defensive side of the game, just like how the few better hitters than Shohei Ohtani every year in the National League don’t stand a chance against him for MVP bc of his unique dominance as a pitcher as well as a hitter.
There’s also a reason why Napheesa Collier has, for the last few years (except this year bc of her injury, of course), been the only real threat to A’ja for MVP - she’s similarly strong on both ends of the ball, albeit not always as strong as A’ja (but she does make it close).
*That* is what it takes to be MVP. A strong offensive player with poor or lesser defence will never stand a chance against someone who’s similarly strong on offence, or even a tad less strong, but better on defence.
TO BE CLEAR…I’m not comparing Shohei and A’ja from an athletic standpoint. It’s hard enough to compare basketball to baseball players, let alone the gender/sex of it all. However, in terms of career accolades and dominance/place in the pecking order in their respective leagues, I think their paths are very comparable. Their well-roundness as players is the reason why.
https://sneakernews.com/2026/07/10/adidas-crazy-energy-sophie-cunningham-pe-hp5223/?amp
Inspiring cardio queens, sixth options, and pine princesses everywhere that they too can get a shoe deal with Adidas scoring only 8ppg on 20+ min ❤️