Key Indiana Fever reserve Sophie Cunningham has captured headlines this week after standing up for teammate Caitlin Clark following a hard foul against the Connecticut Sun.

Cunningham’s flagrant foul on Sun guard Jacy Sheldon (and subsequent squirmish) with 46 seconds left in Tuesday’s contest led to a fine from the league. But the financial blow has been comfortably paid over in social media engagement, as the Fever player added over 700,000 followers on TikTok this week alone.Cunningham’s jersey was also sold out on the Indiana team store on Wednesday, a sign that fans were flocking to rep the player dubbed on Instagram as Clark’s “enforcer” and who has seen her popularity skyrocket.The Fever acquired Cunningham this offseason in a four-team trade with the Phoenix Mercury in an attempt to strengthen their bench. She participated in an Instagram Q&A shortly after in an effort to connect with her new fans.

“I’ve received this question A LOT,” she admitted. Instead of answering head-on, Cunningham took the opportunity to share a video of herself awkwardly drinking later at the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game.

“I think [I’m single] cause I’m a rat and an embarrassment to society. Also, this was all ice [in the video] and doesn’t do my skills any justice. But back to being not married, it’ll happen before I die CAUSE WON’T HE DO IT.”

Cunningham was a 2019 second-round pick by the Mercury out of Missouri. She averaged a career-best 12.6 points per game on a star-studded roster alongside Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner.

In seven games off the bench in 2025, Cunningham is averaging 6.4 points in 22.6 minutes. A right-ankle injury on May 30 kept her sidelines for two weeks.

The Fever sit at 6-6 following an 88-77 loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Thursday. “Overall, it’s not about Caitlin [Clark] specifically. I thought it was about our entire group. We were soft,” star Kelsey Mitchell said of the performance.

“They made us pay by being stronger, being tougher. 50/50 balls, deflections, getting in the passing lanes. That’s just a piece of being aggressive, and having an ability to look at our best player and be like ‘Nah, they gonna be aggressive.’”