Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham jokingly revealed that she is tirelessly working to keep Caitlin Clark’s ego in check.
Following an injury-riddled regular season, Clark is ineligible to compete in the WNBA playoffs after the Fever left her off the postseason roster. Cunningham — who was recently involved in a tense on-court standoff with a police officer — finds herself in the same boat due to a torn MCL in her right knee.
While sharing the court — but mostly the bench — during the 2025 campaign, Clark and Cunningham have developed a tight bond that the latter likened to the relationship she has with her cousins.
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Given how close they’ve become, Cunningham isn’t afraid to take playful jabs at Clark despite her status as the face of the WNBA.
“She’s just a big kid, you know what I mean,” Cunningham said while making an appearance on the ‘Old Man and Three’ podcast.
“She is so phenomenal and so elite at her craft. A generational talent. I don’t think I have to hype her up anymore. In fact, we need to get her head a little bit down, and that’s what I’ve done.
“We’ve had a fun relationship so far. She loves hard, but at the end of the day she’s like one of my little cousins. She’s the age of them, she acts like.
“I’m just like, ‘Dude, you’re a dweeb.’ Like, you are the biggest dork I’ve probably ever met, and just somehow you know how to shoot from far out. And you’re really great at passing.”
Due to the myriad of health setbacks that each of them suffered, Cunningham and Clark only appeared together in 11 games this season.
The No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft was limited to just 13 contests total while battling left quad and groin injuries, as well as a bone bruise in her left ankle that she sustained during a workout in August.
Yet when both players were able to take the court, Cunningham relished the opportunity to play and learn alongside Clark.
“I know when she was playing — she was coming back from injury too — but she had kind of an off year of shooting when she was able to play,” Cunningham said of Clark. “And I think that’s normal. You’re never just going to always be on up here.
“But when she was locked in, it was so fun to watch her play because she was four steps ahead of everyone else. She was like, ‘Hey, we need to run this so we can do this.’ And then defensively, if you do this, like she’s on a whole nother level.
“It was really cool to kind of see how her brain works when you’re in the fight with her. Hopefully we’ll get more of that down the road, but there’s just some things that you can’t teach. And she just has a lot of those things.”