{"id":798985,"date":"2026-07-29T21:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/798985\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T21:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:00:15","slug":"fever-do-not-answer-questions-about-pro-cunningham-rally-before-game-against-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/798985\/","title":{"rendered":"Fever do not answer questions about pro-Cunningham rally before game against Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark were not made available to answer postgame questions about a rally before the Indiana Fever\u2019s 105-95 win over the Seattle Storm on Tuesday night<\/a> in support of Cunningham\u2019s recent comments about transgender athletes.<\/p>\n

A crowd of a few dozen gathered outside Climate Pledge Arena to both support Cunningham and promote statewide Initiatives IL26-638 and IL26-001, which would bar transgender students from participating in girls\u2019 athletics at Washington schools.<\/p>\n

Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports in an ESPN article published last week.<\/a> Cunningham was booed by Storm fans when she checked into Tuesday\u2019s game, as well as when attempting her first free throws of the night.<\/p>\n

Media members asked to speak to Cunningham and Clark postgame, but neither player was made available. Kelsey Mitchell and Monique Billings addressed the media instead, alongside head coach Stephanie White.<\/p>\n

When White was asked about the rally and Cunningham\u2019s recent comments, a Fever public relations representative intervened with the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither our organization nor Sophie had any knowledge of this demonstration and no contact with its organizers,\u201d the statement said. \u201cOur only goal as a team, whether at home or away, is to win basketball games and make Fever fans for life, and we are united in that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storm head coach Sonia Raman answered a question about the pregame protest following her team\u2019s seventh consecutive loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeattle and this organization and Climate Pledge, we always want to be an area where people feel welcome coming into this building,\u201d Raman said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve always done a really good job with that. So, I know our organization was working closely with Climate Pledge and the security just to make sure that everybody feels safe and included and welcome when they walk in this door.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I understand, that was successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heather Weiner, a spokesperson for No Hate in Washington State, a coalition of doctors, nurses, anti-domestic violence groups and other community organizations opposing statewide Initiatives 638 and 001, found it to be a positive experience on the whole outside Climate Pledge Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington State is a very caring, inclusive place,\u201d Weiner said. \u201cWe don\u2019t always agree, but we do agree against hate, and we will come together about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark were not made available to answer postgame questions about a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,455,15264,81175,96309,588,113,459,10553,17679,29394,96308,10985,57655,3748,66,3747,9900,682,458,11239,14495],"class_list":["post-798985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-gender","tag-gender-in-sports","tag-heather-weiner","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-fever","tag-kelsey-mitchell","tag-lgbtq","tag-monique-billings","tag-protests-and-demonstrations","tag-seattle-storm","tag-sonia-raman","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-wa-state-wire","tag-washington","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-basketball","tag-youth-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117005282395176829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}