Whitlock: Sophie Cunningham's 'barbie brawl' makes Caitlin Clark and Fever title contenders

Jason Whitlock was thrilled with the Indiana Fever’s offseason acquisitions. The team, which already boasts basketball goddess Caitlin Clark, signed veterans Natasha Howard and DeWanna Bonner as well as WNBA draft Makayla Timpson, among others.

However, the player Jason was most excited about was Sophie Cunningham, the sharpshooting guard traded from Phoenix Mercury.

“When they signed Sophie Cunningham, I was like, ‘Oh that's a championship move,”’ he says. Although Sophie’s short stint with the Fever has been injury-ridden, she’s nonetheless proved a solid defender, adding grit and clutch shooting to complement Caitlin Clark’s playmaking.

During the Fever’s June 17 matchup against the Connecticut Sun, however, Cunningham was ejected in the final minute when she committed a flagrant-2 foul on Jacy Sheldon, pulling her to the ground during a fast break, which was seen as retaliation for Sheldon’s earlier flagrant-1 foul on Caitlin Clark.

While critics condemned the foul as reckless and evidence of lack of discipline, fans reveled in the scuffle, arguing that the retaliation was protective loyalty to Caitlin Clark. Jason falls in the latter category.

“She's exactly — exactly — what the Indiana Fever needed; she's what Caitlin Clark needed. She is the energy button; she is the toughness; she is the enforcer that the Indiana Fever desperately needed,” he says. “I feel more confident today than at any point that the Indiana Fever have a real chance at winning the championship.”

Cunningham tackling Sheldon with 46 seconds left in the game when the Fever were up by several points was perceived as unnecessary retaliation by many, but Jason says the move was meant to “put everybody in the WNBA on notice: We’re not remotely scared."

“She snatched Jacy Sheldon by the back of her hair to let the entire league know we're not punks here,” he says. “They needed an enforcer on this team,” and Sophie — “the most fearless girl in the WNBA” — is the perfect person to do it.

Even if the foul was unnecessary, it was nonetheless “a championship moment” because it was “a tone-setting moment,” he says, arguing that going forward, Caitlin Clark will know someone “has [her] back.”

“This will be a rallying cry and a confidence boost to the Indiana Fever,” Jason predicts. However, it will also likely “put a bit of a bullseye on the Indiana Fever's back.”

He speculates that Dallas Wings’ DiJonai Carrington and Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese will be looking to “get spicy” the next time they face off against the Fever. While Cunningham’s play set the right aggressive tone for the remainder of the season, it also set the team up to “get tested.”

To hear more of Whitlock’s commentary and see the footage of Cunningham’s tone-setting foul, watch the video above.

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