Sophie Cunningham Gained More Followers Than the Other 49 Most-Followed WNBA Players Combined

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There were no WNBA games on Sunday — the season ended on Halloween night with the first Game 7 in Finals history — but the league's strangest competition is still running: the race for its audience. On Sunday that race produced a number that is hard to say out loud with a straight face, a Hall of Famer settled a celebration debt at LSU, a UConn legend took her place on the wall with two new champions watching, a former All-Star denied saying a word she says never left her mouth, and a development player flew home to Brisbane carrying two championships from one year. Here is the WNBA on November 8.

2.9 million followers, and it wasn't close

Sophie Cunningham averaged 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists off Indiana's bench this season — the Fever's fourth-best scorer behind Kelsey Mitchell, Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, and sixth on the team in win shares, per Athlon Sports. Solid season. Then there is the other stat line. A study by Miami-based agency bknown, reported Sunday night by Athlon Sports, counted Cunningham gaining 2.9 million Instagram followers between May 8 and Nov. 2 — more than the combined gains of the other 49 most-followed WNBA players over the same span. She passed Clark to become the most-followed player on the Fever and the second-most followed player in the league, and she was recently rated the second-most marketable player in the WNBA, ahead of Angel Reese.

Cunningham shared the study on her Instagram stories Sunday with a reaction that was pure gratitude: "I love my fans and family!" she wrote, per Athlon Sports. "I'm praying I represent Jesus and ALL of us in the best possible way." She added: "let's keep rocking and bringing people together!!" A bench guard outgrowing the rest of the league's top 50 combined is not a normal offseason note. It is the clearest sign yet of where this league's gravity now sits — a Finals that averaged 1.88 million viewers and peaked at 3.3 million for Game 7 built an audience, and that audience is picking its own favorites, loudly.

Shaq returns the favor at LSU

Angel Reese thought the 'too small' jokes ended with the Finals. They followed her home. Reese and Shaquille O'Neal were both back at LSU on Saturday for homecoming, joining head coach Lane Kiffin for the Tiger Walk before the Alabama game alongside Kevin Costner, Paul Skenes and Livvy Dunne, per Pro Football Network. Reese was recording O'Neal on the sideline and asked him to say something. Instead, the 7-footer performed her 'too small' celebration right in front of her. Reese answered with a repeated 'it's okay, it's okay' and pushed her camera toward him as if taking a playful swing, per Pro Football Network, while O'Neal simply walked away.

The debt dates to Game 3 of the Finals, when Reese put up 21 points and 12 rebounds in Atlanta's 97-71 win, celebrated toward the Valkyries and watched Golden State take the series in seven anyway. Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg aimed the same gesture at her from courtside during Game 7, and former Warrior Festus Ezeli wore a shirt featuring her celebration at the championship parade, per Pro Football Network and Yardbarker. It lands as teasing rather than cruelty because of who is doing it — O'Neal is Reese's longtime mentor and a fellow LSU icon — and because Reese's season needs no defending: the 2026 Defensive Player of the Year award, plus All-Star, All-WNBA and All-Defensive honors, per Yardbarker. She was back in Baton Rouge days after LSU gave her flowers, a sash and a gold crown at halftime on Thursday. The crown on Thursday, the troll on Saturday. Home is honest like that.

A champion watches a Husky get honored

Sunday's best basketball was in Storrs, where No. 2 UConn beat No. 10 Iowa 91-79 behind a career-high 39 points from Sarah Strong. The afternoon's other ceremony belonged to Azzi Fudd, who was inducted into the Huskies of Honor at Gampel Pavilion in front of a courtside row of UConn greats — Tina Charles, Tiffany Hayes and Gabby Williams, eight days removed from winning the WNBA title with Golden State, per USA Today. "To share this moment with Gabby Williams, who's name is up there, too, who helped recruit me, and is now a WNBA champion," Fudd said, per USA Today, gesturing Williams out to join her as the crowd cheered. "This is a surreal moment I only could have dreamt of when I committed to UConn." Both women won national titles as Huskies. Only one of them now has her name on the wall next to a professional ring to match.

McCoughtry denies it, on the record

The day's uglier argument started on the Get To The Point podcast, where former WNBA All-Star Angel McCoughtry discussed how appearance and popularity shape the recognition players receive, and argued that Clark's Fever teammate Kelsey Mitchell deserves more recognition for her basketball, per Yardbarker. Asked whether she considered Clark attractive, McCoughtry laughed rather than answering directly — a moment some viewers read as an insult, and a social media post then accused her of effectively calling Clark "ugly," a word she never actually used, per Yardbarker. On Sunday she answered on Threads: "I never called anyone ugly, those words never came out my mouth," McCoughtry wrote, per Yardbarker. "I don't even think in that way. So when people lie and say you said something you didn't or paint a lying picture. Isn't that a defamation lawsuit?" The denial is now on the record. So is the original conversation, and the wider argument it started — about who gets marketed in this league and why — is not going anywhere.

Sowah flies home with two titles — and November 15 looms twice

Miela Sowah stepped off the plane in Brisbane on Sunday and tried to explain her year. "The parade was honestly the craziest thing I've ever experienced in my life," the 26-year-old told Basketball Australia. "400,000 fans showed up for us." Sowah won the 2026 WNBA championship with Golden State as a development player — seven regular-season games, a 32-12 record, no spot on the playoff roster, and a ring anyway — making her just the third Australian to win a WNBL title and a WNBA title in the same year, after Lauren Jackson and Abby Bishop did it with Canberra and Seattle in 2010, and the 12th Australian WNBA champion overall, per Basketball Australia. Wedged between the two titles was a late call-up to the Australian Opals for September's World Cup, replacing captain Sami Whitcomb. "My life motto is hard work always pays off," she said, per Basketball Australia. Next is a run-back attempt with Townsville, starting Nov. 15 in Canberra against the UC Capitals — her 100th WNBL game. "I'm trying to run it back with Townsville for another championship," she said.

November 15 is circled in two hemispheres. The same day Sowah plays game No. 100, the WNBA holds its 2027 Draft Lottery, with Houston and Toronto splitting the best odds at the No. 1 pick. The season has been over for eight days. The next one is already being decided.