We know that Indiana Fever’s history with the Connecticut Sun doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but Sophie Cunningham made it clear that she does not believe Bria Hartley had any malicious intent during their on-court collision. It was a game that still ended in a Fever win. And despite a wave of fans demanding Hartley’s suspension without pay, Sophie Cunningham recently stood up in her defense.
What made it more striking was that she went against her own family in doing so. Her sister, Lindsey Cunningham, publicly urged the WNBA to “protect your athletes.” She went on to criticize how the league handles dangerous plays. Her mother was even harsher. She called Bria Hartley “plain mean” in a post that she later deleted. She argued that Bria Hartley’s rough style wasn’t new and that the league had looked the other way before.
Sophie Cunningham, however, revealed that she’s actually friends with Hartley and doesn’t believe the guard would ever try to hurt her intentionally. In fact, she admitted she even asked her mom to delete the tweet aimed at Hartley in the heat of the moment. “I know Bria, and I’m actually really good friends with Bria,” Cunningham said. “I think it was just a basketball play, I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time, she fell. There’s no way she would intentionally try to hurt me. I have nothing but love for Bria. Bria and I are super cool. She would never try to hurt me. There are some girls that might, but she would never do that.”
Sophie says Bria Hartley didn’t try to hurt her and she told her mom to delete tweets
“I’m actually really good friends with Bria…It was a basketball play…I even told my mom…she would never try to hurt me. There are some girls that I think might but she wouldn’t do that.” pic.twitter.com/0x24BpYO2i
— correlation (@nosyone4) August 20, 2025
Still, the context makes the whole episode more painful and difficult to accept. Sophie Cunningham became the third Fever player lost to a season-ending injury. She joined Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald, who both went down just a week earlier in the same game while playing the Mercury. For fans, that’s too much bad luck to accept the “basketball play” explanation. Sophie tried to brush off Hartley’s post-collision grin, saying, “It wasn’t a happy smile, it was a grimace. I’m totally fine with Bria. It’s whatever.” But many Fever supporters aren’t buying it.
Instead, they believe the league pressured Sophie Cunningham into smoothing things over publicly. “We all know what we saw. The league made Sophie have her mom delete that tweet,” one accused. While another speculated: “Maybe she’s avoiding more fines. Idk”
This is a developing story
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