Sophie Cunningham didn’t duck Michael Porter Jr.’s latest controversial take. She openly agreed with his now-viral take that an eighth-grade boys’ team can beat a group of WNBA All-Stars. Usually, comments like MPJ’s attract a lot of flak and criticism. But Sophie Cunningham chose blunt honesty.
On her podcast Show Me Something with West Wilson, the Indiana Fever guard said what most players, male or female, tiptoe around.
“So I would say that’s like probably true. I mean, it’s probably true. I don’t want to be like unrealistic or delusional, like men are just stronger, bigger, athletic. Like they just are a different build. And if so, if you put them up against females, well, yeah, they’re going to win.”
Cunninham made it clear she wasn’t endorsing disrespect towards women’s basketball. Her point was rooted in basic biology. The skill has never been the issue. It’s always been size, strength, explosion, and physicality that tip the scale.
She wasn’t saying eighth graders are better basketball players. She wasn’t saying WNBA vets lack talent. She was simply acknowledging that physical differences change the matchup entirely. And she said it without the defensiveness or anger that usually surrounds the topic.
There’s history behind her perspective, too. Porter Jr. originally made the comment during a conversation with Lonzo and LaMelo Ball, citing practices from his childhood. He said that when he was in seventh and eighth grade, he would scrimmage with Missouri’s women’s team and hold his own, sometimes dominate. Cunningham remembers those runs because she was on those teams.
That shared background explains why she didn’t take Porter’s comments personally. If anything, she sounded exhausted with how often the conversation resurfaces.
Porter has already tried to clarify that he isn’t anti-WNBA. He said he grew up watching Cunningham and his own sisters play, and he’s praised the league repeatedly. But he didn’t walk back the take, even after the Nets asked him to stop talking about the WNBA.
And now one of the WNBA’s most outspoken voices has publicly backed the core idea.
Still, Cunningham pushed for the discussion to quiet down. She knows how quickly this topic gets weaponized, especially in a year when the WNBA is growing faster than ever. Agreeing with Porter doesn’t mean she thinks the women’s game deserves less respect, only that some matchups aren’t realistic.
Her honesty stands out. She didn’t protect the league for the sake of optics. She didn’t go after Porter to satisfy social media. She gave a calm, grounded answer that came from experience, not emotion.
In a debate that usually turns into noise, Cunningham delivered a rare thing: perspective.
