Sophie Cunningham is sitting in a hidden corner of a bar in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It’s a pivotal day of March Madness and fans are filling up The Stumble Inn. A few will inevitably stagger out.

But Cunningham doesn’t trip over her words as she sends a message to the WNBA. To those players and fans who hope to see Caitlin Clark falter and fall.

‘If you’re trying to be jealous or knock her down, then you’re not in it for the right reason,’ Cunningham tells the Daily Mail.

‘The impact that she’s had – not only on women’s basketball, but on female athletes as a whole – it’s like a Michael Jordan effect.’

Cunningham, a six-year veteran of the WNBA, is now a teammate of Clark at the Indiana Fever. She was by the pool when she discovered she had been traded to ‘one of the hottest teams in the whole world right now’. ‘Heck yeah,’ Cunningham thought, ‘we’re about to go win a championship’

She has played with and against some of the most influential players in women’s basketball. But no one has seen anything like Clark’s rookie season.

WNBA star Sophie Cunningham opened up on the future of the WNBA and Caitlin Clark

Cunningham is now teammates with Clark after being traded to the Indiana Fever

‘The impact that she’s had… it’s like a Michael Jordan effect,’ Cunningham says of Clark

Clark’s clash with Chennedy Carter (L) sparked nationwide discussions about her treatment

The 23-year-old, after being selected first overall by the Fever, spearheaded a record-setting year for women’s basketball.

She cemented herself as one of the biggest stars in sports and helped turn heads towards the WNBA. And yet? Clark still found herself engulfed in scandal.

She became a lightning rod for debates about race and sexuality and the gender pay gap. Joe Biden offered his two cents on her salary and Chennedy Carter sent her crashing to the floor.

That collision sparked a national conversation; Carter and other rival players were accused of jealousy and bullying Clark. Even during this offseason, some in the WNBA have bemoaned the attention given to the Fever and its biggest star.

‘Maybe there is some beef there,’ Cunningham says. ‘But I think now they’re really realizing everything she’s bringing to the table… you’re not going to see a lot more Caitlin Clarks.’

Cunningham continues: ‘There’s been trailblazers before… who have been able to lay that platform for us to have what we have today… it’s not like she just came in here and changed it. 

‘But I also think that you have to embrace everything she’s done… if you’re not looking at that as a positive and everything that she’s done – not only for women’s basketball as a whole, but the WNBA and women athletes – then I don’t really know what you’re thinking.’

In 2024, during her rookie year, Clark helped the WNBA enjoy a record-breaking season

Cunningham played against the No 1 pick during her final season with the Phoenix Mercury

The WNBA superstar watched a Kansas City Chiefs game alongside Taylor Swift

Cunningham compared her role to that of Sabrina Carpenter (R), who opened for Swift on tour

That means ’empowering’ each other. Or ‘lifting each other up’. Or, to put it another way: Cunningham’s job is to be Sabrina Carpenter to Clark, the WNBA’s Taylor Swift.

It was Cunningham’s analogy. It was meant as a joke – ‘it really was,’ the 28-year-old laughs. But her point remains a serious one. 

Carpenter opened for Swift on her recent Eras Tour and Cunningham explains: ‘Taylor Swift, Caitlin Clark, they’re going to do their thing. They’re going to have all the eyes, they’re going to have anything you can ask for. 

‘But I just said I’m going to be the Sabrina Carpenter in the corner, being her biggest supporter, doing whatever the team needs… she does a great job of making everyone else around her better. (But) in order to win, it really does take everybody.’

Cunningham adds: ‘We’re not taking away from anything that she’s done. We want to help her. We want to all win. And I think, let her be the Taylor Swift and we’ll all be right there supporting.’

Clark has already sat alongside Swift to watch the Chiefs and Cunningham – a Missouri native – wants to take her new teammate to another game at Arrowhead Stadium.

Day to day, though, she will be there for Clark to ‘lean on’. And Cunningham will pass on all she mined over six seasons at the Mercury alongside WNBA legends such as Diana Taurasi. 

‘I’ve learned how to become a pro. I’ve learned what she does in order to be great,’ Cunningham explains. ‘Caitlin is going to (get) there. But when you don’t have that experience, sometimes you need someone to kind of lean on. So I’m just going to be there for whatever she needs.’

‘Off the court, I like to be girly,’ says Cunningham, who is known for her pre-game fits

The WNBA star hosted a March Madness watch party at The Stumble Inn in New York City

Last year, the Fever were eliminated in the WNBA playoffs. Heading into the 2025 campaign, they have a new coach – Stephanie White – and several new stars including DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard, Sydney Colson, and Cunningham.

The guard, 28, is still chasing her first WNBA championship. But she has already done her bit to help push women’s basketball to new heights – all while juggling work as an NBA analyst and a model. Cunningham has 274,000 followers on Instagram and she rarely misses the chance to make a statement. With her performances and with her pregame fit. 

‘It’s so fun because our league has drawn so much more attention… (and) once you get people there, they fall in love with the game, but they also fall in love with who we are off the court,’ she says.

‘I like to go out there, I like to be competitive. I like to be a little bit grimy, a little feisty. But off the court, I like to be girly. I like fashion. I think you can do both.’ 

It can be a decent side hustle too, Cunningham says. Which is helpful, in a league beset by contradiction.

The WNBA boasts some of the biggest stars in women’s sport and yet, as Cunningham points out: ‘Some of our teams are still (practicing) at YMCAs, sharing the court with normal people. There’s no elite-level athletes doing that in any other leagues.’

The Fever are building a $78million training center in downtown Indianapolis, which is slated to open for the 2027 season.

And the foundations of the WNBA are only going to get stronger next season. UConn’s Paige Bueckers recently announced that she is entering the 2025 draft. Days later, she led the Huskies to March Madness glory. 

Like Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink – and other members of the NIL generation – Bueckers will join the big leagues as a ready-made superstar.

UConn’s Paige Bueckers has announced she is entering the 2025 draft after March Madness 

‘She’d probably kick my a**,’ Cunningham says of a possible round of golf with Clark 

Like Clark, the 23-year-old is expected to be the No 1 overall pick. ‘She just has it all,’ Cunningham says. ‘Paige is such a phenomenal player and a phenomenal person. I would love to play with her one day.’

First, though, she has the chance to work alongside Clark and help turn the Fever into a championship team. 

‘Everything that she’s had to deal with – (everything) they put on her shoulders – she’s handled it with nothing but grace,’ Cunningham says.

‘She’s so good at what she does, and such an elite-level athlete that draws a lot of attention around the world.’ But? ‘You talk to her, and she’s like my cousin’s age. She’s still a young girl… these kids are just different. 

‘The way they speak, the way they act, what interests them. I just think it’s funny, because it really is like I’m talking to my little cousin.’

Thankfully Cunningham has plenty of ideas of how to keep the younger generation entertained. 

‘We’ll probably be kicking it at the pool, go do a lake, get on a boat, play cards. It’s different with her, because she can’t just go anywhere. You can’t just do anything, and so I think just making sure that we’re all still having fun,’ Cunningham says. ‘She’s a heck of a person… she’s hilarious.’

Both Clark and Cunningham are keen golfers so perhaps they can bond over 18 holes. ‘She’d probably kick my a**,’ Cunningham laughs. ‘But (that) is fine.’