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Amid all of the controversy and high-tension moments that dominated the WNBA over the past week, there was one thing that had the league, and people far beyond the basketball world, laughing together: the Sophie Cunningham meme. Almost everyone has been posting and resharing it, putting their own spin on the now-viral finger-pointing moment with different concepts, jokes, captions, and whatever else their imagination could come up with.
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The White House also joined in on the fun.
Cunningham was asked about it during her media availability on Friday, in a video shared by Fever reporter Tony East on YouTube. And she gave quite a straightforward response.
“You know, I think everyone around the world is posting it,” she said. “Every company has done it. They’re just the ones that also get on board. And so I don’t really think twice about it. I think they’re just another group who is posting about it.”
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That popular version of the meme was not the one the White House opted to use. Instead, it used a clip from Cunningham’s Show Me Something podcast, in which she was addressing the pointing incident and the meme that came out of it. In the clip, she says, “Oop, shouldn’t have said that. And I didn’t say a word…” before staring directly into the camera and pointing. The video then cross-fades into a clip of President Donald Trump smiling and making an identical finger-pointing gesture toward the camera.
The viral clip came from the Indiana Fever’s game against the Phoenix Mercury. It happened when Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Phoenix’s DeWanna Bonner got into a physical altercation, resulting in a technical foul for Clark. The incident prompted Sophie Cunningham to approach the referee to argue that Bonner also deserved a penalty, pointing toward Bonner as she made her case.
In response to the finger-pointing, Bonner barked back, “Don’t you point at me!” In what has now become the viral meme, Cunningham decided to double down. She kept her finger pointed for a good few seconds more, and bored her eyes into Bonner. In other words, she was telling Bonner to stand down.
That may have been one of the highest-profile and most popular versions of the meme, but Cunningham would not consider it her favorite. She revealed during the same interview that the honor would go to the Statue of Liberty version of the meme. She even joked about changing the famous monument into her own version, complete with the iconic finger-pointing pose.
Notably, Cunningham has been under the weather over the past few days. But as she joked during the interview, even while she was “dying” in bed trying to recover, she was still keeping up with the endless stream of memes thanks to her mom.
Is Sophie Cunningham Finally Back From Illness? Will She Play in the Indiana Fever’s Next Game?
As Sophie Cunningham said herself, she has been quite under the weather over the past few days. However, after missing multiple practice sessions because of an unspecified illness, the Indiana Fever guard returned to practice on Friday, signaling that she is making steady progress in her recovery.
She also traveled with the team to Nevada, where the Fever will face the Las Vegas Aces in their next game. The expectation now is that Cunningham will be available to play when Indiana takes on Las Vegas on Sunday.
Cunningham also addressed her health status during her media availability on Friday. While she noted that she is feeling better and believes she is past the worst of the illness, she admitted that she is still working her way back to full strength.
“Well, it’s not like I was on vacation; I was rotting in my bed. I feel better, just kind of waiting for my energy and this headache to kind of go away a little bit, but I’m here, and so that’s great,” she said.
While Cunningham is back, the Fever will unfortunately be without Caitlin Clark, who has been ruled out for Sunday’s game as she continues to rehab a lingering back injury. Cunningham’s return will, however, definitely be a boost for the team.
