Jun 7, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Injured Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) and guard Caitlin Clark (22) react from the bench during the first half of a WNBA game against the Chicago Sky at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Caitlin Clark Starts Sophie Cunningham Fever Free Agency Courting with 5-Word Message

Originally posted on Indiana Fever on SI | By Grant Young | Last updated Oct 3, 2025 8:00 AM ET

The Indiana Fever have a lot of positives to build upon after their successful 2025 season. In fact, this team's 2025 success started back in late 2024, when they hired former Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White to be their head coach for the 2025 campaign (marking her second stint as the Fever's head coach).

The Fever parlayed securing White by making several shrewd moves in the WNBA offseason, such as signing Natasha Howard, re-signing Kelsey Mitchell, and trading for Sophie Cunningham, all of which added veteran leadership along with the young core that Indiana already had with Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Lexie Hull.

Then, adversity struck once the season began, namely in the form of Clark's constant soft tissue injuries, which was the first of an absurd number of Indiana players going down with season-ending injuries. This included Cunningham, who tore the MCL in her knee during an August 17 game.

Because of this, fans didn't get to see Clark and Cunningham on the floor together as much as they would have liked. But they did get to see their friendship blossom off the court.

Caitlin Clark Starts Recruiting Sophie Cunningham After Fever Season Ending

Cunningham is about to become an unrestricted free agent. However, she made it clear that she'd like to return to Indiana during her October 2 press conference by saying, "I have loved being here. And I don't think that's news to anybody. I think that just being back in the Midwest, and being around girls that you truly do love — I've been in the league for seven years, and I've never been a part of a team like this.

"When you've been through this type of season together, when you're invested in each other's lives outside of basketball, of course you want to come back," Cunningham added before noting that she'll also be entertaining offers from other teams.

Cunningham followed this up with an Instagram post that featured several photos of her 2025 season, which was captioned, "15 new friends, a couple fines (&fights), a new tooth, a new knee, and a happy heart …. year 7 is one for the books✨".

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sophie Cunningham (@sophie_cham)

The post's top comment is from Caitlin Clark, who wrote, "Time to run it back ".

Clark (who still has two years left on her rookie contract with Indiana) clearly wants her friend and teammate to return to the team in 2026. And fans are hoping for the same thing.

This article first appeared on Indiana Fever on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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