WNBA Player Speaks Out After Involvement in Sophie Cunningham’s Season-Ending Injury

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Rowan Fisher-Shotton | Last updated Sep 25, 2025 4:30 PM ET

On Aug. 17, during the Indiana Fever’s road game against the Connecticut Sun, a second‑quarter collision between Connecticut's Bria Hartley and Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham ended with Cunningham suffering a season‑ending tear to her right MCL.

The Fever announced she would miss the remainder of the season on Aug. 19 and immediately made a roster move to sign Shey Peddy on a hardship contract.

Video of the play, including an image that circulated showing Hartley seemingly smiling as Cunningham went down, sparked a social‑media firestorm and waves of fan accusations directed at Hartley.

Hartley addressed the situation in an episode of the "Good Follow" podcast on Thursday, saying she didn't see Cunningham on the play, that she was looking to hit a corner pass and that Lexie Hull’s steal changed the sequence.

"I didn't even realize that I hit Sophie in the moment," Hartley said. "I was thinking it was Kelsey Mitchell and then, when I got back up, I saw she was down."

"After that, though, there was a lot of messages. You know how fans are," Hartley added. "People are going to have their narratives. People are going to say what they want. But you see it all. It's hard not to see it, to be honest, when it's flooding all of my posts... There was a point where I turned off my comments."

Cunningham publicly defended Hartley soon after the injury, telling listeners on her "Show Me Something" podcast that she believes the collision was accidental, that she and Hartley are friends, and asking fans to stop assigning ill intent to Hartley’s actions.

"I know Bria, and I'm actually really good friends with Bria... I don't think that there was any ill intent," Cunningham said. "I think it was a basketball play, I was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time, she fell. Like, there's no way she would go in there and intentionally try to hurt me."

"I have nothing but love for Bria... Bria and I are super cool, and she would never try to hurt me... I hope people stop giving Bria some heat, because I don't think she meant to do that at all," Cunningham added.

Before the injury, Cunningham was a key two‑way contributor for the Fever, averaging 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.0 steals in 25.2 minutes over 30 games (13 starts), shooting 46.9% from the field and 43.2% from three.

Hartley’s season with the Sun saw a similar output, averaging 8.9 points, 3.1 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 0.8 steals in 22.8 minutes across 38 games (32 starts).

Indiana’s injury list this season also included Caitlin Clark (groin) and other rotation pieces like Sydney Colson (ACL), Aari McDonald (broken foot) and Chloe Bibby (knee).

Despite this, the group finished 24-20, secured the No. 6 seed in the playoffs and now has the potential to clinch the franchise's first WNBA Finals appearance since 2015.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: