🌈 – ‘Unprecedented growth’ – WNBA star Sophie Cunningham earns $1m boom after controversial antics involving Caitlin Clark

Sophie Cunningham was ejected and hit with a fine for her actions.

WNBA star Sophie Cunningham was hit with a $400 fine for her actions last week.

But the Indiana Fever fan favorite has seen her social value skyrocket.

Cunningham, 28, defended her teammate Caitlin Clark during a fiery game against the Connecticut Sun.

Clark was shoved to the floor by Marina Mabrey earlier in the game.

And Cunningham didn’t miss her chance to exact some revenge on her teammate’s behalf.

Mabrey ran clear for a layup in the final minute of the game when she was fouled by Cunningham.

The move from Cunningham sparked another on-court brawl.

And it landed her an ejection and a fine from the WNBA worth $400.

But according to Sportico, Cunningham’s value skyrocketed.

A report in the outlet read, “In the following three days (after the game) close to a million fans seem to have taken Cunningham’s side.

“The sixth-year vet from Missouri has added 700,000 followers on TikTok and more than 244,000 newcomers on Instagram, according to social media analytics platform Social Blade.

“Cunningham now has more than 1 million followers on TikTok and 730,000 on Instagram, with some fans dubbing her ‘the Enforcer’ in various online comment sections.

“As of Friday, her jerseys on the team’s store were listed as unavailable until July 8.

“If a brand wanted to add that many new followers on Instagram and TikTok, it could easily spend more than $1 million doing so, according to marketing agency STN Digital’s calculations.”

Cunningham has also been outspoken about protecting her teammate.

She called on referees to do more to stop Clark from being targeted.

“It was a build up for a couple years now of them not protecting the star player in the WNBA,” she said.

“And so at the end of the day, I’m going to protect my teammates, that’s what I do.”

“And I’m a team player, so it’s all good.”

The report in Sportico also cited a sports management agency director.

“It’s unprecedented growth,” the agency said of Cunningham’s boom.

“We work with some pretty big athletes that have gone viral for some pretty big things.

“But this has been something that I haven’t seen before — this type of growth in this short amount of time… was very new territory.”