Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham is reportedly shopping a tell-all book after weeks of backlash, including physical confrontations on the court, over her public stance against biological men competing in women's basketball.
Cunningham, 29, drew national attention after sitting down with ESPN and saying plainly what millions of parents and fans already believe: women's sports should be for women. The interview set off a firestorm inside the WNBA, where Cunningham has faced boos from hostile crowds, elbows to the face from opponents, and accusations of "white privilege" on social media. Now, Page Six Hollywood reports she is taking her story to publishers.
The report, published August 10, 2026, offered no details about a specific publisher, literary agent, or deal terms. Cunningham herself has not publicly confirmed or denied the book effort. But the trajectory from ESPN interview to tell-all makes a certain kind of sense for a player who has been punished, physically and publicly, for saying out loud what the league apparently does not want said.
In her ESPN sit-down, Cunningham framed her position in terms of honesty and care, not hostility. She told the network:
"I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest."
She continued:
"And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men."
That statement, protect young girls, earned commendation from the White House. The specific form of that commendation, whether a press statement or social media post, was not detailed. But the response inside the WNBA told a different story.
Days after the ESPN interview aired, Minnesota Lynx player Nia Coffey elbowed Cunningham in the face during a game. Then, on a Saturday shortly after, Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington struck Cunningham in the face hard enough to leave her bloodied. Carrington was ejected.
Neither incident's specific date, venue, or city was publicly detailed in the initial reporting. What was detailed: the pattern. A player spoke up about a policy question. Within days, she was getting hit in the face, twice, by opponents from two different teams.
Carrington did not leave the incident on the court. After being tossed from the game for striking Cunningham, she sat in the locker room and posted two words on social media: "WHITE PRIVILEGE." She tagged the Indiana Fever in the post.
The platform Carrington used was not specified. The message was clear enough without that detail. A player who had just been ejected for a physical foul reframed herself as the victim, and cast the woman she had bloodied as the beneficiary of racial advantage.
Carrington later defended herself against criticism from Emmanuel Acho, a former Fox analyst. The substance of that exchange was not detailed beyond the fact that it occurred.
Cunningham has been booed at more than one WNBA game since her ESPN comments. The hostility has come from the stands, from opponents, and from social media. And yet she has not backed down.
She recently told reporters she wants to "get back to basketball", a phrase that suggests weariness with the circus, not regret over what she said. The full context of that remark was not provided, but the sentiment tracks with a player who made a clear statement, absorbed the consequences, and is still standing.
Whether a tell-all book materializes remains to be seen. No publisher, no agent, no title, and no timeline have been reported. Page Six Hollywood's account is the sole source for the claim. But Cunningham would have plenty of material. A 29-year-old professional athlete who said she wanted to protect girls in sports and got elbowed, bloodied, called a racial epithet, and booed for it, that is a story publishers would recognize.
The WNBA spent years begging for mainstream attention. Sophie Cunningham gave the league exactly that, just not the kind its cultural gatekeepers wanted. If the price of defending common sense in women's sports is a book deal, that says more about the league than it does about her.
