What did Sophie Cunningham say about Detroit and Cleveland? Midwest cities dunk on WNBA star
After the league announced that it will place new teams in Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia this week, Cunningham questioned the league's choices of Detroit and Cleveland specifically over more tourist-friendly cities like Nashville or Miami... or, uh, Kansas City.
"I don't know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]," Cunningham told reporters ahead of Tuesday night's WNBA Commissioner's Cup championship game.
As you can imagine, the respective cities of Detroit and Cleveland were not too thrilled with her sentiments.
In fact, the literal cities of Detroit and Cleveland responded to Cunningham's comment on social media.
Whew, Cleveland pulling out a clip from a previous Caitlin Clark presser of her praising the city is a pretty good retort.
While Cunningham is certainly well within her right to wish the WNBA expanded to other cities (and, yes, if you ask us, Nashville and Miami do sound like great destinations for a W team), her bringing up Kansas City, Missouri, out of nowhere, which is close to her hometown of Columbia, does kind of negate her point.
Unlike Nashville and Miami, Kansas City is not a major American tourist destination... just like Detroit or Cleveland. However, Kansas City is a proud community of sports fans who would rally around a WNBA team ... just like Detroit or Cleveland would.
If the conversation is about which city players would want to live in ... we're assuming contracts and competitive advantage will dictate that over most else. Sure, if you want warmer weather year round, Detroit and Cleveland aren't your picks. There's no debate there.
If you want to win, they may well be excellent destinations for WNBA players once those teams get off the ground. Cunningham is fine to prefer other cities, but that doesn't make Detroit or Cleveland any less deserving.
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