Love her or hate her, Sophie Cunningham won't be ignored

You might delight in her, or you might decry her; either way, she draws you in. So whether you call Cunningham an enforcer or a dirty player, a role model or a culture warrior, fearless or shameless, brave or brazen -- you will keep calling her. And she won't mind. Which, perhaps, as much as anything, is the key to her ascension.

"People love me or they really frickin' hate me," she says.

"I just don't care."

You say she's a "MAGA Barbie," as some corners of the internet have taken to calling her? Projection, she says, because of what she looks like and where she's from. She'll weigh in on how to "protect women's sports," she says, because she's in that world and feels qualified to speak to that world. "I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that,'" she says. "I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. 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."

But she also insists that none of this is some Rosetta Stone to unlocking the true nature of her political worldview.

"I'm very much in the middle. I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides. And that's all I've ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume."

People are assuming louder now. So loud that for Cunningham, it's background noise.

Cunningham intentionally yanked Sheldon down by her neck and was hailed as a protector. A year later, the Mercury's Alyssa Thomas put her fist to Clark's throat -- accidentally, Thomas says -- and was excoriated as reckless and worse. The circumstances were different, but both were undeniable fouls that merited punishment from the league. One player -- Cunningham, who is white -- earned a flood of new endorsements in the aftermath. The other -- Thomas, who is Black -- a barrage of death threats.