Ep. 2475 - Sophie Cunningham Responds After a Co-Owner Attacks Her Fans

The Ben Shapiro Show

The episode discusses the controversy surrounding Sophie Cunningham of the WNBA after she expressed support for protecting women's sports from biological males,

Key takeaways

• Sophie Cunningham faced backlash from radical leftists in the WNBA for advocating for women's sports to be protected from biological males.
• The WNBA is financially struggling and has a radical political leaning that alienates a large portion of the American population.

Main topics

• WNBA's political leanings and financial struggles
• Controversy surrounding Sophie Cunningham and her stance on women's sports

Notable quotes

"If you are traditionally conservative health, if you're traditionally rational in any way, if you are not a radical LGBTQ plus minus divided by sign activist, you do not belong at a WNBA game."

Conclusion

The episode highlights the ongoing controversies in the WNBA regarding political leanings and the impact of radical

Transcript preview

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Your body's blueprint for rebuilding itself the way it was designed to function. When you invest in your health, you invest in your ability to show up fully, think clearly, and stay in control no matter what comes your way. We've worked out a special offer from my audience. Received 30% off your first subscription order. Head on over to armor.com slash Shapiro or enter Shapiro to get 30% 30% off your first subscription order. That's A.RMRA.com slash Shapiro. Well, let's say you ran a sports league. And you had two choices in how to market that sports league. First choice. All-American, fun, inspiring, generally normie. Second choice, militantly lesbian, trans, anti-white, and the players bet on their own games. Which would you choose? Well, the NBA seems to be making its choice every single day. Yet another WNBA scandal today, and it's precisely what you think it is. We'll get to all that. Plus, Anthony Fauci, taking the fifth Iran's economy. economy collapsing, and the best-selling musical genre in America is country. This is the Ben Shapiro show. So, I am an NBA fan. My son is an even bigger NBA fan. Back in the 70s, we probably wouldn't have been NBA fans. Most people were not back in the 70s, and there were a bunch of reasons for that. First off, the NBA was broadly perceived as a kind of thuggish, drug-infused league. They had no national TV coverage because of that perception. In 1977, a player named Kermit Washington for the Lakers nearly killed, Rudy Tom Johnovich in the middle of a game by punching him in the face during a scrum. A fan assaulted an actual ref during the 1976 NBA finals. The ownership groups were totally mismanaged. The amount of blow and hookers waiting around the NBA in the 70s was extraordinary. The NBA was kind of plotting. They didn't have a three-point line. The ABA, which was its big competitor and had its own financial problems, they at least had three-pointers and dunks. The NBA had serious problems. So the NBA decided to solve those problems. They did so with a bunch of measures. First, the Celtics drafted Larry Bird, the Lakers drafted Magic Johnson, and then the entire league was built around those two players. They'd been huge, highly regarded college stars, but of course Bird was white and Magic was, of course, black. The NBA also integrated the ABA. They essentially bought them out and took them along, and stars like Dr. J entered the NBA. And the NBA decided to change its style. They added the three-point line in 1979. By 1982, NBA games were now live, not tape delayed. and by 1983, the NBA had decided to pursue a pretty serious anti-drug policy to wipe out the cocaine problem. The NBA also decided to put serious focus on policing on and off-court violence and behavior. They were finding players and suspending them. And the NBA mostly decided to protect its stars. And of course, it still does, which is why a lot of people will complain that stars in the playoffs get all the calls. Now, listen, this is how you build a league. That's what you do. Now, let's turn to the WNBA. So the WNBA is the subsidized little sister of the NBA. It has lost money every single year it's been in existence, ever, including this year. The NBA basically pays its bills. Its quality of play, well, it ain't the dudes. Here's some of the all-star game highlights from this year in the WNBA. Stewart tips it in, Williams from four-point range. Ty Young almost subbed them in when we were down by 11. She’d do that, knowing who she wanted to pass it to. Johnson cuts up to 10 points. Howard. Takes it right back. What a pass from Nneka. Good. Asia Wilson can't finish it. Clark gives it underneath and then we'll see. You haven't isolated on Kayla at all for a drive yet. Is that coming? Five seconds left in the third. Clark jumps. Not able to hit that one. As Clark goes to steal on Angel’s basket. Angelie, look at the speed. Look at the athleticism. I didn't say, hey, I wasn't even trying to there. Wide open at the other end. laughing about it. Oh, and then Angel goes down. Oh, no, Angel goes down now. And Angel Wilson has to pick her up. Young. This is. Can't flip it in? Sorry. Mallory. Oh, good Lord. Come on. What? You're two feet from the basket. How do you airball a shot two feet from the basket? Okay. Honest to goodness. There are like men’s suburban 40-plus basketball leagues that play better basketball than was played in the WNBA All-Star game. And again, that'd be one thing. But its brand is even worse because the brand for the WNBA has become militant lesbianism, with, certainly not by male standards, and are simultaneously, obnoxiously insistent that the only reason people won't watch them is racism and sexism. That was the WNBA brand, I know, golden stuff. Huge. And then the WNBA received a large-scale gift, like the greatest gift of all time, Caitlin Clark because Caitlin Clark was breaking records in college. And her entry into the WNBA meant a spike in viewership and people actually giving a crap because she was good and she's still really good. Here's some Caitlin Clark highlights. Clark, uh-oh. Now Clark, trying to make something happen. Behind the bat. That's the basket and get... Samuel said nice pass there to Clark. These are good plays, right? I'd say it's a beautiful pass. Caitlin hit it. And of course, you can shoot the lights out. Okay, so revenues are up, and earnings are up and ratings are up basically because Caitlin Clark is in the league. But there is one problem for the WNPA. The league is still plagued by radical political leftism that has somehow become intertwined with the very character of the league. They basically let the character of the players in the league dictate the character of the league. And so the players whine incessantly about the fact that Caitlin Clark gets attention. Instead of them celebrating the fact that people are actually watching their kind of crappy games now. They just whine about the fact that Caitlin Clark gets attention. They keep saying that she's not good or that the people who are following Caitlin Clark, they're only doing so because she's white and they're a bunch of racists. And again, in the NBA, there were people who did this throughout Larry Bird's career. I believe Charles Barkley early on made some comments about Larry Bird. The difference is that the league, number one, rejected it. And number two, Larry Bird himself trash talked the living hell out of everybody and would own you if you tried to do this. But here are just some of the players who've been whining about Caitlin Clark, who is the person raising the salaries for everybody in the WNBA? We're circulating the same players over and over again that we're talking about, the same 10. Azey Fudd, Caitlin Clark. What about Arirke? What about Kelsey Mitch? We don't talk about these players enough. I saw that when Caitlin got hurt, nobody wanted to go to the game anymore. It was like, oh, Caitlin's not playing. I'm not interested in watching. I mean, welcome to sports where some people are stars and some people are not. There are a lot of underappreciated players in the NBA. right now. People who are probably better than LeBron James, but you're not going to necessarily show up to the game if LeBron isn't playing. They're probably centers who are playing better offense than Wemby right now, but you're going to show up to the Wemby game because WMby's a star. And now, it's not just that they criticize Caitlin Clark. There's this tendency in the WNBA to continually manhandle Caitlin Clark. Again, the league needs to crack down on this because it's absurd. The tapes have become legion of various players basically beating up on Caitlin Clark. You can see there's a player going after Kentlin Clark's neck there to get up. Good times. And this is not rare, unfortunately. There's a lot of tape. Just like this. Bangkok going to the hoop, and people just busy the bashing in. And in for Clark. And draws the foul. 1.6. She goes sprawling. Trying to slow her down, picking her up at mid court. Trying to get the offensive foul call. Seattle and all of a sudden, we're pretty close. Some of these are offensive. Some of these are just getting hammered. All second quarter long. Oh, that's on the rip-through on the cut by power canceling her in the face. Again, I'm not going to say each one of these is on purpose or racist or anything, but there is a large-scale trend of Caitlin Clark just getting randomly kind of manhandled. Hey, but here's the thing. Even that gave the WNBA an opportunity because it turns out that Caitlin Clark's team also has on it a very pretty forward named Sophie Cunningham. She also happens to be rather all-American in her attitude and viewpoint. And so she has sort of become Caitlin Clark's protector on the court, which led to viral moments like this again, WNBA has some momentum here. This viral moment has become a meme all over the internet. This is Sophie Cunningham, who was told by another player not to point at her, so she proceeded to point at her for the rest of time. I believe that Sophie Cunningham is still pointing at this player. So there you've got it, right? This thing, right? And it just keeps going. It just keeps going. I mean, again, one of the most hilarious things. Sophie Cunningham, obviously she knows the cameras are on her. She knows exactly what she is doing. Right? This is just smart marketing, right? Smart PR. Hey, so, yet another opportunity for the WNBA, right? Kind of wrong. Because it turns out Sophie Cunningham has the wrong kind of politics. Mainly, she's kind of just a normie. In just a second, we'll get to the thing that got Sophie Cunningham in trouble with the trans radicals in just one second. But here is the thing. If you have phone service that is not pure talk, you are in trouble. Why? Well, because you're just paying too much. Pure Talk is, in a recent industry survey, the only wireless company to receive five stars in every single category, coverage, support value data. You deserve five-star wireless service, and now Peart Talk has an invitation just for you. Switch to Pure Talk for just 15 bucks a month. For a limited time, any plan, including their top shelf unlimited data plans, just 15 bucks a month for your first three months. No contract needed. Just an insanely low offer to switch to a top-rated company. You know how you got five stars for support? A dedicated U.S. customer service team. You know how you get five stars for value, you save the average family of four over $1,000 a year versus big one. wireless. There is a better wireless choice out there at just $15 a month for your first three months on any plan. Now would be an excellent time to choose PureTalk. Simply head on over to PureTalk.com slash Shapiro and claim the offer again. That's PureTalk.com slash Shapiro to start saving today. I'm using PureTalk myself for years. The coverage is excellent and the price is unbeatable. Go check them out right now, puretok.com slash Shapiro to claim their special offer today. So last week, Sophie Cunningham, said that boys aren't girls and girls sports should be protected from the boys playing with them and all hell broke loose. I said what I said. I think it's kind of common sense. And I think I'll always believe in that. I think it's really important to protect children. And that's little girls who are also involved in that category. And so I stand on what I said. And I always believe that. Do you see your advocacy on that, like taking any form going forward? You know, I don't know. I didn't. I'm not a very political person, but I do have beliefs. I have morals. And I'll always stand on those and be true to true to who. I am and I think people are going to take it how they want to take it, but I've never even really said anything about that. And so when it comes just to protecting young girls in sport and women in sport, I feel very strongly about that. I think that's why you have Title IX. That's why you have some of the grades in women's sports. If Title IX and women's sports weren't protected, then you wouldn't hear about any type of women in sport. And so I think in the future it's just really important to protect. Okay, you know, great opportunity for the WMBA, right? Because It's like an 80-20 issue. Most Americans don't believe that boys should play against the girls. And you're talking about a woman's sport league. That's what you're talking about. Women's basketball. If you let the biological men play, you end up with the movie Juana Man or alternatively ladyballers. A 14-year-old high school freshman boys starting varsity player at any decent public school in America would torch these ladies. That is just a reality. That is not sexist. That is called reality. 14-year-old boys all over America are dunking. The WNBA with biological men would just be called the NBA and the ladies would be called ushers or at best refs. Maybe an assistant coach or two. So naturally, the WNBA's top voices decided to come out in stern opposition to Sophie Cunningham because the WNBA isn't the women's NBA. It is the LNBA or the LGBT plus minus divided by sign NBA. And all that came out into the open, no pun intended, a couple nights ago in Seattle. So Brandy Cruz, a journalist in Seattle, who I know from my days back at a Seattle radio station, took a bunch of girls to the Indiana fever game in Seattle. And they were wearing X, X, X, Y, T-shirts. Those are T-shirts produced by Riley Gaines's company and Jennifer Say's company. They stand against men in women's sports. Fine, right? Good, right? I mean, they're carrying a sign that said, thank you, Sophie, for speaking up for girls. And then the owner of the Seattle Storm, who seems like a real charmer. Her name is Chalester Keaton, showed up to scream at these teenage girls. Here are those teenage girls recapping what happened. Well, we were just sitting there with her signs that said, like, we love Sophie, like, thank you so for speaking up. And so we were holding on, just watching the game again. We were being super great. We hadn't said anything to anyone else. We were being super respectful. We were just holding our signs and cheering for both teams. And this lady, older lady, comes up to us, and she comes up to us. And at first I think she's going to be nice. And then she asked, like, what are you guys doing? Something like that. And then it was like, Jesus loves everyone. That's what she told us. And I was like, oh, I know. Like, I'm really just like, I know. Like, I know. Yeah. And she's like, oh, I hope Jesus can forgive you for what sin you've done. And like something like that. And then she told us that we were effing insane. And she like, and she went like this. Yeah. Yeah. Like you have to stop this. And stop pulling this. Yeah. And for you guys to come here and can save you. Yeah. She said, for you to come here and pull this shit. Yeah. She said the word. Yeah, did she say effing insane or? No, she said the word. So, I mean, here are the pictures of the Seattle Storm co-owners, by the way. And it kind of looks like you would think that it was going to look just a little bit. Just a little bit. Well, meanwhile, the Seattle Storm Center at the same game, a lady named Stephanie Dolson, who is 6'5 and 245 pounds, which makes her the shack of the WNBA, except she stinks. She averages 3.8 points per game and 2.6 rebounds per game and has the mobility of quicksand. She wore this shirt, which said trans rights are human rights. Okay, lady, if you were playing against the dudes, again, you would not make a basketball team. You would not. And you're the ones who are bringing this up because you're the ones who insist that boys can be girls. Now, Sophie Cunningham, applauded the girls. She went on X and she said, I truly believe there is a safe space and love for everybody, biological girls, biological boys, trans women and trans men. So she's using the language of the left there. everyone is welcome at my table. You can disagree and still be kind. Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You'll be hearing from me soon. Yay for gifts. Truly embarrassing of the co-owner, unfortunately shows the type of leader she is. So again, Sophie Cunningham is trying to play it as mainstream as possible. She's even using the acceptable language here. Which, again, I would not recommend because it ain't going