A pointing finger turns a WNBA basketball model into a meme

Nella Wnbathe top women’s basketball league in the United States, one finger can be enough to become a national topic, especially if you are Sophie Cunningham and you have more than two million followers. The Indiana Fever guard ended up at the center of one of the most shared videos of the season for a scene that, at least in a strictly basketball sense, had little to offer: no fight, no shoving, no shouting match. Just an index finger pointing, for a good 36 seconds, towards DeWanna Bonner during the game against the Phoenix Mercury.

The gesture, insistent and silent, immediately detached itself from the news of the match to enter the most unpredictable territory of contemporary sport: that of memes. The context was already on. Caitlin Clark, star of the Fever and the most recognizable face of the new Wnba boom (to be clear, 3.8 million followers), had received a technical foul after an altercation with Bonner.

The finger pointed at Bonner

Cunningham approached the referees to ask for explanations, pointing to the opposing player. Bonner allegedly warned her not to point fingers at her. And there, instead of lowering his hand, Cunningham did exactly the opposite. The result was a scene from the sidelines: she motionless, finger tense, gaze fixed, and Bonner irritated, with the social audience ready to transform everything into a reusable format for any discussion.

Cunningham, for his part, didn’t try to tone it down too much. On Instagram published a series of photos from the match, highlighting the offending moment and entrusting the caption to a row of emojis with a pointing finger.

Who is Sophie Cunningham?

It also worked because Cunningham isn’t just a rotation player. Born in 1996, raised as a basketball player in Missouri and chosen in 2019 by the Phoenix Mercury, today he is one of the most recognizable presences of the Fever alongside Clark thanks to an infallible aim and a certain propensity to stay in the middle of the action. He is also a social character, with direct communication, highly commented pre-match looks and a podcast, “Show Me Something”, in which he brings basketball into a more pop register.

So the finger-pointing quickly crossed the boundaries of the WNBA. Among the comments and relaunches there were also names linked to the world of NFL and entertainment, from Brittany Mahomes to Gracie Hunt, up to John Cena.

The malaise and the risk for the next matches

However, Cunningham’s week wasn’t just about memes. The player missed training due to illness and is at risk in view of the Fever’s next matches, expected from the match against the Las Vegas Aces. Indiana hopes to recover it quickly: net of the virality, its 9.6 average points remain useful in a team that thrives on the attention generated by Clark, but which also needs the right supporting players to remain competitive.