Sophie Cunningham says 8th-grade boys could beat WNBA stars

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To be one of the WNBA's brightest stars.Sophie Cunningham should know a thing or two about how good the top players in women's football are.

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So it should come as a surprise to some that she didn't come to her colleagues' defense over viral comments made by former NBA champion Michael Porter Jr. last week, who said a team of high school boys could beat WNBA stars.

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During a speech at Ball in the family In a podcast with Lonzo and LaMelo Ball, Porter Jr. said a team of elite eighth-graders can beat all the WNBA stars in hoops.

Porter claimed to have been in a scrimmage with Cunningham's University of Missouri team when he “was in seventh or eighth grade and going crazy.”

“I say this as respectfully as possible, but ninth-grader Lonzo Ball in the WNBA is going crazy,” Ball said.

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Cunningham 'not surprised' by Porter's decision

The topic went viral on social media before Cunningham weighed in on her own podcast, agreeing with NBA stars.

“This is my personal opinion. But if you are a professional football player, basketball player, or in any sport… If you are in an elite level group, then yes, you should be able to beat girls,” she said in her speech. Show me something podcast. “It doesn’t surprise me, I just don’t understand why they keep talking about it.

“If women say, 'He couldn't beat them,' then yes, he could. Any NBA star could beat a woman in high school,” she said. “I don't want to be unrealistic or delusional. Like, men are just stronger, bigger, more athletic. They're just a different build. So if you put them against women, yes, they will win.”

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Cunningham, who co-leads the group with her friend West Wilson, explained that the boys are meant to be future professionals and not just your average group of young men.

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Put it in context

“The context of this is fair,” she said. “If (eighth-graders) are future pros, it just depends on how big they are. And most of the time, if they become pros, unless you're a late bloomer, you're already pretty big.”

“So I would say it's probably true. It's probably true.”

Cunningham playing for Indiana Fever with superstar Kaitlyn Clarkadded that she was not trying to be disrespectful to her WNBA colleagues, but was simply stating reality.

“I just don't think it's a fair fight,” she said.

Cunningham, who finished her first season with Fever after her first six seasons in the WNBA with the Phoenix Mercury, she averaged 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

With your podcast more than 1.3 million people follow on Instagram Thanks to his friendship with Clark, Cunningham became one of the league's most recognizable stars off the court.

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