Fever guard Sophie Cunningham enters free agency amid Indiana front-office shake-up
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The gist
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said the exits of GM Amber Cox and president Kelly Krauskopf came with little warning.
Her own free agency leaves her Fever future open after a franchise-record 28-win season ended in the first round.
Background
Sophie Cunningham is a guard for the Indiana Fever and host of the podcast No Hesitation with Sophie Cunningham & Drew Hanlen. She completed her second season with the Fever, playing 43 of the team's 44 regular-season games and averaging 7.9 points, and enters the offseason as a free agent. Her visibility grew during her time in Indiana, particularly because of the attention surrounding Caitlin Clark and the franchise as a whole. The front-office departures followed the Fever's first-round playoff loss to Las Vegas, a season in which the team set a franchise record with 28 wins.
How it unfolded
- Oct 2024Amber Cox is hired by the Indiana Fever as chief operating officer and general manager.
- Mar 11, 2025Fever president Kelly Krauskopf and COO/GM Amber Cox introduce guard Sophie Cunningham to the media.
- Oct 9, 2026On her podcast No Hesitation, Cunningham responds to a recent The Athletic article arguing the Fever should part ways with her.
- Oct 12, 2026Donald Trump singles out Cunningham at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, praising her appearance while questioning her basketball ability.
- Oct 19, 2026Cunningham praises the young cisgender girls on a Washington State high school cross-country team who walked off the field to protest the presence of a transgender athlete.
- Oct 24, 2026Cunningham says on her podcast she was shocked by how much Atlanta is winning by in the WNBA Finals, with Atlanta leading 2-1, and announces her future plans after her second Fever season.
- Oct 25, 2026Kelly Krauskopf steps down as team president and Amber Cox is fired as general manager the same day, after Indiana's first-round playoff loss to Las Vegas; Cunningham says the exits came as a surprise with little warning.
Who’s saying what
- Cunningham
- She said there was not a lot of warning about the departures and called that probably a good thing, adding that Krauskopf and Cox were phenomenal people who cared about players on and off the court.
- Fever
- The team said Krauskopf told leadership of her decision before the 2026 regular season ended.
- Analysts
- The Athletic argued the Fever should part ways with Cunningham, calling her presence too combustible and saying it has overtaken her contribution given she averages fewer than 8 points a game.
- Cunningham
- She said she is not her numbers and that her value is not always in the stat sheet.
Still unverified
Whether Cunningham will remain with Indiana as a free agent is uncertain, and it remains to be seen whether more front-office changes are coming for the Fever.