Former NBA player Jalen Rose’s daughter, Mariah Rose, slammed Sophie Cunningham for her stance on allowing transgender players to participate in women’s sports.
On Thursday, Rose shared a video on Instagram where she went on an explosive rant against the Fever guard.
“Your nickname is MAGA Barbie. You pander to Republicans all f***ing day, you running around playing ring girl and you talking about some f***ing protect girls,” she said.
“Anyone who would allow the world to even project being MAGA, supporting a man who is the antithesis of supporting young girls… and then saying the reason you don’t want trans girls in sports is becasue you wanna protect young girls if f***ing brain dead.”
Rose’s rant was the former NBA player’s daughter’s response to Sophie Cunningham’s statements supporting the exclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports. The Fever guard had expressed her views on the debate in a July 21 ESPN feature.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she said. “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.”
Later, Cunningham had doubled down on her stance in an interview on July 23.
“I think I said what I said,” she said.
She remarked that it was common sense not to include biological men in women’s sports to protect young girls.
Sophie Cunningham hates how basketball is getting ‘overshadowed’ following her controversial statements
On USA Network’s broadcast on Wednesday night, Sophie Cunningham revealed that she was disheartened with the state of WNBA media. The Fever star urged the media to focus on basketball and step away from the drama.
“I just hate how The W, the basketball of it all, is just getting overshadowed,” she said. “It just makes me sad that all this sort of drama, on things that truly don’t matter, that the basketball is getting overshadowed.”
“My biggest thing is that love and respect, there is room for absolutely everybody, and we don’t always have to agree, but that respect and love definitely has to be there.”
Sophie Cunningham is having a decent campaign this season. She has established herself as a primary off-the-bench scorer for the Fever. She is averaging 9.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.
Edited by Avi Shravan