Sophie Cunningham dishes on what Brittney Griner is really like

Sophie Cunningham and 10-time WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner were teammates on the Phoenix Mercury from 2019 to 2024. Griner has become an easy target and has no shortage of critics, but Cunningham certainly isn't one of them.

"Brittney Griner gets the worst rap. She is the coolest person you will ever meet, swear to God. She's down to earth, she's country, just chill. She's the best," Cunningham said in a recent appearance on Theo Von's podcast.

The only criticism Cunningham had surrounding Griner was aimed not at her former teammate, but rather at Griner's security detail.

"There was one guy who was kind of our security. He was carrying her Louis Vuitton bags, and when he ran to push people away, he threw the bags, and it came back and cracked me right in the nose," Cunningham said.

"I was like, 'Da*n, I was trying to help, but I just get cracked by a $5,000 bag right in my schnoz.' Black eye the next day. It was great."

This isn't the first time it's become apparent that Griner and Cunningham are good friends. Political commentator Riley Gaines noted as much back in September whle attending a game in which the two faced each other.

"I think most people would have thought that Sophie and Brittney Griner wouldn't like each other. Kind of cool because I watched Brittney Griner and Sophie Cunningham like really embrace each other and have kind of like an intimate moment where clearly words were exchanged," Gaines said .

The two may even end up being teammates again. After the Indiana Fever's season ended, then-general manager Amber Cox said that the team would work with Cunningham on bringing her back in free agency. However, Cox was fired last week, and Cunningham has admitted that there wasn't a lot of warning that the change was coming, and that she'd have to see what happens next.

"There was not a lot of warning and that's OK," she said in a clip shared on X . "I think that's probably a good thing that you kind of keep it in-house a little bit."

"Hopefully the Fever come in and bring people who can do a really good job for that program," she added. "I was blessed to be under Kelly and Amber and I hope them the very best. So, we'll see what happens."