Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Five days ago, talking head Skip Bayless spent eight minutes talking about Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham on his podcast. He wasn’t terribly complimentary. In fact, he called her a “textbook clout chaser” and accused her of using Caitlin Clark to become famous.
The beginnings of a beef
“She quickly befriended Caitlin. That was smart,” Skip Bayless said. “And then she assumed the role of Caitlin’s on-court and in interviews defender and protector, or public defender. Did that ever quickly endear her to Caitlin’s billions of fans out there? Then, with the spotlight shining on Sophie 100 times better than ever before, she started making grand entrances into arenas, wearing spicy outfits, some of them provocative and very cool.”
In fairness, Bayless was responding to Cunningham calling him out for a take on Caitlin Clark that she didn’t like in which he suggested the Fever star was taking longer to return from injury as some sort of a “mental break.”
“Sophie Cunningham is a shrewd operator,” Bayless added. “She can really play the game within the game, the social media game, the get-famous game. Obviously, she didn’t wish injury on Caitlin. But has ‘One Name Sophie’ ever benefited from Caitlin Clark’s stranger and stranger second season?”
He had previously mentioned that Cunningham is now “a one-name star,” adding, “Now, now all you have to say is Sophie and everybody knows.”
Sophie Cunningham fired back at Skip Bayless
Cunningham, because she is not one to shy away from saying what she thinks, fired back at Skip Bayless this week on her Show Me Something podcast.
“Dude, Skip, who’s the clout chaser? You’re literally using my name as your headline so people can click on it,” Cunningham said on her Show Me Something podcast. “And, like, my thing is, I don’t mind the guy. I don’t mind the guy. I have no beef with you. I’ve never met you, I’ve actually really never listened to you. I’m just kind of in my lane and so someone sent it to me, and I was like, ‘What is this?’ He’s calling me a clout chaser, dude, you’re the one who has my name plastered all over your YouTube that had 36 views, like, get out of here.”
In fairness, the video Skip Bayless made about Sophie Cunningham actually has 3,171 views as of this writing. However, Sophie Cunningham’s video responding to Bayless has 75,677 views. We might have to call this beef a draw (much like the lawsuit he just settled with his show’s former hairstylist).