Welcome to another episode of the Adrien  Ross Show, where sports and culture  connect. In both of my videos last  night, I said that I would do a separate  video about Sophie Cunningham and the  injury she sustained in Sunday’s game  against the Connecticut Sun. As the time  got late, I decided to put it off until  today. In the interim, we got news, of  course, that Sophie would be out for the  remainder of the season. And while when  you see someone go down as she did, you  know it’s a possibility,  when it becomes official, it really  hits. And my heart goes out to Sophie  Cunningham.

My heart goes out to this  team. It’s like another punch in the  gut. I gotta admit, I’m feeling a little  punch crazy, as they say. I’d waited  yesterday. I knew the MRI was going to  be on Monday. No news came in. I was  trying to figure out is that good? You  know, no news is good news kind of  thing.  Something told me that it was the  opposite.  And so waiting for today, waiting today  and today and then finally there there  it was out for the rest of the season.  What’s interesting is that during the  game on Sunday during the live stream, I  just looked away for a little bit. I  hadn’t been on the live stream that  long.

I didn’t start my live stream  until the beginning of the second  quarter because I came in late from um  having been in church and I came in and  we got to we got going and I looked away  and the next thing you know she was on  the floor and we were like what just  happened and the WNBA sometimes doesn’t  show replays. It went to commercial  break and and then we got to see the  replay but it was still very fast. Uh  and I’m kind of like this. I have a  really weak stomach. So when it comes to  injury, I just and especially especially  knee injuries because I’ve had some. So  I just Anyway,  I got to see the replay of what happened  and we could hear Sophie.

Obviously we  knew that it wasn’t just like, oh, I  hurt, you know, somebody stepped on my  foot. There was so much more to that.  And then of course the team just really  battled despite all the emotions of  seeing yet another teammate go down.  Here’s the interesting thing. As we were  waiting for all this stuff to unfold as  as the situation with Sophie,  all of a sudden it hit me. I’m like I’m  like, “Wait a minute.” Okay, so  yesterday was Sophie’s birthday. I was  saying I was like, “When Sid went down,  wasn’t it the day after her birthday,  too?”

And people were like, “Yep, it  was.” I know that’s just kind of random,  but it just jumped out at me. And then I  was like, and all of these injuries are  to our point guards. Now, I know Sophie  is is not a, you know, it’s not her her  position as a point guard, but she’s  been filling in in that point guard  position. I’m like, okay, CeCe goes  down. We got Ary, she goes down, and  Sydney goes down the same day.

And now  Sophie, who had been playing some point  guard with all the injuries, now she  goes down. And then I’m like, wait a  minute. I was thinking about this today. 

Like, wasn’t it Connecticut we were  playing when Caitlyn got injured last?  Just so weird. So weird. And I noticed  that  Scott Agnes had posted that this is the  this is the third point guard to go down  in 10 days with an a season ending  injury.  Third. And obviously not just third like  I just told you the three with the  season ending obviously CC’s we’re we’re  still waiting to hear about that but  those three were se are season ending  injuries but in 10 days  when I say adversity this is what I’m  I’m talking about. Let’s just take a  look at the uh the injury. Let’s go over  to CCFC on X.  I probably didn’t even need to show that  again. You probably seen it so many  times.  So, when Brie Hartley falls into Sophie  Cunningham, Sophie immediately grabs her  knee, hits the hits the ground, and of  course, the play go the play goes on.  And then they realize that she’s still  down on the other end.

And uh and then  we’re going to just take a look at after  she got up and was headed into the  locker room. And so here when we finally  got an opportunity to see the replay  during the game, I thought, okay, look,  she is able to put some weight on it.  Maybe maybe it’s not as bad as it  sounded. After the Indiana Fever gave  the official announcement today that  Sophie would be out for the rest of the  season, Khloe Peterson followed that up  with a post and it says Sophie  Cunningham suffered an MCL tear in her  right knee. League source confirms her  injury affected the fever’s decision to  release Kyra Lambert and sign Shea  Petty, a six-year veteran uh in the  league.

Now, this is obviously important  as well. the moves didn’t have anything  to do with Cece’s status. And of course,  that’s important that she said that  because of course, everyone is trying to  figure out, does this mean Cece’s not  coming back? Like, what does this all  mean? Everybody’s been trying to get  clarification. And so, the moves didn’t  didn’t have anything to do with CC  status.  She Petty was brought in. Sophie  Cunningham’s sister, Lindsay, weighed in  on the situation  not long after it happened. So, we’re  gonna go to her ex account, see what she  had to say. She wrote, “WNBA, maybe you  should focus less on finding players for  commenting on your poor officiating and  more about hiring officials that are  able to call a consistent game and  protect your athletes. Pathetic. praying  for you, Sophie.  Playing sports  leaves you open to injury.  It’s an occupational hazard. The WNBA,  however, has  more than its fair share. Obviously, the  Fever to have as many injuries as this  team has had is ridiculous. and  Connecticut  seems to really be in the midst of a lot  of these conversations.

Whether we’re  talking about uh injuries like Sophie’s  injury before with the ankle or tooth  knocked out, whether you’re talking  about I think it was the previous game  when she got the elbow and  but throughout the league injuries are a  problem and this league is going to have  to decide do we want to continue to  pride ourselves on the physicality  because you hear from everyone  associated with this league. You hear  from the media covering the league. You  hear it from the coaches. You hear it  from the players. This whole physicality  thing.  And I they’re going to have to decide  what what they want their identity to  be. Because if you want your identity to  be about the physicality, it’s going to  continue to lend itself to the type of  play  that causes injuries.  I want to go back to where Sophie is on  the ground  because I said yesterday that I was  going to talk a little bit more about  Marina Mabry. I pointed out I’m not a  Marina Mabry fan, but I got to  acknowledge she’s a baller and she  really likes to come and ball when she  plays Indiana. 27 points yesterday.  But there’s something that I hadn’t  noticed, but I see it. I’ve heard other  people talking about it and I do want to  highlight it. So, let’s go back to X.  Take a look at where Marina Mabry is  when Sophie Cunningham is on the ground  and what she’s doing.  So, while Sophie is on the ground in  pain, members of the team are making  their way over quickly to her.  And so, they get there. You see Lexi  Hall. She’s kneeling down here. Others  are coming.  And you know what players typically do?  They are they take towels and they cover  up the player. They cover up their  teammate. So to give them that privacy  while they’re in pain. But here we see  number three here. This is Marina Mabry. 

Marina Mabry has the towel. She’s right  there. You see other Connecticut teams  still down here. And there she is. Now  Marina Mabry was on the bench. You can  see that she was during this. Let’s show  it to you here.  During this play, here’s Marina Mabbery.  So, she was on the bench, but she gets  up and she’s right there to to to help.  And then when Aaliyah Boston comes, she  hands it off to Aaliyah. And someone  else, Hank on X. He posted this exchange  between Marina Mabberry and Kelsey  Mitchell at the end of the game. and he  wrote, “I missed this after the game,  but Marina Mabberry, who was off the Sun  bench and helping out when Sophie  Cunningham went down, stopped to  congratulate Kelsey Mitchell postgame.  That’s pretty rad.  So, like I said, I’ve never been a  Marina Mabberry fan, but I got to give  credit where credit is due. And uh for  her to be there with the towel, giving  that privacy to Sophie, and then at the  end of the game, she was saying she went  and said something to Kelsey. Kelsey  called her back over. They shake hands.  So, like I said, got a shout out. And  you saw that she was signing autographs  and and posing for pictures with Fever  fans and there were a lot of Fever fans  in the house cuz you know every game is  a home game. Now, for Sophie’s part,  even in  the immediate wake of this situation,  the injury, she was on Instagram and has  been from what I understand, and I guess  Tik Tok, too, but she posted this really  upbeat post on Instagram that Sophie  Heat. Heat. 

  She captioned that August.  That’s Sophie right there. Like this is  not like before the injury. This was  after the injury and she has been  posting and just being lighthearted. And  that’s why I think she’s so special to  this team. We said it from the beginning  when they initially announced that she  was coming to the team and throughout  that she brings this energy to the team.  Even that last picture there where some  game she was just kind of playing dead  on the court, whatever. But she just  brings that and I’m still saying it in  the present tense because she’s still  very much a part of this team.

But that  is going to be missed on the floor. That  kind of energy to come in and bring that  defensive energy, bring that offensive  energy, be that enforcer. Just just very  very vocal. It is a a shame. It is like  I It’s almost like you’re just like,  “What in the world?” Can’t even believe  it.  The adversity.  The adversity. And yet and still the  team said,  “We’re going to persevere. That’s what  we do.” One down, another opportunity  for someone else. You’ve got some huge  shoes to fill. But I’m riding with this  team. I know I’ve said it over and over  again, and I continue to say the same  thing. I’m still believing. I know it’s  wild, but I’m wired that way. I’ll catch  you next time, God willing. God bless  you. about it.