Key Takeaways
- Sophie Cunningham said Angel Reese should have received a technical foul for chasing Sabrina Ionescu down the court and getting in her ear, calling the no-call “absolutely insane.”
- Cunningham defended Reese’s separate exchange with Jonquel Jones as “good playoff basketball” and argued that the WNBA’s officiating felt inconsistent.
- She also accused officials of overlooking dangerous contact involving Reese during Atlanta’s playoff sweep of New York, which sent the Dream to the WNBA Finals.
Sophie Cunningham isn't letting WNBA officials off the hook for how they handled Angel Reese during the Atlanta Dream's playoff sweep of the New York Liberty.
On No Hesitation with Drew Hanlen, the Indiana Fever guard called out several officiating decisions involving Reese, including a confrontation with Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu that Cunningham believes should have drawn a technical foul.
"Angel, I appreciate her having her teammates’ back. That just shows that she cares and that she loves her teammates," Cunningham said. "Here's my thing: if you're going to chase someone down the court and get in someone's ear, that should be a tech."
Cunningham argued that officials would have penalized the same behavior during the regular season, making their decision to let Reese continue without a technical particularly difficult to understand.
"The fact that she didn't get a tech on that, I think that's absolutely insane," she said.
But Cunningham wasn't calling for officials to crack down on every heated exchange. She defended Reese during a separate confrontation with Liberty center Jonquel Jones, which led to both players receiving technical fouls.
"With the JJ [play], when she drove and got blocked, I wish that they wouldn't have gave either of them a tech," Cunningham explained. "I think that's good playoff basketball, like let them talk a little [expletive] to each other. It's just so weird and inconsistent.”
She also questioned two other incidents involving Reese, alleging that officials overlooked dangerous contact.
"You can't tackle someone in the air and then go for someone's knees and ankles," Cunningham said, criticizing the decisions not to penalize those plays.
The officiating complaints extended beyond Reese. Liberty star Breanna Stewart also questioned a disputed reset timeout during the series, which Atlanta ultimately swept to advance to the WNBA Finals against the Golden State Valkyries.
This isn't the first time Cunningham has publicly criticized Reese, either.
"Something had to have happened for [Reese] to keep, I don't know, wanting to embarrass him in some way," Cunningham said on her Show Me Something podcast.
When co-host West Wilson suggested there might not have been any underlying drama, Cunningham wasn't convinced.
"But then move on! Worry about the current boyfriend," she responded.
