As our own Grateful Calvin reported on Sunday, the WNBA's Sophie Cunningham was clotheslined on the court by opposing player DiJonai Carrington, resulting in a Flagrant 2 foul and Carrington's ejection from the game. Carrington posted to X from the locker room, "WHITE PRIVILEGE #indianafever." The incident was covered for Sports Illustrated by Kristen Wong under the headline, "Sophie Cunningham Got a Bitter Taste of Karma After Drawing Flagrant Foul in Fever-Sky."
The “karma” here is that Sophie Cunningham deserved to get clotheslined on a lay up because she said men shouldn’t be in women’s sports. This is Sports Illustrated! The company you and I used to rush to our mailboxes for!
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 8, 2026
Clay Travis is back to let us know that Sports Illustrated has updated the headline for its piece.
Sports Illustrated changed their Sophie Cunningham karma headline after getting obliterated online. https://t.co/zxcn9A2ep6
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 9, 2026
Outkick reports:
Citing "karma" as the reason behind Cunningham taking a hard foul while she's received constant backlash for stating that men do not belong in women's sports came across, to many, as a pointed effort from Sports Illustrated.
The story, written by breaking news writer Kristen Wong, was later updated with the following title: "Sophie Cunningham's Enforcer Role Gets Reversed Onto Her With Hard Foul in Fever-Sky."
The “journalist” who wrote the “karma” piece, Kristen Wong: pic.twitter.com/zXhSAhGHh7
— Non-Suicidally Empathetic (@EmpathyExtremes) August 9, 2026
As MAZE pointed out with a collage of headlines, Wong "definitely has a thing for" Cunningham and her Indiana Fever teammate Caitlin Clark.
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They should find better journalists and not just let chubby weirdos write for them.
— Phil Grundy (@PhilGrundy07) August 10, 2026
They're still garbage.
— 🇺🇸 🦅 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗲G USAF (𝐑𝐞𝐭.) 🦅 🇺🇸 (@MikeGoodlander) August 9, 2026
Sports Illustrated needs to be obliterated, permanently.
— Ben Owen™️ (@hrkbenowen) August 9, 2026
SI used to be at the top, best photographers, best writers, best editors, best covers, in-depth long-form stories. Now SI is just woke trash, same as ESPN. Sad really.
— Passionately Curious (@PassionlyCurio) August 9, 2026
SI is a BS political "sports" rag. Gone the way of @espn, they spout opinions out of their tiny little minds that absolutely NO one gives a rip about. Shut up and cover the games.
— ChicagoBill (@HoerterFutures) August 10, 2026
Sophie’s karma so far has been a massive increase in popularity and selling out her shoe line.
— Toro Bravo (@F1torobravo) August 9, 2026
Sports Illustrated? They're a complete joke. They've become the Rolling Stone Magazine of the sports world. Nobody takes either of them seriously.
— Joe Herbert (@IndoeLoop) August 10, 2026
I don’t know if it’s still the case, but the writer of the articles never used to do the headline. That was a separate job.
— Clerk O'Sullivan (@OSullivan4Clerk) August 10, 2026
Haven’t subscribed to Si since the ‘90’s, so I will not read the article. No thanks.
It's true that at most major media outlets, the writer of a piece usually doesn't write the headline. Still, Wong's animosity is clear.
Unfortunately SI has gone the same route as Rolling Stone... Both previous content leaders but now politically unhinged and unreadable
— John Crandle (@ScandalCrandle) August 10, 2026
Sports Illustrated obviously felt enough of a backlash that they went back and changed the headline. We're sure they still stand by the sentiment, though.
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