Openverse
Sophie Cunningham just launched a new podcast. It’s called The No Hesitation Show, and it comes after she walked away from her old show, Show Me Something, along with co-host West Wilson. The timing wasn’t random — that same day, Cunningham sat down with Colin Cowherd on his own podcast, since he’s the founder of The Volume, the media company now distributing her new project.
Cowherd tends to stay in his lane, relatively speaking, even when he’s wrong about the sports takes he’s known for. But this interview veered somewhere unexpected when he told Cunningham she’s basically the WNBA’s “sex symbol.”
Cunningham appeared in this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. She wasn’t alone — Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, Naphessa Collier, Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Sue Bird, DiDi Richards, and Te’a Cooper have all posed for it too. Cunningham’s shoot, though, took on a life of its own online, turning into a full-blown meme.
That context set up Cowherd’s question. “If you’re offended, you can virally smack me, but when you are kind of viewed a little bit as the league’s sex symbol, is that fair?” he asked, before pivoting into a much easier question about women being allowed to be tough and attractive at the same time.
He kept going. “You lean into it a little bit; you’re an interesting contradiction. You’re tough; you’ll fight anybody; you’ll taunt anybody, but you’ll make sure, coming into the arena, ‘I look good, and I want you to know I look good.’ Tell me how you view that. Are you conflicted?”
Cunningham didn’t hesitate.
“For me, the reason why I really lean into that is, first of all, I’ve always been super girly. Since a little girl, I’ve always loved to dress up. I love dresses. I love high heels. I love all of that,” Cunningham said.
She pushed back on the idea that basketball players have to pick a lane. “For some reason, our society, if you play basketball, you can’t dress that way, or you can’t be girly. No one’s ever said it, but it’s like, they kind of feel that you can’t be both. Screw all that. Yes, you can. You can be girly, and you can go out and kick someone’s ass.”
The clip made its way to social media fast, with The Volume posting the exchange themselves.
“You are kind of viewed as the leagues…ummm” @colincowherd
“Just say it” @sophaller
“Sex symbol”
“That is way better, I thought you were gonna go somewhere completely different” https://t.co/4AknRkHWR2
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) September 11, 2026
Cowherd’s compliment might sound nice on the surface, but it’s probably off the mark. If the WNBA has an actual sex symbol, that title likely belongs to whoever walked the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show runway — that’s Angel Reese — or the player people keep comparing to Cameron Diaz, which is Cameron Brink. Cunningham’s reputation in the league runs in a different direction entirely.
She’s the WNBA’s firebrand, not its pin-up.
