Over the past several days, Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham has made headlines across the country after speaking out against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. Cunningham’s stance has instantly become one of the biggest and most high-profile stories in sports. While she insists it’s not a distraction and has indicated that she has no plans to stop speaking out, it doesn’t sound like her coach necessarily agrees.

During a recent interview, Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White admitted that there is “frustration” after Cunningham’s comments, as she expressed concern that the whole ordeal could be a distraction for the team as the Fever try to focus on basketball.

The controversy began last month when Cunningham publicly shared her controversial stance on transgender athletes.

During a recent interview for an ESPN profile, Cunningham was asked about her political beliefs, including the “MAGA Barbie” nickname that has followed her in recent months. In her response, the Fever guard addressed the issue of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she told ESPN. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

A few days later, Cunningham doubled down on her comments, calling them “common sense.”

“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” Cunningham said earlier this week. “And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. I stand on what I said.”

Cunningham also revisited the topic in a post on X while reacting to a recent incident involving two teenage girls who said they were verbally confronted by a Seattle Storm co-owner, who was later suspended.

“I truly believe there is a safe space and love for EVERYBODY. Biological girls, biological boys, trans women, and trans men. Everyone is welcome at my table! You can disagree and still be kind,” Cunningham wrote in a post on X. “Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You’ll be hearing from me soon yay for gifts. Truly embarrassing of the co-owner.”

Although Cunningham was not made available to reporters following the Fever’s win over the Seattle Storm earlier this week, she addressed the continued backlash before Friday night’s game against the Portland Fire, making it clear that she has no intention of backing down from the criticism surrounding her remarks. She also pushed back on any claim that it was impacting the team.

“At the end of the day, I come in and I do my job,” Cunningham said. “I think everyone who knows me personally, they know that I’m full of love. I’m bubbly. I love the people around me. I love basketball. I love inspiring the next generation and doing that in a positive light. And so that doesn’t even cross my mind. Doesn’t cross my teammates’ minds.

“And again, I’m here to play basketball, but I’m also here to be me, and I’m not going to like shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don’t agree with that.”

While Cunningham has made it pretty clear with both her words and her actions that she does not intend to stop speaking out about this issue, it sounds like White wishes that everyone could just focus on basketball.

During a press conference last week following the team’s game against the Portland Fire, White expressed concern that the controversy was distracting from the team’s play, especially as the

“You know there is a frustration, of course, because we want to talk about basketball and we want to continue to work on our game and we want to continue to grow as a team,” White said. “But I also understand this is part of our growth edge as a league, right? It’s part of our growth as a league, and we have to be able to manage, we have to be able to insulate as much as we can, and then we have to be able to lead with conversation.”

Given the response from fans, players, and media on this issue, it seems unlikely that that’s going to happen.