The Phoenix Mercury will be hosting Inspiring Girls Night on Friday when they host the Los Angeles Sparks.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!WNBA athletes have the unique responsibility of inspiring younger girls to become stronger and grow into powerful women. They are put into positions to be a representation towards the wider audience, and the Mercury will work to honor that on Friday night.
“I think it is so important that girls see people who look like them [and] give them inspiration,” Mercury wing Sophie Cunningham said. “Not even just young girls, young boys too. I know we always do the girls and boys thing, but I just think for young kids to be inspired to be good people in the community, to be good working people in the world, I just think that’s so important. And if we can do that through basketball, then we’re definitely going to do that.”
Cunningham grew up surrounded by strong, loving women who carried that same basketball gene. Her mother, grandmother, and aunt all played D1 basketball, and Cunningham sees herself as a spitting image of her family.
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She mentioned that it wasn’t easy being a girl who was taller and stronger than everyone when she was younger. That automatically puts a stereotype on a young girl like that, and it can be hard to deal with.
But with the women in the Cunningham family sharing similar paths, they gave her the advice that she needed to make it this far.
“I’m going to bring it back to my grandma. We’re all like the same human,” said Cunningham. “She’s feisty, she’s sassy, she’s really athletic. Then my mom’s identical to her, and I’m identical to those three. And I have to put my aunt in there too, they all played D1 basketball.”
“For us, we had a lot of strong, positive women in our lives. That’s important. When you’re taller and you’re stronger, it can be hard to be in third grade and be taller than everyone. Their words of advice was ‘This is going to be your greatest power one day, don’t let anyone tilt your crown. Go out there and have fun. Work hard when you’re in there, go 110 percent, don’t let anyone ever outwork you. But when you’re out there, enjoy it. You’re working hard for a reason, so go out there and smile.'”
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Justin LaCertosa covers Phoenix Sports News for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @LaCertosaSports
