The Morning Briefing: Sophie Cunningham Triggered an Avalanche of Bluff-Calling for the WNBA

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Monday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Voordwoěck never quite rebounded from the pressure of winning a Paul Rudd sound-alike contest at a Sioux City Kiwanis fair.

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) has been desperate for attention throughout most of its 30-year history. Caitlin Clark has been trying to change that for a couple of years, but she's out of step with the league's victimhood mentality. Rather than celebrate the winning lottery ticket that Clark represents, most of the rest of the league seems to be trying to run her off or prematurely end her career by injuring her.

There's been an interesting by-product to the WNBA's lousy treatment of Clark: the rise to fame of her teammate Sophie Cunningham. Cunningham hit the spotlight in grand fashion last year when she threw an opponent to the ground after the opponent had thrust her finger into Clark's eye and wasn't assessed a foul. Overnight, the bubbly blonde Missouri girl became known as Caitlin Clark's enforcer.

The WNBA Victim Chorus has not been handling the popularity of Clark and Cunningham well. The more they hate, the more normal people are drawn to Caitlin and Sophie. All the worst kinds of Woke Mafia members are being triggered, and it's a blast to watch.

When Cunningham stated her support for "protecting" women's sports from biological males and then stood by it, the Woke Mob came after her.

The ones in the WNBA are already regretting that.

In typical fashion, the raging lefties just couldn't let Cunningham have an opinion that ran counter to the narrative. Sports media hacks — who lean more left than anyone else in media — immediately began marginalizing Cunningham. If the overuse of the word "controversial" was a crime, they'd all be in lockup.

Well, they wanted to keep the conversation going, and they're getting their wish. This is from Robert:

Every person who is tired of the left forcing its delusions and fantasies on the rest of us, and shaming, deplatforming, and silencing us if we refuse to go along, ought to be applauding Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom for standing up to the madness, and showing the world just how absurd it really is.
White and Freedom have declared that they’re women, at least for the purposes of professional basketball, and so they’re declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft. This is hilarious, but it’s no joke. It’s an unanswerable response to the left’s fashionable gender delusions, which have recently become a source of controversy within the WNBA, which ought to be called the WWNBA, the Woke Women’s National Basketball Association.

Hey, it's all about who and what people "identify" as, isn't that what they've been telling us all these years? It would be bigoted to deny White and Freedom a shot at living out their WNBA dreams if we're playing by the left's rules.

Both are former NBA players, and White is also running to be the Republican nominee in Minnesota for this year's United States Senate Race. That's really got the woke scolds agitated. What makes it all even more fun to watch is the way he's leaning into it all:

I haven't even been publicly trans for 72 hours and I'm already getting so much hate.

I just want to hoop with my girls in my feminine era! Why can't y'all be happy for me? 💅🏽 pic.twitter.com/9QWOrgsoZH
— Royce White 🇺🇸 (@Highway_30) August 8, 2026

I'm still chuckling every time I read "I just want to hoop with my girls in my feminine era!" He's taking the same kind of delight in setting them off that Sophie Cunningham does.

This is forcing an awkward reckoning on the WNBA, which Tim wrote about here. The people running the league are incapable of doing anything in a less-than-trainwreck fashion. Even after the last two years, they haven't grasped that performative posturing for the disgruntled lesbian harridans who used to make up their base isn't a wise move.

Again, they could have avoided all of this if they'd allowed Sophie Cunningham to have a different opinion. They had to behave like the intolerant psychopaths that they've become. And now they're going to have to what they think is impossible: figure out what a woman is.

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The Mailbag of Magnificence

G.S. gets us going this week:

Dear SK as a comedian what would be your opinion of a comedy duo of President Trump and Senator Kennedy debating on the stupidity of the left from their different styles. To me the brash New Yorker denigrating them crudely while the laid back Louisianan translates this to denigrate them politely would be hilarious. But maybe only I think that's funny because it's always 5 o'clock somewhere. Cheers

Fun fact that I don't know if I've shared here: I actually started as part of a comedy team. They were a lot more prevalent in '70s and '80s. The story of how we ended up doing stand-up together is fun, perhaps I'll tell it one day. If I had more time and better AI content creation skills, I could probably come up with a fun "Don and John Comedy Hour." It's true that they do have different styles, but Kennedy isn't always so polite. I've seen him be pretty rough on people, he just smiles a lot while he's doing it.

Paul S. is triggering me:

Just read a story about your governor Katie Hobbs. I listened to a video of her a few years ago, doesn't she have a baby voice?

Honestly, if Hobbs were standing behind me and talking I wouldn't know it was her, that's how little I pay attention when she's speaking. I don't remember if it's a baby voice, but I do know that it's an annoying voice. And a commie voice.

J.S.C. writes:

This is really embarrassing to admit, but my handle on PJ Media is spkfanboy........... I can't imagine what was going through my head when I chose that handle. Kind of like waking up after a long night in Bangkok with a tatoo and wondering how that got there. Perhaps I was inspired by the fact that your column is one of the few (and I mean very few) that I make a point to read every day. Your opening paragraph and the cutesy animal videos always bring a smile. The balance of the column is always original and thoughtful insight and analysis. Very rare given the amount of repetitive tripe that circulates in the digital media universe these days. Look forward to many more years. P.S. I have never actually been to Bangkok.

What's even weirder is waking up with a Bangkok tattoo artist in Tijuana. That's a story for the time capsule though. Freakin' donkey. Anyway, thank you for the kind words and I'm glad you're enjoying the ride. I also have never been to Bangkok. I did, however, survive a night of drinking with Australian Navy guys in Singapore. British sailors warned me about the Aussies. Even Kevin Downey Jr. passed on the after-hours fun with them. My liver now speaks five languages.

Our friend Doug F. is too, too kind:

Congratulations Mr. Kruiser on 7 years although i've been here for 2 of those years i cannot start the day without the MB and "covfefe'. I anticipate the "Top O' the Briefing" and the "Bottom O' the Briefing" - The Mailbag of Magnificence (when it appears), Everything Isn't Awful, and each piece of the Kabana. Its quite the journey to start each dau of the week. Thanks again for everything you (and the guest writers) do to keep me at least a little bit sane.

Thank you so much, and I'm happy that you enjoy all of the madness. Last Friday I wrote that I had no idea what I wanted to do with the Briefing in the beginning, which was true. I knew what I didn't want to do, though. What guided me back then was my desire to make sure that this wasn't merely a conservative version of Politico Playbook or any other MSM newsletter. I'm not saying that it was when I inherited it, just that I wanted to make it really, really clear that "one of these things is not like the others."

Friend of the Briefing Charlotte had a bumpy start the other day:

Dear Kruiser-Man, When I opened the MB this morning, my first glance saw this: "Complimentary artisanal body wash is available after completing the Morning Joe..." I thought to myself, "Yeah, you would need a body was after watching that." When I actually read it, I saw my mistake, but I still think I'd need a body wash if I were to watch Morning Joe. Friend of the Briefing, Charlotte

Four out of five doctors agree that exposure to Morning Joe and Mrs. Morning Mika is detrimental to one's health. The fifth doctor is Anthony Fauci.

Greg P. wraps things up for us today:

Seven years ago I was grumbling about some comedian I barely heard of, taking over one my favorite morning reads, besides the Bible. I was sure taking over from, oops I forgot her name, would be a joke. Alas, there are and I barely miss a morning with Kruiser. Thanks for seven years of fun and essential morning reads.

It was my former colleague Liz Sheld who handed over the Briefing to me lo those many years ago. It was in great shape when she decided to move on. I could have left it as it was and most people probably wouldn't have complained. Had I not infused it with my personality, however, those close to me probably would have started doing wellness checks. Since the Mothership and my former editor Paula came to me first, I felt it was implied that they were thinking outside the box for the future of the Briefing. Once we all started talking, it was no longer implied. Thanks for sticking with it!

Now let's see if I can make it weirder.

One email had some questions about a post written by a colleague, and I'd rather not have a public discussion about that. You can get a message to the writer via the "Contact Us" option at the bottom of the Home Page.

Much appreciation to all who keep writing!

Everything Isn't Awful

I'm oddly fascinated by this.

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POTUS Press Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
08/09/26

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
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