The Sophie Cunningham-DeWanna Bonner altercation became the highlight of the Indiana Fever-Phoenix Mercury contest on Monday. As Cunningham and Bonner were separated from each other by teammates and security, it unearthed a past from last year.

Despite being separated from each other, Bonner and Cunningham kept pointing fingers at each other. According to California Post's Grant Young, the finger-pointing represented something different.

“The DeWanna Bonner-Sophie Cunningham exchange wasn’t interesting because of the finger point. It was interesting because of what the point seemed to represent,” Young wrote on his post on X.

Bonner was part of the Indiana Fever last year, but distanced herself from the team just after nine games. The Fever quietly waived her, following which she joined former Connecticut Sun teammate Alyssa Thomas in Phoenix.

"I'm not gonna pretend like I know what Sophie's finger point meant, and I definitely don't know what Bonner was thinking when she saw it," Young said in the video. "But I do know that the gesture, or the attempt behind it, clearly meant something to Bonner."

Young alluded to Cunningham publicly criticizing Bonner's move. He added that Cunningham wasn't happy about the fact that Bonner "didn't communicate with her Fever teammates" and "just ghosted them."

However, Cunningham has reflected over the ongoing altercation.

Sophie Cunningham reacts to her altercation with DeWanna Bonner

Bonner was one of Cunningham's veterans when the Mercury drafted her in 2019. They once again reunited in Indiana. However, the camaraderie flipped when Bonner left for Phoenix.

After the game, Cunningham was asked about the altercation. The Fever star downplayed the altercation and rather focused on the Fever recording a big comeback win.

“It’s fine, you know, I think sometimes that’s part of the game. And we kept our heads,” Cunningham told reporters after the game. “I think we could have stopped it a bit sooner, but at the end of the day, we kept our heads so the ball game went well and that’s what we need to do.”

The Fever came out with a dominant win [86-77] over the Mercury. After scoring just 6 points in the opening quarter, Indiana outscored Phoenix by 32 points.

Both teams will face each other in back-to-back games on Wednesday. The Fever games against Alyssa Thomas have always been tense, and the heat is only going to rise when both teams face each other next time in Indiana.

Are you expecting yet another physical game between Indiana and Phoenix on Wednesday? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Nandjee Ranjan

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi