No. 13 overall, No. 1 in the second round, by the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA draft in 2019. in the NBA, MLB, NFL or whatever — wanted to know, ‘What was your signing bonus?’ I was like, what signing bonus?’ “I got a free hat.” tal league in Australia for a season in the fall of 2019. “The culture there, the people there, it’s absolutely phenomenal,” Cunningham said. “My sister got to come with me and boy, did we have so much fun. It was such a cool time in our lives to get the lived outside of Columbia before.” They lived in Australia for about seven months, and it almost turned out to be a lot longer than that. “The day after we got home, the borders shut down because of
Covid,” she said. “We would have been stuck there for a year if we hadn’t come home when we did.”
It was her basketball talents that took center stage at Rock Bridge High School, as she helped the Lady Bruins win four consecu- tive state championships and left as the program’s all-time leading
“I can’t put into words how special it was,” said Cunningham, who was a McDonald’s All-American her senior season. “When you’re in it, you know you’re good, but when you really step back, you realize you had a dynasty. At one point, we had seven D1 basketball players and a D1 volleyball player. You don’t see that very often.” How great was Cunningham in high school? She was also the place kicker on the Rock Bridge football team her junior year after the regular kicker went down with an injury. “With all the cool sports moments I’ve had,” she said, “that maybe
takes the cake. Those guys embraced me, and it was so, so much fun.” Cunningham could have literally gone to any college in the country, but she committed to Mizzou when she was in eighth grade and nev- er wavered. The choice was basically easy, since her mother, father, grandfather and an aunt were athletes at Mizzou. But it wasn’t like she was going to a basketball juggernaut. “I think my high school games were getting more attendance than Mizzou at the time.”
That certainly changed. “We got it up to where we were averaging 10,000 a game.” Led by Cunningham, who also became Mizzou’s dented four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. “Boy was that fun,” she said. “We were making a lot of noise.”
8 /// January 2025
Cunningham has battled through a number of injuries during her professional career, but has still become more acclimated and ef- fective to the rigors of the league. She averaged a career high 12.6 ppg. in 2022, and followed that up with seasons of 11.3 ppg. in 2023
Some call Cunningham’s playing style tenacious, others call it dirty. Truth is, she plays as hard as any player you’ll see in basketball. “A lot of people don’t expect a girl from Missouri to come in and kick ass, excuse my French,” she said. “That’s what it is. I’m going to outwork you. I’m hard-nosed. I’m going to do whatever it takes for my team to win. “A lot of people don’t like that, but I don’t care what they think.”
“I like to have kind of a child-like spirit. I like to have fun. I don’t take things too seriously, but I do know there’s a time and place for that. But I like to make people smile, I like to make people laugh, I want to enjoy this life and embrace it.”
an explosion in popularity at the moment — “I think the WNBA is a hot topic right now. It’s really fun to be in the league.” Why? Two words, one player — Caitlin Clark. Clark burst onto na- tional consciousness during her last two years at Iowa, and that’s carried over as she’s joined the WNBA. Attendance is up, TV viewership is up, and salaries will soon follow. “It’s mainly her, but it’s not only her,” Cunningham said. “That whole
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