WNBA attendance has steadily climbed over the last couple of years. The league broke its all-time single-season attendance record of 2.36 million, set back in 2002, by drawing approximately 2.43 million fans. More than half of all games have been sellouts, too, with arenas reaching roughly 94 percent capacity.

This, of course, means more and more celebrities are finding their way into WNBA arenas as well. Just like in the NBA, when they do show up, they make a huge impact. So much, in fact, that it can faze some players.

Not Sophie Cunningham, though. With two exceptions.

Most celebs don’t faze Cunningham…

Cunningham was asked during her appearance on the “Like a Farmer” podcast which one or two surprising faces she’s spotted in WNBA crowds. The kind that makes her think, “Why are they here?”

The Indiana Fever guard-forward admitted she’s kind of “weird” in that sense. She just doesn’t know much about stuff like that. This year, though, things were a little “different,” anyway.

Why?

Her superstar teammate, Caitlin Clark, who’s boosted the popularity of both the Fever and the league, had been in and out with injuries and missed 31 games total.

“I don’t think,” Sophie said, “we really had a lot of celebs come to Indiana this year, but I feel like when you go to New York and like LA and Dallas, we had celebs there for sure.”

…two Hollywood names still do

Midway through her response, Cunningham came to that “but” or, in her words, “unless.”

First, she’s weird. Second, she’s so locked in. Both keep her from getting rattled easily. Unless, she said, “it’s like a Will Ferrell or like Adam Sandler.”

When celebs with that kind of status show up, Cunningham gets fazed. At least a bit. You can hear it in her reaction, which the 30-year-old Missourian described as, “I’m like, ‘All right.’”

Naming those two, Cunningham probably shouldn’t be surprised if Ferrell and Sandler actually make it to a WNBA game. After all, both are big basketball fans.

Ferrell is a famous Los Angeles Lakers fan and a fixture in celebrity row. He also grew up supporting the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball because of his parents’ roots.

Sandler, meanwhile, supports the New York Knicks. He’s also an avid streetball and pickup player.

Both have brought their fandom  for the game to the big screen, too. Ferrell did it in the 2008 sports comedy “Semi-Pro.” Sandler did the same in the celebrated 2022 Netflix sports drama “Hustle.”

Interestingly, their ages come pretty close to that of Cunningham’s actual dream guy. The 2019 draft pick recently gushed about him, saying that “if he was younger and not married” there’d be some interest in the man she called “everyone’s dream guy.”