PHOENIX MERCURY GUARD SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM TO JOIN SUNS BROADCAST TEAM AS GUEST ANALYST

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns today announced that Mercury guard Sophie Cunningham has joined the Suns broadcast team as a guest analyst for the 2022-23 NBA season. Cunningham will make regular contributions to Suns basketball coverage on the team’s exclusive local television home, Bally Sports Arizona, while preparing for the 2023 WNBA season. She will make her Suns broadcast debut on the Suns Live! pregame show on Saturday, December 17 against the New Orleans Pelicans at 6:30pm MST.

Cunningham will join the longtime Suns voices Tom Leander, Tom Chambers, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Eddie Johnson and Kevin Ray throughout the remainder of the 2022-23 NBA season, contributing her basketball knowledge during the Suns pregame, halftime and postgame shows.

“Being able to play basketball in front of and for the amazing fans of Phoenix has been one of my favorite parts of this organization. And now being able to share my love for the game, off the court and in front of the camera for those same fans is a dream come true. I promise to provide the same passion and excitement with a mic in my hand as I do when I have a basketball in it instead. The Suns have a legendary broadcast team and I’m thrilled to sit alongside each of them and add some insight to the game from a player’s perspective,” said Cunningham.

“We are fortunate to be able to invest in our players and their interests outside of basketball, including Sophie who came to us with a desire to be a larger part of the Phoenix community, our organization, and to add to her growing broadcast resume,” said Mercury President Vince Kozar.  “She’s a fan-favorite who will do a great job using her on-court experience to provide analysis of our favorite NBA team.”

During her fourth WNBA season, Cunningham was among the top candidates for the WNBA’s Most Improved Player award, taking on a more prominent role with the Mercury and averaging career highs of 12.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, helping to lead the team to its 10^th consecutive playoff appearance. Off the court, Cunningham brings over three years of broadcast experience at the highest level with ESPN, SEC Network, Sun Belt Conference, Mizzou Basketball and most recently USA Basketball for NBA TV.

Drafted 13th overall in the 2019 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury, Cunningham finished her four-year collegiate career at the University of Missouri as the program’s all-time leader in points (2,187) and free throws (537), second in three-pointers made (590), fourth in points per game (17.0) and led the program to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

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