Riley Gaines has reacted to Sophie Cunningham's admission of Michael Porter Jr defeating the WNBA team as an eighth grader. Gaines has been the biggest protestor of transgender athletes competing against women's sport.Gaines has frequently opposed the notion of men and women competing together. In an episode of Ball in the Family Podcast on November 18, Brooklyn Nets forward Porter Jr admitted to competing against and defeating his sisters and also WNBA players like Cunningham (two years older than Porter Jr) as an eighth grader."I'm probably going with 8th grade because I have real experience doing this. I played with my sisters," he said via Sports Illustrated. "They had me playing on the scout team and they had a few WNBA players on their team like, Sophie Cunningham and a couple others."Although it could have raised sparks, his comments were gracefully accepted by the WNBA team, Indiana Fever's guard Cunningham. Two days later, after his comments, she appeared on her podcast and expressed her view, stating:"If women are saying, 'He couldn't beat them,' yeah, he could. Any NBA star could beat a female in high school."Gaines, who has been repeatedly speaking against men and women competing together, reacted to the incident, writing:"Based"Cunningham and Michael Porter Jr grew up together."The smears don’t matter" - Riley Gaines criticizes the accusations for making money out of advocacyRiley Gaines during the 10X Ladies Conference in Aventura, Florida. (Photo by Getty Images)Rliey Gaines took a jab at podcaster and investigative journalist Pablo Torre for accusing her of engaging in activism to gain financial profits. Gaines, who recently welcomed her new daughter, mocked his investigation, which took six months, and stated that she is busy enough with her newborn to care about Torre's claims (via her X):"I love when there’s a baseless hit piece about me, but I’m so consumed in our perfect baby that I didn’t even notice (and even if I had, I couldn’t care less). 6 month "investigation" for that? To find out I have a job that pays me? Ground-breaking discovery, truly. When you know you’re on the right side of history, the smears don’t matter. Try harder, @PabloTorre."According to SwimSwam, Torre found that Riley Gaines was paid a $25,000 appearance fee in 2025 by Harris County Republicans.