{"id":848641,"date":"2026-08-09T02:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848641\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T02:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:34:16","slug":"skys-dijonai-carrington-posts-white-privilege-after-ejection-for-hard-foul-on-sophie-cunningham-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848641\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky\u2019s DiJonai Carrington posts \u2018white privilege\u2019 after ejection for hard foul on Sophie Cunningham | WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky was ejected Saturday after being called for a Flagrant 2 foul on Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever<\/a>. Minutes later, Carrington posted on social media the words \u201cWHITE PRIVILEGE\u201d and tagged the Fever.<\/p>\n

Cunningham, who is white, was shooting a fast-break layup in the first quarter when Carrington, who is Black, came from behind and hit her in the head and neck, knocking her to the court as the shot went in.<\/p>\n

Cunningham said she thought the foul in the 90-86 Indiana win was \u201cabsolutely\u201d intentional.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly I think it was unnecessary,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI\u2019ve never really spoken to her and I have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent up stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fever coach Stephanie White had a different view of the play.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hard foul,\u201d White said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that Dijonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did, but it did happen, and I thought it was the right call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham got up immediately, charged toward Carrington and pushed her as she was held back by a teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI popped up,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to let anyone just do that to me. I think everyone knows that. I think that\u2019s why she did it because she wants attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play was reviewed and upgraded to a Flagrant 2 after the referee said there was windup, impact and follow-through on the foul.<\/p>\n

Sky coach Tyler Marsh said he hadn\u2019t seen a replay of the play, but that seeing it live, he thought Carrington was making a play on the ball and that he didn\u2019t believe it warranted a Flagrant 2 foul.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t looked at that play since, so I really don\u2019t know if it was justified or not,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, that\u2019s what I thought in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Marsh was then asked about Carrington\u2019s social media post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to get back to you on that because I\u2019m just now hearing about that,\u201d he said. \u201cSo yeah, we\u2019ll handle that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But Cunningham had plenty to say about the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the league is taking care of that,\u201d she said. \u201cThis has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There\u2019s no reason even to play that card.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s Sophie Cunningham (center) reacts to DiJonai Carrington\u2019s hard foul during Saturday\u2019s game. Photograph: Icon Sportswire\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the third quarter, Fever star Caitlin Clark<\/a> was assessed a technical foul after she made contact with a referee when she was forced out of bounds. The technical was Clark\u2019s eighth of the season, triggering a one-game suspension for Indiana\u2019s next game.<\/p>\n

After the game, Clark said the contact was inadvertent and that no words were exchanged. She was hopeful the WNBA<\/a> would rescind the foul.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said I ran into her,\u201d Clark said of the referee. \u201cI have already watched it on the tape. So, we\u2019ll let the league decide. But, it wasn\u2019t anything intentional or anything. So, I hope it gets rescinded. And, nothing was said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fever coach Fever coach Stephanie White said it was \u201ca bad call\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cunningham has frequently come to Clark\u2019s defense after physical play by opponents and has become one of the higher-profile players in the league this season. In an ESPN article published last month, she voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports, which led to small protests and rallies outside Fever games in Seattle and Portland.<\/p>\n

In a memo to teams on Friday, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league would have ongoing discussions<\/a> about the issue of transgender participation in women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky was ejected Saturday after being called for a Flagrant 2 foul on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-848641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}