Chicago Sky star DiJonai Carrington calls out “white privilege” after she was ejected for a flagrant foul on Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham.
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On Saturday (August 8), the Chicago Sky guard was fouled during a transition play where the Fever guard attempted a layup. With 2 minutes left in the first quarter, Carrington ended up fouling Cunningham as she swung her left arm to block the shot.
However, Carrington’s inner elbow smacked into Cunningham’s face. Her forearm then hooked onto Cunningham’s chin/neck and flung her head back. Officials upgraded Carrington’s foul to a Flagrant 2 after review. This resulted in her ejection from the game that ended with the Fever winning 90-86.
Fever Head Coach Stephanie White defended the opposing team member during a postgame press conference. White said Carrington’s actions should have only been considered a hard foul with no intention behind it. She said:
“Yeah, I mean, look, it was a hard foul. I don’t 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. You know, one of the things about Nay is that she’s gonna play her butt off, man. She’s gonna compete. Nobody’s gonna go walking in for a layup. And so, I don’t oppose the hard foul. But I also don’t think that she intentionally went for the neck.”
Following the game, Carrington took to Threads. She tagged the Indiana Fever and blamed the Flagrant 2 foul call and ejection on “white privilege.” According to ESPN’s Kareem Copeland, Cunningham told reporters:
“I think the league is taking care of that. This 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’s no reason even to play that card. Clearly, I think it was like unnecessary. I’ve never really spoken to her and have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent up stuff. So get your sh*t off. That’s fine. I can take it… Yeah, it’s intentional. She has no reason to be doing any of that. So good way to get her kicked out. I don’t even know her. She wasn’t even on the team last year when all that was going on. But I do think when people play the Fever, we’re nationally televised, there’s a lot of eyes on us and people just want attention. And that’s her just trying to get attention.”
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