Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington was ejected late in the first quarter of an August 8 WNBA game against the Indiana Fever after committing a flagrant-2 foul on Sophie Cunningham. Carrington hit Cunningham across the head and neck as she attempted a right-handed layup, causing Cunningham to fall to the floor hard. The foul was initially called flagrant-1 but was upgraded to flagrant-2 after video review, triggering Carrington’s automatic ejection from the game in Indianapolis [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Before her ejection, Carrington had scored eight points in four minutes off the bench. Indiana Fever won the game 90-86 [1, 3].
Minutes after being ejected, Carrington posted the phrase “WHITE PRIVILEGE” on the social media platform Threads, tagging the Indiana Fever. She declined to elaborate on the post but later urged critics to "do their research," claiming she was well-educated on the topic from a top university [1, 6, 3, 5, 7, 4].
Cunningham rejected the racial undertones implied by Carrington’s post. “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,” Cunningham told reporters. She also said Carrington’s posts appear to be an attempt to get attention, noting “when people play the Fever, we're nationally televised, there’s a lot of eyes on us and people just want attention” [1, 6, 8].
Disagreement remains over whether Carrington’s foul was intentional. Cunningham believes it was deliberate, while Fever head coach Stephanie White and Chicago Sky coach Tyler Marsh said the foul was hard but unintentional. Carrington herself insisted the foul was not meant to harm Cunningham but was a defensive attempt [1, 4, 8, 9, 10].
Stephanie White said, "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." Chicago Sky coach Tyler Marsh said of Carrington, "I think the intent was to make an attempt at the ball... She's passionate, hard-nosed, and it's unfortunate that's what happened" [1, 4].
Carrington has had prior confrontations with the Fever and its players, including physical incidents with star Caitlin Clark and social media comments. Clark avoided a one-game suspension after a technical foul during the game was rescinded. Cunningham has recently drawn protests for voicing support to bar transgender girls and women from women’s sports, a topic WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league will continue to discuss [1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 10].
Sydney Colson, Cunningham’s former teammate, publicly endorsed Carrington’s hard foul in social media comments [10].
The WNBA confirmed ongoing talks about transgender athlete participation as the league seeks clarity and policy direction. Engelbert announced on August 11 that discussions will continue within the league [2, 3].
