Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham pushed back after Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington blamed “WHITE PRIVILEGE” for her own ejection from Saturday’s game — a post Carrington later deleted.
Cunningham dismissed the accusation outright, pointing to her own ejection last season for a similar foul.
“I think the league is taking care of that,” she said. “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 to even play that card.”
Of the foul itself, Cunningham said, “Clearly, I think it was 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 [stuff] off. That’s fine — I can take it.”
She went further, calling the hit deliberate: “Yeah, it’s intentional… 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.”
Video of the interaction — which showed Carrington clothes-lining Cunningham as she went in for a lay-up — spread quickly across social media. The foul — which landed Cunningham on her back on the court — was upgraded to a flagrant two after review, with officials citing “wind-up, impact, and follow-through” and a “high potential for injury for player in a vulnerable position.”
Fever Coach Stephanie White reacted to the hit, saying, “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.”
Sky coach Tyler Marsh, when asked about Carrington’s locker-room reaction to her removal from the game, replied, “I have to get back to you on that because I’m just now hearing about that. So yeah, we’ll handle that.”
Cunningham made waves when she said in an ESPN interview last month that she did not believe it was fair for women and girls to compete in athletics against biological males — and has been the target of protests and criticism ever since.
Sports Illustrated delivered clear bias in a headline covering the most recent incident, which read, “Sophie Cunningham Got A Bitter Taste Of Karma After Drawing Flagrant Foul In Fever-Sky.” The outlet appears to have since quietly changed the headline.
Women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines responded to Carrington’s reaction, saying on Fox News that her post was more indicative of “black privilege” than anything else.
“I would actually say that this is BLACK privilege to be totally honest with you! Because her posting this white racist comment right after assaulting Sophie Cunningham on the court is actually black privilege, because she knows the WNBA won’t do a SINGLE thing of significance about it!” Gaines explained. “And imagine if the roles were reverse if Sophie made a comment similar to this — then she’d likely never play again!”
.png)
.png)
