The Chicago Sky star was ejected after the foul on the Fever guard during a game on Saturday, Aug. 8

NEED TO KNOW

• DiJonai Carrington had a response to being ejected after fouling Sophie Cunningham
• The Chicago Sky player wrote, “WHITE PRIVILEGE,” in a Threads post
• Cunningham later said she believed the incident was not race-related

DiJonai Carrington is clapping back regarding her hard foul on Sophie Cunningham.

“WHITE PRIVILEGE,” the Sky forward, 28, wrote on Thread, shortly after she was ejected from a game against the Indiana Fever on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Chicago.

Carrington came in contact with Cunningham’s neck while going after the ball during a breakaway play in the first quarter. The Sky player’s arm connected with Cunningham’s head and jaw, sending the latter to the floor. 

Cunningham, 29, then bounced up and went after Carrington as their teammates tried to separate the players. Carrington was sent to the locker room.

Later, the outspoken Cunningham downplayed any racial bias — “there’s no reason to even play that card” — and called Carrington’s hard foul an attempt for “her just trying to get attention.”

In the aftermath, Carrington found an unlikely ally in Fever head coach Stephanie White.

“One of the things about [Carrington] is that she’s gonna play her butt off, man,” White told reporters. “She’s gonna compete. Nobody’s gonna go walking in for a layup. And so, I don’t oppose the hard foul.”

For Cunningham, the incident marked yet another storyline in a season full of them.

This Missouri standout has drawn both ire and support for her opinion on the issue of trans athletes in women’s sports.

“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans,” Cunningham told ESPN in July. “And I’m like, ‘I never once said that. I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

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The backup guard’s assertion led to rallies at Fever away games with fans supporting Cunningham’s stance, holding up signs that read: “Love is truth.” Meanwhile, others wore T-shirts that read, “Trans kids belong in sports.”

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