In a recent press conference in Seattle, DiJonai Carrington addressed the controversy surrounding her flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham, emphasizing that the move wasn’t meant to be malicious. She also chose to remain reticent regarding her social media post mentioning “WHITE PRIVILEGE” over the weekend.
Carrington described the incident, which took place during the Sky’s losing effort against the Fever, as “unfortunate,” stating that her play style has always been aggressive. The contact occurred as she tried to prevent Cunningham from scoring a layup.
“It was unfortunate that I made contact with her in the way that I did, but it was never intentional,” Carrington remarked as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. “And, look, it might happen again. That’s just how I play. I’m gonna always go all out. I’m not gonna just let an open layup happen. But like I said, I’m never intending to hurt anybody, regardless of the outside noise or whatever the situation may be.”
The play resulted in Carrington receiving a flagrant 2 foul after she aggressively attempted to defend Cunningham, who herself has been at the center of numerous controversies. The call led to Carrington’s game ejection and sparked significant controversy and discussion.
Following the ejection, Carrington’s enigmatic post on Threads stirred the pot further. However, when reporters pressed her for an explanation on Monday, she opted not to reveal its meaning.
“I already spoke with people who potentially will have the agency to create the change that I’m hoping comes about from not just this incident, but ones in the past and that are obviously going to be coming up in the near future, probably,” she said.
Carrington has spoken to the WNBA, although from the sounds of it she was not encouraged by the talks and expressed a desire for consistency “across the board” when it comes to the way things are called.
“Whether it’s the foul that I committed, whether it’s the reaction, the retaliation, I would just love it to be consistent across the board regardless of the name on your jersey or your skin color or the score of the game, the stakes, whatever,” she said. “I would love there to just be consistency when it comes to all of that. I don’t think we’re there yet. That’s something that I’ve talked to the league about as well. I think that will eliminate a lot of the frustrations that we all have.”
Despite her negative outlook on the situation, Carrington said that she would continue to fight for what she believed in.
The drama from the play and the fallout has been the latest instance of a story in the WNBA taking on a life of its own, and it’s only fitting that Cunningham would be in the middle of it.
The Fever star has made headlines off the court after she addressed the topic of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.