Dave Portnoy has had enough with the coverage of the WNBA’s latest drama.
On Monday’s episode of FS1’s “Wake Up Barstool,” the sports personality went on a rant about ESPN’s coverage around DiJonai Carrington’s “white privilege” Threads post following her flagrant 2 foul on Sophie Cunningham that got her kicked out of the Fever’s 90-86 win over the Sky on Saturday.
The self-proclaimed “Indiana Fever expert” went on for about eight minutes over the network neglecting to mention the message that was posted immediately after Carrington’s ejection.
“And maybe the story ends there if Carrington doesn’t go to the locker room and pick up her phone and tweet ‘white privilege,’ which is insane. An absolutely insane thing to say. Now, if you go watch other networks, I’m not gonna say it on Fox, but like ESPN is filled with absolute morons,” Portnoy said.
“They have a panel of morons sitting there discussing this play and talking about whether it was the right call and things of that nature. They don’t even mention the fact that she said ‘white privilege.’ That is the story. The story isn’t that she got kicked out. It’s that she tweeted out ‘white privilege’ because Sophie Cunningham is white and that’s somehow how she got kicked out. They go on to defend her — the story, the narrative that she’s not a dirty player, she makes plays like this all the time.”
Portnoy went on to say those talking about the incident are not mentioning the post “99% of the time.”
“Where this thing gets absolutely bananas is when you start making it into a race and culture war, and the people talking about it are not mentioning 99% of the time that she went back and tweeted ‘white privilege.’ White privilege how? You made a dirty play,” he said.
Portnoy said he made a clip of Carrington’s similar plays before calling her “one of the dirtiest players in the WNBA.”
He called out her long fingernails and her instances of “swatting” from behind and “smashing” players in the head.
He also mentioned Carrington scratching “Caitlin Clark’s eyes out” and tweeted a video calling back to the moment during the 2024 season.
“This is a dirty, dirty play when you come down with long finger nails, gouge somebody,” he said.
Portnoy, who was wearing a Fever hat during the show, ended his rant saying he wants head coach Stephanie White “outta there.”
“Fire her ass today. I don’t want her back on that bench. Stop defending the other players,” he said in referencing White’s defense of Carrington, who was her former player with the Connecticut Sun.
“Defend your players or get lost,” Portnoy added.
White is in her second year at the helm of the Fever, who sit fourth in the league with a 20-12 record, and are looking to add their third consecutive postseason appearance this year.
