DiJonai Carrington denied that her flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham was intentional, while remaining coy about her “WHITE PRIVILEGE” post that she wrote on social media over the weekend when she spoke with reporters in Seattle on Monday.
Carrington called it “unfortunate” that her attempt to deny a layup by Cunningham — during the Sky’s loss to the Fever on Saturday — occurred the way it did, while noting that it has always been her style of play.
“It was unfortunate that I made contact with her in the way that I did, but it was never intentional,” she said, according to 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.”
Carrington was called for a flagrant 2 foul after she aggressively went to defend a play against Cunningham, who has been a lightning rod of controversy in her own right. The call ended Carrington’s night early and has created a wave of controversy.
Her cryptic post on Threads after her ejection only added to the situation, and when given the chance to address the meaning behind it further, Carrington declined to elaborate on Monday.
“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.
