Chicago Sky player DiJonai Carrington denies that her flagrant foul on Fever guard Sophie Cunningham was intentional, while continuing to remain elusive about what she meant by posting “white privilege” on social media.
The embattled WNBA star both posted on social media and spoke with reporters in Seattle about what she called the “unfortunate” incident with Cunningham.
“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 as I said, I’m never intending to hurt anybody, regardless of the outside noise or whatever the situation may be.
Carrington received a Flagrant 2 call after clotheslining Cunningham on a layup attempt. The Sky forward was ejected but then added to the already chaotic situation by posting “white privilege” on social media and tagging the Indiana Fever.
“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 mentioned having talks with the WNBA about consistency with foul calls. Though that has been an ongoing issue for the last three seasons, it’s unclear what the league got wrong in Carrington’s specific situation.
“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 just to 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.”
Carrington pledged to continue her fight to fix officiating in the league.