The drama inside the WNBA continued on Monday as DiJonai Carrington reacted to criticisms of a post she made on Threads over the weekend.
Carrington was ejected after playing just three minutes for the Sky on Saturday against the Fever after being assessed a Flagrant 2 foul after she tried to block a layup by Sophie Cunningham. Moments after she was kicked out of the game, she posted “WHITE PRIVILEGE” and tagged the Fever.
It led to a number of reactions, including from former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho, who spoke about the foul and Carrington’s use of the term “white privilege” on his latest episode of his “Speakeasy” podcast.
“This was not a race-based decision,” Aho said. “To call that a white privilege-based foul is to completely undermine the term of white privilege and to also completely ignore the rules in basketball. You hit her in the head. You drew blood. You didn’t connect with the ball at all whatsoever.
“So to me, it was just very ignorant and, to some degree, asinine by D.J. Carrington to suggest that that call was based on white privilege. Have we seen examples of white players make that same foul and get away with it? Have we seen examples of black players make that same foul and get away with it? Yes. There was no white privilege involved in that specific call.”
It let to Carrington responding on social media.
“I’ve never once claimed that the assessment of the foul was white privilege (that was your assumption),” she wrote on X, while quote-tweeting a clip of Acho from the show. “Try exercising your critical thinking skills, I know you studied psych. Furthermore, I’m the LAST thing from ignorant or asinine when it comes to speaking on ‘white privilege’, do ya research on that one. I actually went to school, one of the top universities might I add, to educate myself on this exact subject. I would never use that term as a rhetorical weapon knowing the historical and social weight it holds without having the proper evidence to substantiate it.”
Her comments don’t clarify what she was referring to when she made the social media post on Threads or why she tagged the Fever in it.
Cunningham, who is known for her own brand of physical play on the court, said the foul call “has nothing to do with race.”
“Last year, I did the same thing,” Cunningham said, “and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason even to play that card.”
Carrington has not spoken to the media since the foul in Saturday’s game, though the Sky will be back in action on Monday when they face Seattle.
All of it comes amid another charged season for the W, which has included plenty of dialogue around Caitlin Clark as well as being front and center during the ongoing debate of trans-athletes in women’s sports.
Cunningham has been one of the faces of the debate after she chimed in on it during a feature published by ESPN, saying she wants to protect women from competing against biological males in female sports.
The Fever star also has some history with the Sky from last season after she committed a very similar foul to the one Carrington committed against her.
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