Sophie Cunningham drove toward the basket Saturday night and got hit across the head and neck by Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington. Officials stopped the game, reviewed the play, upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 2, and ejected Carrington.
After Cunningham hit the floor, Carrington hit social media.
Minutes later came the explanation: "WHITE PRIVILEGE," with the Indiana Fever tagged in the post.
DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky was ejected Saturday after being called for a Flagrant 2 foul on Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever. Minutes later, Carrington posted on social media the words “WHITE PRIVILEGE” and tagged the Fever.
Cunningham, who is white, was shooting a fast-break layup in the first quarter when Carrington, who is Black, came from behind and hit her in the head and neck, knocking her to the court as the shot went in.
Cunningham said she thought the foul in the 90-86 Indiana win was “absolutely” intentional.
“Clearly I think it was unnecessary,” Cunningham said. “I’ve never really spoken to her and I have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent up stuff.”
Fever coach Stephanie White had a different view of the play.
“It was a hard foul,” White said. “I don’t think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did, but it did happen, and I thought it was the right call.”
Cunningham got up immediately, charged toward Carrington and pushed her as she was held back by a teammate.
“I popped up,” Cunningham said. “I’m not going to let anyone just do that to me. I think everyone knows that. I think that’s why she did it because she wants attention.”
Cunningham thought the foul was intentional. Fever coach Stephanie White said she didn't believe Carrington intended to injure Cunningham, but she agreed officials made the correct call.
Either way, the rules settled the basketball question.
There's another problem with Carrington's accusation. Cunningham received the same punishment last season when she committed a Flagrant 2 against Jacy Sheldon. Cunningham didn't run from it Saturday, showing integrity and character by saying that she deserved to be ejected then and that Carrington deserved the same treatment now.
Race had zero to do with either call.
Carrington could've owned the foul, cooled off, and moved on. Instead, she turned a basketball decision into a racial grievance. It sounded less like an adult athlete accepting consequences and more like a 2-year-old who had just heard the magic word "no" for the first time during her tantrum.
Then came the magazine that once carried some weight in American sports.
The original headline on Sports Illustrated said Cunningham "Got a Bitter Taste of Karma" after Carrington's foul. The headline was later changed, but the live story still says Cunningham received "a taste of karmic justice."
Toward the end of the Fever-Sun game in June 2025, Cunningham was chasing down Jacy Sheldon (who now happens to play for the Sky) and wrapped her arms around Sheldon in a wrestling-type move to prevent her from attempting a layup. Cunningham was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul as a result and incited a feisty on-court scuffle between Fever and Sun players.
SOPHIE SAID AINT SHIT SWEET pic.twitter.com/vo9Mq2MFN3
— correlation (@nosyone4) June 18, 2025On top of it all, the player who fouled her, Carrington, shares some history with the Fever, too. During Caitlin Clark’s playoff debut in September 2024, the then-rookie guard got poked in the face by Carrington and ended the game with a black eye. No foul was called, as the contact from Carrington appeared to be accidental. Carrington later made clear that her poke wasn’t intentional, yet the moment still gained a lot of—and arguably too much—traction amid Clark’s historic rookie campaign.
The piece reaches back to Cunningham's 2025 foul on Sheldon to make the connection.
Think about what's being excused. A player was struck above the neck during a fast break. Officials reviewed the video and threw the offending player out. Instead of recognizing an excessive foul and moving on, the story treated Cunningham's punishment as something she had coming.
The timing makes the ugliness harder to miss.
Cunningham has spent recent weeks saying men calling themselves girls and women shouldn't compete in girls' and women's sports. Her position brought rallies, protests, criticism, and another headache for a league already struggling to keep politics from swallowing basketball.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said last week that the league would continue talking about transgender participation.
“I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention,” Engelbert wrote in the memo, which was sent Friday afternoon and obtained by The Associated Press. “I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”
The memo said the topic will be discussed further by a task force of team presidents and general managers at a previously scheduled meeting next week.
In an ESPN article published last month, Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports. Cunningham’s comments sparked small rallies and protests in Seattle and Portland when the Fever were on the road last week.
There was a lone protester at the Fever’s home game against Las Vegas on Thursday night. Indiana visits Chicago on Saturday. Members of two conservative groups are planning a rally in support of Cunningham ahead of that game.
The league hasn’t made any public comments on the issue.
A recent deep dive on these pages laid out how badly the league has handled the transgender fight. Saturday offered another chapter.
Read More: Looks Like the WNBA's Absurdity Is About to Sink the Entire Transgender Movement
My teammate Tim O'Brien draws on the wit and wisdom of El Rushbo himself:
Rush Limbaugh would be proud of these guys. Illustrate the absurd through absurdity. But what makes it all truly absurd is the amount of reality involved here. Both Royce White and Enes Freedom are simply following the rules the left has created, and in the process, they can legitimately claim to have a shot at getting a roster spot in the WNBA.
But it’s not just that. It’s the reaction they’re getting from the left, which in unison is saying, “No fair, you can’t do that!”
The left forgets that yes, in the past, you couldn’t do that. But now, thanks to the left, you can. And the WNBA hasn’t taken a hard line on any of this yet, which is not only hurting the league, but is also hurting the transgender movement.
Reports are that the league is now reaching out to its teams to address, as US News and World Report reports, “ongoing discussions around transgender athletes in women's basketball.”
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert said, “I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention….I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”
According to reports, a task force of team presidents and general managers will take this issue up in the near future.
This comes on the heels of flare-ups on the same issue, most recently sparked by Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, who said loudly and proudly that she’s against men playing in the WNBA. For some reason, this was received by the WNBA as a controversial statement, even though the league wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for the “W” in its name, which stands for “Women's,” obviously.
Caitlin Clark brought millions of new eyes to women's basketball. Cunningham has become another player willing to say things many ordinary fans already believe.
The WNBA finally has stars capable of reaching people who never cared about the league before, and parts of its culture keep finding ways to insult, politicize, or antagonize those same people.
The first rule of holes remains useful: when you find yourself in one, stop digging.
Carrington had a chance to stop digging after the whistle; she grabbed another shovel. The magazine had a chance to cover an ugly foul without turning punishment into "karma." It dug deeper too.
Basketball gave everyone involved an easy way out. A hard foul was reviewed, the rule was enforced, the player was ejected, and play resumed.
Race didn't need to be injected into it; neither did ideological revenge.
A league with Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham has been handed something precious: attention from people who ignored women's professional basketball for years. The smart move would be to protect the game, welcome those fans, and let basketball win them over.
Instead, too many people around the WNBA seem determined to test how much contempt an audience will tolerate before it leaves.
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