A two-word post from a locker room and an absent league ruling both traveled farther than the foul that started everything. DiJonai Carrington was ejected Saturday for a Flagrant 2 on Sophie Cunningham during the Indiana Fever's 90-86 win, then posted "WHITE PRIVILEGE" on Threads with the Fever's account tagged. The WNBA announced no discipline. Carrington checked into Monday night's game for the Chicago Sky against the Seattle Storm with 5:21 left in the first quarter.
The foul and what officials ruled
With about two minutes left in the first quarter Saturday, Cunningham had a breakaway toward the basket. Carrington tracked her down and the contact came at the rim: not a swat at the ball, but a hard hit to Cunningham's face. Cunningham went to the floor, got up, and confronted Carrington before teammates stepped in and officials followed. The call was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 on review, and Carrington was ejected. Shortly after, from what was presumably the locker room, Carrington posted "WHITE PRIVILEGE" on Threads and tagged the Fever's account. She offered no explanation.
What Carrington said she meant
By Monday, Carrington had replied on X to Emmanuel Acho, a former NFL player and sports personality who had criticized her for using the term. Her position: she never said the foul call itself was white privilege, calling that Acho's assumption. She said she formally studied the subject at what she described as "one of the top" universities, and would not invoke the phrase without evidence to support it.
The argument that survived her clarification
The counterargument is blunt: the post as written offered nothing. Two words and a tag. Carrington's Monday reply retroactively assigned a meaning that was not visible when the story broke. That gap between what the post said and what she now says she intended is what the WNBA's silence left unaddressed through the weekend.
Background and prior incidents
The case for viewing Saturday through a longer lens: this is not Carrington's first contentious moment with Indiana's players. In 2024, while with the Connecticut Sun, she mocked Caitlin Clark for flopping and later called Fever fans "the nastiest fans in the W," a remark that followed racist abuse she received online. During the 2024 WNBA Playoffs, Carrington made contact with Clark's eye while defending a pass; Clark played afterward with a black eye. Both players called it accidental.
Cunningham has become the center of a sustained public debate over biological men in women's sports. Supporters held a fourth rally outside the United Center in Chicago on Saturday, with counter-protesters also gathering. Cunningham has said she does not hate transgender people but that protecting women in sports is common sense.
Carrington is in her sixth WNBA season, her first with Chicago. She is averaging 9.8 points and 2.2 rebounds through five games.