A flagrant foul in a WNBA game doesn’t usually end up on a state attorney general’s desk. This one did, and Stephen A. Smith spent a segment walking through exactly how that happened, how far it could actually go, and who he thinks is really to blame for letting it get this far.
The flashpoint is a physical incident between DiJonai Carrington and Sophie Cunningham that’s kept churning through WNBA discourse for weeks but took an ugly turn on Saturday, during the Chicago Sky vs. the Indiana Fever.
Stephen A. Smith Breaks Down the Florida Attorney General’s Next Moves
The Cunningham & Carrington’s incident became a bigger headline when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier weighed in publicly, suggesting the WNBA should think twice about bringing games to Florida.
His reasoning, in his own words, was “the WNBA knows better than to play games down here in Florida,” and if teams continue playing there, he said, “I’ll be charging people with assault,” and clearly specified “assault and battery.”
Smith didn’t let that pass without comment. “You know things have devolved,” he said, “When you’ve got the attorney general for the state of Florida” threatening criminal charges over a basketball play.
He made his own position clear, and repeated it for emphasis: “I am not a fan of this.”
Smith added that he’d researched this himself, and the picture that emerged is more limited than “assault and battery”.
He explained that the AG “could push for an investigation and prosecution if he believes conduct during a WNBA game violates Florida criminal law,” but noted a prosecutor “would still have to establish the elements of the offense and overcome the fact that basketball inherently involves consensual physical contact.”
There’s also a jurisdictional wrinkle he flagged: for an ordinary incident in one Florida county, it would typically be the local state attorney handling the prosecution, “not the AG personally.”
Smith, however, did not spend the whole segment going after the AG. He turned some of the criticism back on the WNBA itself, arguing the league doesn’t get to posture about not wanting things “politicized.”
His conclusion was blunt: “There’s only one way to control it. Have more control over your product.”
Whether Uthmeier actually follows through with an investigation, a subpoena, or anything beyond a press comment remains to be seen.
Smith’s breakdown, on the other hand, suggests the legal path to a real prosecution is narrower than the rhetoric implies.
But his larger point wasn’t really about whether the case holds up in court. It was about exposure; it was about how the Carrington-Cunningham incident didn’t stay a basketball story, and how the WNBA doesn’t get to decide when that happens.
As Smith put it, the league can complain about being politicized all it wants, but the only way to actually control it is to control its product before someone else steps in and does it for them.
