DiJonai Carrington is averaging 11.1 points a game this season, and her numbers are not the only thing getting attention right now. Her play on the court has become a talking point for a different reason.
After calling out what she described as white privilege following her ejection against Sophie Cunningham, fans have started responding, and a lot of them are not backing her up.
WNBA Fans Criticize DiJonai Carrington Over Sophie Cunningham Incident
During the August 8 game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky, Carrington committed a hard foul on Cunningham. As Cunningham drove in for a fast-break layup, Carrington’s arm caught her across the neck and face. That knocked Cunningham to the floor.
The Fever guard got up right away, walked toward Carrington, and had to be held back by her teammates before things got worse. Officials reviewed the play afterward and decided the original call was not enough. They upgraded it to a Flagrant 2, and Carrington was ejected from the game.
Soon after, Carrington posted “WHITE PRIVILEGE” on Threads and tagged the Fever. What started as a foul call turned into something much bigger.
Ahead of last night’s Fever-Wings game, Outkick reporter Jon Root was at a rally in Indiana. The rally was meant to support Cunningham’s stance against allowing trans athletes to compete in the WNBA, a position tied to her comments about protecting locker rooms for young girls.
Asking WNBA fans about DiJonai Carrington claiming Sophie Cunningham & the Indiana Fever have “White Privilege” 😂 pic.twitter.com/ecjIAE9cY1
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) August 15, 2026
While there, Root held up a picture of Cunningham and went around asking supporters a simple question: “When you see this photo, do you think white privilege?”
The first few people he asked gave a quick answer. “Definitely not, no!” a female supporter said. A male supporter wearing a Caitlin Clark T-shirt also quickly said, “Not at all.”
One woman went a step further and said that white privilege is a real thing, but she does not think it applies to Cunningham in this case.
“I have to say that white privilege is actually a thing. We may disagree on that. That is not an example of white privilege,” the fan said.
On the court, Cunningham is averaging 8.8 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game this season. Those numbers would not normally draw much notice. But off the court, she has plenty of people standing behind her after the incident with Carrington.
Carrington has not had the same experience. The criticism has kept coming, and it grew again after her August 12 game against the Golden State Valkyries.
During the game, she swiped at the ball on a play that ended with it hitting Cecilia Zandalasini near the eye. Later in the same game, she went up alongside Tiffany Hayes during a layup attempt and hit her in the mouth. She also got a fan ejected from that game for a reason that was never made public.
Now, between the hard fouls and the comments after the Cunningham incident, the WNBA world has not eased up on Carrington.
