SPORTS TALK
The Foul Heard ‘Round the WNBA
Banging someone’s head in on a basketball play, getting ejected, and posting “WHITE PRIVILEGE” online while still in the locker room is truly wild.
Back on August 8, the Chicago Sky’s DiJonai Carrington hit the Indiana Fever’s Sophie Cunningham in the face as she drove for a layup, with two minutes left in the first quarter. After review, the refs upgraded it to a flagrant 2 foul and ejected her. She headed to the locker room and posted a cryptic message on Threads, “white privilege,” tagging the Fever.
I don’t think this moment will be forgotten for a long while, if ever.
Cunningham has been at the center of the mostly media-stoked debate over transgender athletes. She’s said protecting girls and women in sports is “common sense.” The media and others took that as a slight against the transgender community.
In a league that runs heavy on political and social virtue signaling, skewing toward trans and LGBTQ+ causes, the flagrant foul and ejection involving Sophie Cunningham, the heterosexual darling of the WNBA, appeared to have some extra sauce behind it.
Add the whole backstory of Sophie’s teammate Caitlin Clark, who also isn’t with the status quo program of being “a person of color” or a lesbian (two strikes against her), all while being the league’s sensation (which raises other questions, for sure).
But this did feel directed in a different way.
Carrington walked a fine line after the fact, staying ambiguous but defiant. She never clarified what she meant, and she poked at her critics by telling them to “try exercising your critical thinking skills.” It leaned cryptic and unaccountable.
I don’t think this moment will be forgotten for a long while, if ever.
Where do you land on this? Was the mid-game “WHITE PRIVILEGE” post a brave example of speaking out? Was there a crafty message there? Or was this misguided victimhood and social justice virtue signaling?