Carrington Ejected for Hard Foul on Cunningham, Then Posts "WHITE PRIVILEGE" From the Locker Room

Indiana Fever beat the Chicago Sky 90-86 on Saturday in a game that ended early for Sky guard DiJonai Carrington — and then spiraled into something much bigger than the scoreboard.

Late in the opening quarter, Cunningham drove for a right-handed layup. Carrington caught her across the left side of the head and neck with her arm. After review, officials upgraded the foul to a flagrant two — the WNBA's most severe classification, carrying an automatic ejection. Carrington had scored eight points in just four minutes off the bench before being tossed (BBC Sport).

Then it went off the court. While still in the locker room, Carrington posted "WHITE PRIVILEGE" on the social media platform Threads, tagging the Indiana Fever account (Reuters).

Cunningham pushed back. She said the hard foul had "nothing to do with race" and noted she had been ejected the previous season for a similar play. She added that the league was handling Carrington's post (BBC Sport). The Indianapolis Star also reported Cunningham's comments on why she believed Carrington committed the foul (Indianapolis Star).

Sky head coach Tyler Marsh said he was "just hearing about" the post and that the team would handle it internally. Fever head coach Stephanie White backed the officials, calling the flagrant-two ruling the right call, but said she did not believe Carrington intentionally targeted Cunningham's neck.

Referee Maj Forsberg addressed why Cunningham was not penalized for her reaction to the hit: officials deemed her response acceptable given the severity of the contact (BBC Sport).

There was one more subplot. Fever star Caitlin Clark nearly missed her next game. A technical foul called on Clark in the third quarter — whistled when she ran into an official after being bumped by a defender on a pass — would have been her eighth of the season, triggering an automatic one-game suspension. The technical was rescinded after the match, and Clark dodged the ban (BBC Sport).

Cunningham has drawn crowds — and controversy — in recent weeks for her comments on transgender athletes in women's sport, bringing both protesters and supporters to Fever games. That backdrop gave Carrington's post an extra charge, though the on-court sequence was straightforward: a hard foul, a review, an ejection, and a social media grenade thrown from the locker room before the game was even decided.

The final margin was four points. The fallout is still being measured.