Indiana Fever fans are up in arms after head coach Stephanie White appeared to defend Chicago Sky rival DiJonai Carrington’s tough foul on Sophie Cunningham.
During Saturday afternoon’s game between the two teams, Cunningham was on a breakaway headed right for the basket when Carrington attempted to swat the ball from behind.
Her attempt was horribly timed, resulting in the guard wrapping her arm around Cunningham’s face and leading to the Fever guard slamming onto the floor.
Cunningham was quick to get up and confronted Carrington, shoving her before being hauled away by a teammate.
While the foul Carrington committed has certainly been seen at all levels of basketball on many occasions, it was vicious enough to be correctly upgraded to a flagrant 2 – leading to Carrington’s ejection.
But fans take issue with White’s comments after the game, where she appeared to praise Carrington for such a hard foul.
Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White bizarrely praised Chicago Sky star DiJonai Carrington’s competitiveness – despite it leading to a hard foul on her own player, Sophie Cunningham
Carrington’s attempt to block a layup from behind led to her wrapping her arm around Cunningham’s face, resulting in the Fever star slamming hard onto the court
Cunningham popped right back up and went back at Carrington, shoving her
‘One of the things about ‘Nai is she’s going to play her butt off, man,’ said White, who coached Carrington for two years in her last job with the Connecticut Sun.
‘She’s gonna compete, no one’s gonna go walking in for a easy layup, so I don’t oppose the hard foul. But I also don’t think she intentionally went for the neck.’
The reaction from White was widely blasted on the internet with accounts openly calling for her to lose her job.
Right-wing pundit Jason Whitlock posted, ‘I will never utter a word in Stephanie White’s defense again. Never. She’s sick. Must be fired. What a joke.’
Despite the intensity of her foul, Carrington took issue with her ejection and posted from the locker room that she was removed due to ‘white privilege.’
Cunningham took issue with this, saying, ‘This has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason even to play that card.’
Carrington continued to stoke the tensions with a post hyping up the next Fever-Sky game on August 23. The Sky will hope to get some revenge after Caitlin Clark and the Fever came out victorious with a 90-86 win.
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