The attorney general of the state of Florida says he would have charged Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington with assault if her game against the Indiana Fever was played in the Sunshine State.
Carrington’s common, but vicious, foul on Fever guard Sophie CunninghamΒ resulted in a flagrant 2 foul and a subsequent ejection. Still, her actions – and her social media posts afterward – have drawn heated reactions from across the sports world.
But the strongest reaction came from Florida attorney general James Uthmeier who says he would have formally charged Carrington had such a foul taken place in his state.
‘The WNBA knows better than to play games down here in Florida, because I’ll be charging people with assault,’ Uthmeier posted to his X account.
Uthmeier, a Republican, is running for re-election this year and was appointed attorney general by state governor and Trump ally Ron DeSantis.
While there were plenty of MAGA allies in Uthmeier’s replies praising him for his stance, some replies also advised him to stay out of sports.
Florida attorney general James Uthmeier says he would have charged Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington with assault after seeing her foul on Sophie Cunningham
Carrington (7) was ejected after the vicious foul while attempting to block the ball
But not even Cunningham’s own coach, Stephanie White, believes the foul was intentional
‘Oh shut up. do you do anything with dirty plays or fights during Lightning or Panthers NHL hockey games? Didn’t think so,’ read one reply. ‘This is a league mater and the NBA commish needs to take this failed league over and set some strict parameters.’
Another comment read, ‘Respectfully, sir, sit this one out. The @WNBA has lots of problems, and I am a supporter of @sophaller [Cunningham] (and @CaitlinClark22 as I am a former Iowan) , but if you, @JamesUthmeierFL, and the rest of the people in government, think you are helping, you are not.’
While Uthmeier believes this was assault, not even Cunningham’s head coach agrees. After the game, Fever coach Stephanie White didn’t appear to take issue with Carrington’s competitive play and hard foul.
‘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.’
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.’
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