Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington spoke to the media Monday for the first time since she was ejected from the team's loss to the Indiana Fever on Saturday for a Flagrant 2 foul on Sophie Cunningham. Prior to the Sky's game against the Seattle Storm, Carrington told reporters the foul was "never intentional" and declined to elaborate on her social media comments about "white privilege."
In the first quarter of the Sky's 90-86 defeat to the Fever, Carrington attempted to chase down Cunningham in transition. As Cunningham went up for a layup, Carrington tried to block her shot but instead hit Cunningham in the side of the head. Cunningham immediately popped up and got in Carrington's face, but was pulled away by teammates and security before anything escalated.
After a review, the foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 and Carrington was ejected.
DiJonai Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2 and was ejected from the game after this play. pic.twitter.com/WRapu4lqHX
In the moment, Carrington seemed surprised that she was ejected. On Monday, she explained that she was only trying to make a defensive play, and that it was "unfortunate" how she hit Cunningham.
"It's just who I am. I'm never going to just let an open layup be had. You can pull clips from I don't know however many seasons of me making that exact play. Obviously I'm just coming back from injury so manybe my timing or my lift wasn't where it needs to get to but I mean it was unfortunate I made contact with her in the way that I did, but it was never intentional.
"Look, it might happen again. That's just how I play. I'm always going to go all out and try to get a stop. I'm not just going to let an open layup happen. But like I said, I'm never intending to hurt somebody regardless of any outside noise or whatever the situation may be."
Sky coach Tyler Marsh also defended Carrington during shootaround.
"I think the intent was to make an attempt at the ball, and that's how she plays," Marsh said. "That's who she is. She's passionate, hard-nosed, and it's unfortunate that's what happened. I don't think that's what her intent was."
Immediately after she was ejected, Carrington took to social media in the locker room. She wrote "WHITE PRIVILEGE @indianafever" in a now-deleted post. She also posted "8/23" with a smiley face emoji — an apparent reference to the next game between the Sky and Fever on Aug. 23 in Chicago.
Prior to speaking to the media on Monday, Carrington attempted to clarify her "white privilege" comment on social media in response to former NFL player Emmanuel Acho.
"I've never once claimed that the assessment of the foul was white privilege (that was your assumption). Try exercising your critical thinking skills, I know you studied psych. Furthermore, I'm the LAST thing from ignorant or asinine when it comes to speaking on "white privilege", do ya research on that one," Carrington wrote. "I actually went to school, one of the top universities might I add, to educate myself on this exact subject. I would never use that term as a rhetorical weapon knowing the historical and social weight it holds without having the proper evidence to substantiate it."
When asked by reporters in Seattle pre-game what she meant by "white privilege," Carrington declined to elaborate.
"I've already spoken to the people who have the potential to have the agency to make the change that I'm hoping comes about not just from this incident but ones in the past and ones that are obviously going to be coming up in the near future probably as well," Carrington said.
Asked in a follow-up if she could share anything about her conversations with the league, she said "no" because she "already talked to the league and I guess the quote-unquote higher-ups."