IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White has angered Fever fans with her comments about DiJonai Carrington’s hard foul on Sophie Cunningham.
On Saturday, Carrington was ejected after clotheslining Cunningham during the Sky-Fever game.
DiJonai Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2 and was ejected from the game after this play. pic.twitter.com/WRapu4lqHX
— ESPN (@espn) August 8, 2026
After the game, Cunningham ripped into Carrington over the foul.
“Clearly, I think it was like unnecessary. I’ve never really spoken to her and have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent up stuff. So get your sh-t off. That’s fine. I can take it.”
“Yeah, it’s intentional. She wasn’t even on the team. She has no reason to be doing any of that. So, good way to get her kicked out.”
“I don’t even know her. She wasn’t even on the team last year when all that was going on. But I do think when people play the Fever, we’re nationally televised, there’s a lot of eyes on us and people just want attention. And that’s her just trying to get attention.”
While Cunningham was not happy with the foul, White told the media she was fine with the foul because she’s a fan of Carrington’s competitive spirit.
“Yeah, I mean, look, it was a hard foul. I don’t think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did. But it did happen and I thought it was the right call,”
“She’s going to compete, no one’s going to walk in for an easy layup, so I don’t oppose the hard foul.”
Look at @StephanieWhite completely go out of her way to defend DiJonai Carrington after she clotheslined Sophie during that layup.
Even the ABC commentators said it was clearly an intentional Flagrant 2. But Steph is defending the DiJonai because she taught her and AT to do this pic.twitter.com/nxH05NlpVg
— #Caitlin4MVP (@WNBA_Analyst) August 9, 2026
Fans were angry with White’s comment after the game.
In any sane sports league, this would get a coach fired. Her job is to have her player’s back, not defend the woman who close-lined one of them and then accused her player of having “white privilege” for getting the correct flagrant call.
A clown league. https://t.co/wwOD3HosCj
— AG (@AGHamilton29) August 9, 2026