Despite many public hopes that the WNBA would be able to return to basketball, two fouls during Saturday’s game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky essentially ensured that the media cycle the league has been stuck in for the past two weeks would continue.
The first foul will get most of the attention. In the first quarter, Sky guard DiJonai Carrington was chasing down Fever guard Sophie Cunningham. Carrington was behind the play, jumped, and brought her arm down on Cunningham’s face. After a review, officials decided that Carrington had wound up, made contact, and followed through, elevating the foul to a Flagrant 2 and ejecting her from the 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
Cunningham, of course, sparked controversy two weeks ago due to comments regarding transgender athletes in a story published on ESPN.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” Cunningham said in the story. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
“I’m very much in the middle,” she said of her political leanings. “I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides. And that’s all I’ve ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume.”
The debate about transgender athletes has become a political football, and while Cunningham might think of herself in the middle, that perception was unsurprisingly thrown out the window as soon as her comments were published. Cunningham was no longer just a WNBA role player, but had been elevated to a political symbol for the right, with loud rallies held in her support and everything from scathing frustration to thoughtful explanations offered from the other side of the political spectrum.
On Saturday, when that political symbol took a hard foul from an opponent, it meant the story wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon, regardless of what the parties involved preferred. The fact that Carrington posted “WHITE PRIVILEGE” on social media and teased the Sky’s next game against the Pacers only added fuel to a fire already burning plenty hot.
“This has nothing to do with race,” Cunningham said after the game after learning of Carrington’s comment. “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.”
It’s worth noting that Carrington has a longstanding reputation for hard fouls against many different opponents, for whatever that’s worth.
The second foul call on Saturday was far less physical but highlighted another aspect of the larger WNBA discourse. Fever guard Caitlin Clark was called for a technical foul after brushing with an official on the sideline. It was not a lot of contact, but the foul was her eighth technical on the season, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.
Caitlin Clark received a technical foul on this play for making extra contact with an official.
As a result, she will be suspended in the Fever’s next game. pic.twitter.com/woylSmLu2i
— ESPN (@espn) August 8, 2026
UPDATE: The technical foul has been rescinded, nullifying the one-game suspension.
Clark has also been positioned as a political football by some, with plenty of ink spilled on how she is officiated and the fouls that are committed against her. She has largely resisted the political attention bestowed upon her, hoping to focus on basketball.
“I think, for us, it’s not really a discussion we really have in our locker room,” Clark said of the flurry of attention and demonstrations that came about in the wake of Cunningham’s comments. “I think it’s for leagues and the governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions, but our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins, and, obviously, we didn’t do that tonight.”
Cunningham, too, seemed to be hoping to move past the storm of attention.
“I want to get back to basketball; it’s always been about basketball,” Cunningham said on Wednesday. “That interview happened in February when I was asked a question. And for me, I just want to make sure the focus stays where it should.”
Maybe in a week or so, basketball will be back in the spotlight of the WNBA conversation, but the two fouls we saw on Saturday gave more ammo to the actors in the online conversation most committed to keeping it on anything but the sport.
For anyone interested in the basketball side of the story, the Fever beat the Sky 90–86. Kelsey Mitchell led all scorers with 27 points, while Clark added 26 and Cunningham had three of her own.
About Tyler Lauletta
Tyler is a editorial contributor at Awful Announcing, with previous stops at Sports Illustrated and Business Insider during his career covering sports in digital media. He is, begrudgingly, a Truster of the Process and general Philly sports sicko.