Sophie Cunningham took a forearm to the head Saturday night. And for some inexplicable reason, her own coach is defending the player who delivered it.
Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White raised eyebrows after Saturday's 90-86 win over the Chicago Sky when she pushed back on Cunningham's assertion that DiJonai Carrington intentionally leveled her during a first-quarter drive to the basket.
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Carrington chased Cunningham down from behind as the Fever guard went up for a layup and caught her across the head and neck area, sending Cunningham crashing to the floor. Officials reviewed the play, upgraded it to a Flagrant 2 and ejected Carrington.
Cunningham had no trouble saying exactly what she thought happened.
"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 s— off. That's fine. I can take it ... Yeah, it's intentional," Cunningham said after the game.
Her coach didn't see it that way.
"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," White said.
Then she went a step further.
"But you know, one of the things about Nay is that she's gonna play her butt off, man. She's gonna compete. Nobody's gonna go walking in for a layup. And so, I don't oppose the hard foul. But I also don't think that she intentionally went for the neck."
That's an awfully generous interpretation of the play that got Carrington thrown out of the game.
Maybe White was simply trying to keep an already-heated situation from escalating. Coaches don't necessarily need to accuse opposing players of intentionally trying to hurt their athletes every time there's a nasty foul.
Still, there's a difference between de-escalating and going out of your way to explain away the actions of the player who just blasted one of your own.
And there is some history here.
White coached Carrington for two seasons with the Connecticut Sun in 2023 and 2024 before returning to Indiana. So White knows Carrington well, perhaps well enough to feel confident speaking to her intentions.
But Cunningham is the player in White's locker room now.
And Cunningham clearly didn't believe what happened was merely a routine example of an aggressive defender refusing to surrender an easy basket.
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"I don't even know her. She wasn't even on the team last year when all that was going on," Cunningham said. "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."
Carrington certainly didn't do much afterward to cool things down herself.
Following her ejection, she posted "White Privilege" on Threads and tagged the Indiana Fever. She did not explain whether the message was directed at Cunningham, the officials or the Fever organization.
Cunningham dismissed the suggestion that Carrington's ejection had anything to do with race.
"I think the league is taking care of that. 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," Cunningham said. "There's no reason even to play that card."
White declined to comment on Carrington's social media post.
Of course, White didn't have to declare her former player an evil villain.
But considering everything that happened, Cunningham probably could have used a little more unequivocal support from the coach standing on her own sideline.
