CHICAGO – Leaning against a wall in the United Center tunnel Saturday afternoon, Sophie Cunningham pondered a new truth about her existence: Sometimes she seeks the spotlight, and the rest of the time the spotlight seeks her.
“Another day, another dollar, welcome to my life, boys and girls,” the Indiana Fever guard declared.
That, of course, shouldn’t surprise anyone Cunningham committed a hard foul in a 90-86 win over the Chicago Sky, then decided to give as good as she got. The hand-to-neck she absorbed from the Sky’s DiJonai Carrington on a layup attempt in the first quarter, which resulted in Carrington’s ejection, was just the beginning.
“From my point of view, I mean, I clearly think it was unnecessary,” Cunningham said after the game. “I’ve never really spoken to her and I don’t have anything against her. But I guess she’s got some stuff that’s been piling up. So take it off. That’s fine. I can handle it.”
Cunningham immediately jumped up, shoved Carrington and was restrained by teammate Makalya Timpson as they exchanged words. (“I’m not going to let anybody just do that to me, I think everybody knows that,” Cunningham said.) Carrington was called a Flagrant 2 foul, but Cunningham was not called a technical foul for the shot because officials “felt her reaction to the severity of the contact was acceptable,” according to the pool report distributed after the game.
DiJonai Carrington was rated a Flagrant 2 and was ejected from the game after this play. pic.twitter.com/WRapu4lqHX
— ESPN (@espn) August 8, 2026
Shortly after going to the locker room, a post appeared on Carrington’s Threads account, tagging the fever with the phrase “WHITE PRIVILEGE.” (Carrington could not be reached for comment Saturday.)
“Oh yes, we saw,” Cunningham said. “I think the league is taking care of that. I mean, this has nothing to do with race. I did the same thing last year, and I got kicked out, because I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason to even play that card.”
While Fever coach Stephanie White said after the game that she didn’t believe Carrington intentionally connected with Cunningham’s neck, Cunningham drew a line at his own infamous ejection against the Connecticut Sun late last season — and not necessarily the backlash against her recently published comments regarding transgender athletes.
In that 2025 match, Cunningham chased guard Jacy Sheldon, now a member of Skaj, on an escape and ended up applying a headlock to Sheldon in the ensuing dustup. The disconnect for Cunningham is that Carrington wasn’t even a member of the Sun last year.
“She has no reason to do any of that,” Cunningham said. “Like, I don’t even know her. She wasn’t even on the team when all this was going on. But I think when people play the Fever, we have national television, a lot of eyes are on us. People just want attention. And she’s just trying to get attention.”
The buzz around Cunningham doesn’t seem to be going away anyway. There were multiple protests and counter-protests regarding transgender athletes around the United Center on Saturday, and Cunningham checked into the game to a mixed chorus of cheers and boos in the first quarter.
Not long after, she had not one but two teammates back her off another fire after a Carrington foul — first Timpson, then veteran Monique Billings.
“She’s like, ‘Stop being messy,'” Cunningham said of Billings. “I’m like, ‘You’re right, Mo. This is the time to be better.'”
