Florida's top law enforcement officer used the latest WNBA controversy, a violent foul and a racially charged social media post, to make a pointed case about why the Sunshine State doesn't host a franchise.
DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky was ejected from Saturday's game against the Indiana Fever after referees assessed her a Flagrant 2 foul for hitting Sophie Cunningham in the head and neck area during a fast-break layup. Within hours, Carrington posted "WHITE PRIVILEGE" on social media and tagged the Fever, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier jumped into the fray with a post of his own on X, commenting on the incident and the absence of a WNBA team in his state.
The sequence captured, in miniature, a league that keeps generating controversy faster than it generates goodwill, and a political class increasingly willing to say so out loud.
Replay of the foul showed Carrington's arm connecting with Cunningham's face and neck as Cunningham attempted a layup, AP News reported. Referees initially called a common foul, then upgraded it to a Flagrant 2 upon video review. The ejection came with roughly two minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Carrington did not apologize. Instead, she took to social media and posted "WHITE PRIVILEGE," framing her ejection as a racial matter. She also posted "8/23" on X, the date of the next scheduled meeting between the two teams, according to the New York Post, signaling she was already looking ahead to a rematch rather than reflecting on the play.
Cunningham dismissed the racial framing flatly.
"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."
Cunningham went further, suggesting the post was calculated: "I think that's why she did it because she wants attention." Even Fever head coach Stephanie White acknowledged the foul warranted the call, telling reporters it was "a hard foul" and that she "thought it was the right call," while stopping short of calling it intentional.
Carrington and Cunningham are not strangers to friction. Carrington has previously tangled with Cunningham's teammate Caitlin Clark. And the broader backdrop is even more charged: Cunningham drew national attention earlier this year for publicly opposing transgender athletes competing in women's sports, a position that has made her a target within certain corners of the WNBA world. Cunningham has refused to back down on that stance despite sustained online backlash.
The racial accusation did not land in a vacuum. Just The News reported that Carrington had previously sided with Megan Rapinoe in criticizing Cunningham's public opposition to transgender women competing in women's sports, writing "Clock it, Megan" in response to an Instagram post about Rapinoe's comments.
That history adds a layer to Saturday's events. Carrington's decision to frame her ejection as racial bias came against a player she had already publicly opposed on ideological grounds, a player who has become one of the most visible defenders of sex-based competition in women's athletics.
The WNBA itself has been navigating the transgender-athlete question with increasing difficulty. The New York Post noted that the league announced a previously scheduled task force meeting to discuss transgender athletes in women's sports, amid tension sparked by Cunningham's comments to ESPN earlier in the summer. Meanwhile, the league's handling of on-court incidents has drawn its own scrutiny, Caitlin Clark received a technical foul during the same game for incidental contact with a referee, a call the WNBA later rescinded.
The pattern is hard to miss. Players who speak up for women's sports face hostility, not just from activists, but from opponents on the court and league figures off it. A Seattle Storm co-owner was recently suspended for cursing at teenage girls who had voiced support for Cunningham.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier posted on X after the incident, commenting on the foul and explaining why Florida does not currently have a WNBA franchise. OutKick reported that Uthmeier suggested a play like that would never happen in the Sunshine State, though the outlet noted it had reached out to his office for further comment and had not yet received a response at the time of publication.
Florida's WNBA history is brief. The state once hosted two franchises: the Orlando Miracle, which played from 1999 to 2002 before relocating to Connecticut to become the Connecticut Sun, and the Miami Sol, which operated from 2000 to 2002. The state has been without a WNBA team for more than 20 years.
Uthmeier's post was notable less for its policy specifics, he is a state attorney general, not a sports commissioner, than for what it signaled about the political temperature around the WNBA. Elected officials on the right increasingly view the league's controversies not as isolated incidents but as symptoms of an institution that has let ideological posturing overtake sportsmanship and accountability.
That criticism has only grown louder as figures like Jemele Hill have targeted Cunningham for her willingness to defend sex-based competition. The debate around women's sports has drawn voices from well beyond basketball, including former NFL champion Breiden Fehoko, who publicly backed Cunningham's position.
Whether the WNBA will impose supplemental discipline on Carrington, for the foul, the social media post, or both, remained unclear. The league had not announced any additional action beyond the in-game ejection at the time of reporting.
Cunningham's injury status after the hit also went unaddressed in available reporting. No statement from the Fever regarding any injury was included.
The open questions matter. A Flagrant 2 ejection is the system working as designed in real time. But the question of whether a player can clothesline an opponent, get tossed, and then publicly accuse the league of racial bias, with no further consequence, is a question about what the WNBA is willing to tolerate from its players off the court.
If the answer is "anything, as long as it comes wrapped in the right ideological language," the league will keep losing the audience it claims to want.
