[Jskass]

I guess most of you have heard about Djonai's ejection on Sunday and her subsequent post.
   "Chicago’s DiJonai Carrington ejected for flagrant 2 foul on Fever’s Cunningham and posts ‘white privilege’"
Here is a good stilll image of the foul.

As the game was being broadcast, the announcers both immediately expected the initial foul call to be upgraded to a flagrant 2.  As I recall, they said they would be surprised if it wasn't upgraded.

I don't know the WNBA rules, so I won't say much more than the fact that as Cunningham was in the air, one of Carrington's arms came across Cunningham's face.  One might argue that Carrington wasn't intentionally causing more contact than one might normally do.  The force on Cunningham's face wasn't so great as to, say, break a nose, but the fact that the head was impacted while she was in the air would be enough to risk the shooter coming down awkwardly.

So I feel that the ejection was easily warranted, but I'm not overly upset by the foul.
It is a real shame for Carrington. She was playing well. she was 3 for 3 (8 points) in 3 minutes at that early point of the game.

What does disturb me more is Carrington's post (which is still up 13 hours later, with no subsequent post).

Assuming this was about her ejection, I believe her post is totally unwarranted.  I would be concerned that while most will view it as a one-off pout of a petulant player., others, in an out of the WNBA, may make it a flash point of racial strife. 

Incidentally, Caitlin Clark got a technical in third quarter for contact with an official.  This would have made her sit out a game.  AIUI, the league reviewed the call and reversed it, presumably because it wasn't intentional contact.  Here is video.

News reports indicate that Carrington made her post "minutes after" the ejection in the first quarter.  If there isn't a rule for the officials, there should be one that they do not look at or be informed of social media or emails (etc) between the start and end of the game.  Imagine if the officials had seen that post (or news reports of it) at half time, how that might influence their calls in the second half.

I say this as a big fan of the W and a Valkyries founding season ticket holder - the less time spent on stuff like this, the better. Cunningham has brought a brobdingnagian and unwanted distraction onto the league - there are no trans players in the W so why there are anti trans rallies outside W games makes no sense other than as trying to force the culture war onto the W. Nai's post seems to be seeking the same imposition of politics where it doesn't belong. 

I say: ignore it all, because none of it has anything to do with basketball. It was defo a flagrant 2 and no one seems to think otherwise. Leave it at that and on to the next game. Don't give oxygen to fire you don't want fanned.

That's good advice across the board. Wish we could break the cycle of 1. Ridiculous post 2. Major media sites pick it up and fuel the "story" 3. Other sites or people who need traffic and attention fire off more ridiculous commentary, and the ecosystem continues to get fed. Most of the country doesn't understand the media circus in the pay-for-click world, so they take it as actual journalism worth paying attention to. For all we know, Cunningham and Carrington shared a beer that night and counted the additional followers they picked up. Makes me sick.

just saw that she had replied to some criticism, and wish she'd just let it go. Loved loved watching her play at Stanford, tons of enthusiasm and hustle - sometimes a little out of control but she was our high energy player (who yes was very strong and sometimes ran into or over players but no harm intended)!

[Jskass]

I guess most of you have heard about Djonai's ejection on Sunday and her subsequent post.
   "Chicago’s DiJonai Carrington ejected for flagrant 2 foul on Fever’s Cunningham and posts ‘white privilege’"
Here is a good stilll image of the foul.

As the game was being broadcast, the announcers both immediately expected the initial foul call to be upgraded to a flagrant 2.  As I recall, they said they would be surprised if it wasn't upgraded.

I don't know the WNBA rules, so I won't say much more than the fact that as Cunningham was in the air, one of Carrington's arms came across Cunningham's face.  One might argue that Carrington wasn't intentionally causing more contact than one might normally do.  The force on Cunningham's face wasn't so great as to, say, break a nose, but the fact that the head was impacted while she was in the air would be enough to risk the shooter coming down awkwardly.

So I feel that the ejection was easily warranted, but I'm not overly upset by the foul.
It is a real shame for Carrington. She was playing well. she was 3 for 3 (8 points) in 3 minutes at that early point of the game.

What does disturb me more is Carrington's post (which is still up 13 hours later, with no subsequent post).

Assuming this was about her ejection, I believe her post is totally unwarranted.  I would be concerned that while most will view it as a one-off pout of a petulant player., others, in an out of the WNBA, may make it a flash point of racial strife. 

Incidentally, Caitlin Clark got a technical in third quarter for contact with an official.  This would have made her sit out a game.  AIUI, the league reviewed the call and reversed it, presumably because it wasn't intentional contact.  Here is video.

News reports indicate that Carrington made her post "minutes after" the ejection in the first quarter.  If there isn't a rule for the officials, there should be one that they do not look at or be informed of social media or emails (etc) between the start and end of the game.  Imagine if the officials had seen that post (or news reports of it) at half time, how that might influence their calls in the second half.

I say this as a big fan of the W and a Valkyries founding season ticket holder - the less time spent on stuff like this, the better. Cunningham has brought a brobdingnagian and unwanted distraction onto the league - there are no trans players in the W so why there are anti trans rallies outside W games makes no sense other than as trying to force the culture war onto the W. Nai's post seems to be seeking the same imposition of politics where it doesn't belong. 

I say: ignore it all, because none of it has anything to do with basketball. It was defo a flagrant 2 and no one seems to think otherwise. Leave it at that and on to the next game. Don't give oxygen to fire you don't want fanned.

That's good advice across the board. Wish we could break the cycle of 1. Ridiculous post 2. Major media sites pick it up and fuel the "story" 3. Other sites or people who need traffic and attention fire off more ridiculous commentary, and the ecosystem continues to get fed. Most of the country doesn't understand the media circus in the pay-for-click world, so they take it as actual journalism worth paying attention to. For all we know, Cunningham and Carrington shared a beer that night and counted the additional followers they picked up. Makes me sick.

just saw that she had replied to some criticism, and wish she'd just let it go. Loved loved watching her play at Stanford, tons of enthusiasm and hustle - sometimes a little out of control but she was our high energy player (who yes was very strong and sometimes ran into or over players but no harm intended)!