NBA legend Charles Barkley didn’t hold back when commenting on the incident involving Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington and Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham.
To recall, Carrington was ejected during the Sky’s Aug. 8 game against the Fever after she hit Cunningham in the head during a defensive play late in the first quarter.
Cunningham fell to the floor after the hard hit while she was airborne. After further review, game officials upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 2, leading to Carrington’s dismissal from the contest.
Immediately after her ejection, Carrington shared a post on Threads saying “WHITE PRIVILEGE” while tagging the Fever, a message that further sparked controversy.
Barkley, for his part, was critical of Carrington’s actions and words afterward. While speaking on Michael Smerconish’s radio show, the NBA legend emphasized that what Carrington did was “dirty.”
Barkley went on to say that posting “white privilege” was “stupid on her part.”
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“That’s why I say, we can’t turn our world over to the internet fools. When she tweeted ‘White privilege,’ that was 100% a mistake,” Barkley said. “It was a dirty play. Period. That would have been the end of it. But when you turn stuff, the internet, all the race hustlers start coming out. They have a ton of race hustlers out there, white and black. We can’t ever let them fools win.”
For what it’s worth, Carrington had said before that she “never once claimed that the assessment of the foul was white privilege.” However, she refused to elaborate on or clarify what her post was about.
Carrington also emphasized that her hit on Cunningham was not intentional, noting that it was just “unfortunate” that she made contact with the Fever guard in that manner.
