CHICAGO \u2014 Leaning against the wall in a United Center tunnel Saturday afternoon, Sophie Cunningham reflected on the emerging truth of her existence: Sometimes she seeks the spotlight, and the rest of the time, the spotlight seeks her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother day, another dollar, welcome to my life, boys and girls,\u201d the Indiana Fever guard declared.<\/p>\n
It should surprise no one, of course, that Cunningham took a hard foul<\/a> in a 90-86 win over the Chicago Sky and then elected to give as good as she got. The arm-to-the-neck she absorbed from the Sky\u2019s DiJonai Carrington on a first-quarter layup attempt, which resulted in Carrington\u2019s ejection, was just the start.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom my point of view, I mean, clearly I think it was unnecessary,\u201d Cunningham said after the game.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve never really spoken to her and have no beef with her. But I guess she has some pent-up stuff. So get your s\u2014 off. That\u2019s fine. I can take it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cunningham immediately popped up, pushed Carrington and was restrained by teammate Makalya Timpson while exchanging words. (\u201cI\u2019m not going to let anyone just do that to me, I think everyone knows that,\u201d Cunningham said.) Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul, but Cunningham wasn\u2019t hit with a technical foul for the shove because officials \u201cdeemed her reaction to the severity of the contact to be acceptable,\u201d per a pool report distributed after the game.<\/p>\n DiJonai Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2 and was ejected from the game after this play. pic.twitter.com\/WRapu4lqHX<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ESPN (@espn) August 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Shortly after heading to the locker room, a post appeared on Carrington\u2019s Threads account tagging the Fever with the phrase \u201cWHITE PRIVILEGE<\/a>.\u201d (Carrington was not available for comment Saturday.)<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah, we saw it,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI think the league is taking care of that. I mean, this has nothing to do with race. Last year I did the same thing, and I got kicked out, as I deserved to be kicked out. There\u2019s no reason to even play that card.\u201d<\/p>\n While Fever coach Stephanie White said after the game that she didn\u2019t believe Carrington connected with Cunningham\u2019s neck intentionally, Cunningham drew a straight line to her own infamous ejection against the Connecticut Sun late last season \u2014 and not necessarily to the backlash against her recently published comments regarding transgender athletes<\/a>.<\/p>\n In that 2025 game, Cunningham chased down guard Jacy Sheldon, now a member of the Sky, on a breakaway and wound up applying a headlock to Sheldon in the ensuing dust-up. The disconnect for Cunningham is that Carrington wasn\u2019t even a member of the Sun last year.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has no reason to be doing any of that,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cLike, I don\u2019t even know her. She wasn\u2019t even on the team when all that was going on. But I do think when people play the Fever, we\u2019re nationally televised, there\u2019s a lot of eyes on us. People just want attention. And that\u2019s her just trying to get attention.\u201d<\/p>\n The ruckus around Cunningham does not appear to be dissipating, in any event. There were more protests and counterprotests 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.<\/p>\n Not long after, she had not one but two teammates turning her away from another conflagration in the wake of Carrington\u2019s foul \u2014 first Timpson, then veteran Monique Billings.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018Quit being messy,\u2019\u201d Cunningham said of Billings. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018You\u2019re right, Mo. This is time for me to be better.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n