“Did You Do It on Purpose?”: DiJonai Carrington References Caitlin Clark Eye-Poke Incident With Fever’s NaLyssa Smith

DiJonai Carrington poking Caitlin Clark in the eye was one of the most controversial things that happened in the Fever’s postseason run. In Game 1 of the Sun-Fever series, Carrington, while defending against CC, ended up smacking her fingers on Clark’s eye. This led to a massive uproar from Clark’s fans on the internet.

Following the incident, the Sun’s guard was asked by Christine Brennan, “When you went and kind of swatted at Caitlin, did you intend to hit her in the eye?” During a recent Instagram live session, Carrington got her eye poked by longtime girlfriend NaLyssa Smith as the two were cooking food together.

Taking a dig at the line of questioning she faced from Brennan, Carrington asked her girlfriend, “Did you do it on purpose?” It was a clear mockery of the question that she was asked about her intention behind poking CC. An excerpt of their Instagram live was posted on X by user Sapphics Source, where the two can be seen chuckling over the eye poking and the question asked by Carrington.

During her conversation with Brennan, Carrington had said, “I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye. It doesn’t even make sense to me. But no, I didn’t. I didn’t know I hit her actually. I was trying to make a play on the ball and I guess that followed through and I hit her. So, obviously, it’s never intentional. That’s not even the type of player that I am.”

Brennan’s line of questioning landed her in deep trouble after the WNBPA issued a statement asking for her credentials to essentially be revoked.

Christine Brennan defended herself against the demand

The statement from the WNBPA claimed that Brennan’s questions fueled “racist, homophobic and misogynistic vitriol” on social media against the player. Carrington was subjected to brutal trolling on the internet and was called names by fans of the sport. However, Brennan stated that the call for her credentials to be revoked was an overreaction.

She said, “I thought it was a complete overreaction. I think many, many people in journalism thought the exact same thing as we’ve seen in columns and responses. And that’s fine, and I’m heartened by that. If people think it’s fine and I should be banned, that’s, of course…it’s a free country, they can say that.”

Brennan stated that her entire body of work is being overlooked because of a question that she asked regarding an incident that happened on the floor. She believes that other journalists had the same doubt in their mind but she had the opportunity to ask it first.