DiJonai Carrington Incredulous at Notion She Poked Caitlin Clark's Eye on Purpose
The Indiana Fever suffered a tough defeat to the Connecticut Sun in their first WNBA playoff game since 2016 on Sunday.
Not only was the 93-69 loss tough in and of itself, but Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark had to show toughness after getting poked in the eye by Sun guard DiJonai Carrington at one point in the first quarter, which caused her to sport a black eye for the game's remainder.
The eye poke happened while Clark was making a pass to teammate Aliyah Boston. And because it occurred so quickly, the referees didn't call a foul.
Dijonai Carrington caught Caitlin Clark in the eye on a follow through and the referees missed it pic.twitter.com/djKKqwLkVp
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) September 22, 2024
After an alternate view of the eye poke went viral on X after the game ended, some fans were claiming that Carrington's poke was intentional.
This caused enough of a stir that a reporter decided to ask Carrington about the intent behind her eye poke on Clark during a media availability session on Tuesday; which Carrington responded to with a clear message.
“I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye. It doesn’t even make sense to me," Carrington said of the play, per Matthew Byrne.
"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 I followed through and I hit her. So obviously, it's never intentional. That's not even the type of player that I am. So yeah," Carrington continued.
DiJonai Carrington on *the play* with Caitlin Clark: “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.” pic.twitter.com/uh04AxoEtV
— Matthew Byrne (@MatthewByrne1) September 24, 2024
For the record, Caitlin Clark also shared the same sentiment during Indiana's practice, noting, "It wasn't intentional by any means."
"It wasn't intentional by any means."
— Clark Report (@CClarkReport) September 24, 2024
-Caitlin Clark responds to the play from her perspectivepic.twitter.com/NJTBFzNzsS https://t.co/bAHYV25x6I
That's that.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.