The WNBA announced Tuesday that Connecticut Sun forward DiJonai Carrington has been suspended for the remainder of the 2025 season without pay following a Flagrant 2 foul assessed during a preseason exhibition game against the Indiana Fever. The incident, which occurred with 4:23 remaining in the third quarter, involved Carrington making contact with Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s head while contesting a layup.
League Commissioner Jan O’Berro cited “an egregious pattern of physicality” and “reputational harm to our brand partners” in the suspension letter, which sources say includes a requirement that Carrington complete 40 hours of “anger management and personal branding therapy” before reinstatement consideration. The Players Association has filed a grievance, calling the punishment “grossly disproportionate to a basketball play.”
“This is about liability,” said Reno Borja, a commercial insurance adjuster who watched the game on a tablet during a roofing inspection. “I see catastrophic claims every day. Slip-and-falls. Dog bites. But this? This was bodily contact in a sporting contest. That’s essentially assault with commercial implications. I ran the actuarial tables on my phone. She’s uninsurable now. Like a flood zone. Or a trampoline park.”
The financial impact, according to Ben Jarroo, a dental hygienist who treated a patient whose daughter plays AAU basketball, extends beyond Carrington’s lost salary. “She’s been scrubbed from team marketing,” Ben explained, flossing vigorously for emphasis. “Her jersey is on clearance for $12. That’s a 70 percent depreciation. I’ve seen tooth extractions with better value retention. The league is sending a message: touch not the Cunningham, for she is the brand.”
Joe Barron, who once received a technical foul in a church league game in 2014 and now consults on “athletic termination law,” says the suspension reveals deeper issues. “Forty games for one foul,” Barron mused from his stool at a Golden Corral. “That’s 2.1 games per finger on the hand that committed the foul. I’ve done the math. On a calculator I bought at a gas station. The numbers don’t lie. The league is using her as an example. A cautionary tale. A teaching moment. With unemployment benefits.”
Carrington’s agent called the decision “a transparent attempt to sanitize the sport beyond recognition,” which Barron dismissed as “exactly what someone with a history of aggravated basketball would say,” noting that the statement was released at 2:47 PM, which “adds up to 13, the number of original WNBA teams, minus one for obvious reasons.”
