DiJonai Carrington didn’t get kicked off the court this time.
Rather, she had a fan booted from his seat — temporarily.
During the fourth quarter of the Sky-Valkyries game Wednesday night at Chase Center in San Francisco, the 28-year-old went to officials to complain about a fan sitting courtside, who was escorted away from his seat but later allowed to return.
“The fan was cooperative after a complaint that was unfounded,” a Valkyries official told ClutchPoints.
The Sky told ClutchPoints the fan was given a warning, but otherwise declined comment.
Officials spoke to Sky head coach Tyler Marsh before Carrington had a conversation with a referee and a Sky staff member, seemingly telling them what the fan said.
That same Sky staff member then briefly spoke to the fan, who later could be seen laughing on camera with the woman sitting next to him and the fans seated behind him.
“So, there is a stoppage right now as Chicago’s team security has stepped out along with arena security representatives,” a broadcaster with USA Network said.
“Carrington went over to one of the officials, as you see Sarah Williams there, to say something.”
Officials then whistled for the teams to come back out onto the court while arena security went over the fan and escorted him from the courtside seat.
“I don’t know what was or wasn’t said. I will say respect for the players is something, especially right now, that is being taken very seriously from everybody around the league, as it should be,” the other commentator added.
At that point in the game with under nine minutes left, the Sky trailed by 15.
The Valkyries, who hold the second-best record in the league (24-9) and are a serious playoff threat in just the franchise’s second season, went on to win 91-71 for their fifth straight victory.
Carrington finished with three points, three rebounds and three turnovers in 24 minutes.
The incident came four days after Carrington was ejected from a game against the Fever after clotheslining Sophie Cunningham, which turned into a flagrant 2 foul.
After her ejection, Carrington took to her Threads and wrote: “WHITE PRIVILEGE @indianafever”, which caused an uproar around the league.
Carrington later clarified that the “white privilege” comment wasn’t about Cunningham in response to a “Speakeasy” podcast clip from former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho.
“I’ve never once claimed that the assessment of the foul was white privilege (that was your assumption),” she wrote on X, while quote-tweeting the clip of Acho. “Try exercising your critical thinking skills, I know you studied psych. Furthermore, I’m the LAST thing from ignorant or asinine when it comes to speaking on ‘white privilege’, do ya research on that one. I actually went to school, one of the top universities might I add, to educate myself on this exact subject. I would never use that term as a rhetorical weapon knowing the historical and social weight it holds without having the proper evidence to substantiate it.”
It’s still not clear what Carrington was referring to in the post and she declined to expand on it when talking to reporters ahead of the following game against the Storm.
‘‘I already spoke with people who potentially will have the agency to create the change that I’m hoping comes about from not just this incident, but ones in the past and that are obviously going to be coming up in the near future, probably,’’ Carrington said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
After Saturday’s game, Cunningham told reporters the call had “nothing to do with race” before sharing a time when she committed a hard foul.
“Last year, I did the same thing, and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason even to play that card,” she added.
The Sky and Fever’s next clash is slated for Aug. 23.
