Megan Rapinoe is calling foul on Christine Brennan.
The longtime USWNT star weighed in on the ongoing WNBA outrage over Brennan, the USA Today columnist, and her questioning of Sun guard DiJonai Carrington after she poked Fever star Caitlin Clark in the eye during their first-round playoff opener.
“Obviously hearing it, initially my visceral reaction was like, that’s not good, that doesn’t feel good,” Rapinoe told her “A Touch More” podcast co-host and partner Sue Bird in an episode that dropped Wednesday.
“That feels racist, to be honest. That feels like you’re putting DiJonai in an impossible situation.”
The incident, which left Clark with a black eye, has resulted in plenty of blowback from media, fans and onlookers toward Carrington, who has maintained she was unaware she had made contact with the Indiana rookie.
Clark has also absolved Carrington of any wrongdoing.
That didn’t stop Brennan from further questioning the Connecticut guard about the poke — and whether she and her teammates were laughing about injuring Clark — drawing a stiff rebuke from the WNBA players’ association in the aftermath.
“Ok was it the first question or was it the second question and it’s actually neither,” Rapinoe said. “It is the premise of the question is disingenuous so to try to get into the conversation about well, which question or which word or which, you know — exactly at what point did it feel this. The whole thing is disingenuous because the whole premise relies on the belief that DiJonai — and this is something that’s been happening all year specifically with DiJonai and Caitlin, that DiJonai is targeting Caitlin, or you know going extra hard at her whatever … DiJonai is one of the best defenders in the WNBA. She going to be on you — the premise of the question relies on the belief that DJ is targeting, that DiJonai specifically swatted or swiped into Caitlin’s eyeball.
Rapinoe called the brouhaha incident “disingenuous” and also applied that label to those covering it.
“I think it’s so disingenuous for Christine Brennan and other media members to say ‘I’m just asking, I’m just asking the question,’ but really what’s happening is your natural instinct to protect and narrate white players versus go after and narrate black players that to me is really the issue,” Rapinoe said.
Rapinoe pointed to the portrayal of Carrington against that of Clark — whose teammates swarm around her to help prevent her from getting technical fouls — as evidence.
The comments were the latest in the ongoing drama surrounding the WNBA’s handling of the Carrington-Clark fallout, with Clark and her fellow WNBA players and the league itself condemning the racist discourse reportedly coming from Indiana fans who support Clark.
“It’s definitely upsetting. Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism — hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats,” Clark said last week after the Sun had knocked her Fever out of the playoffs. “Those aren’t fans, those are trolls, and it’s a real disservice to the people in our league, the organization, the WNBA.”
