WNBA player Dijon Carrington It called for a wave of backlash for wearing a T-shirt that said “Round F— Donald Trump,” and conservative influencer Riley Jeans was quick to jump on.
Carrington showed off the shirt on Friday, while walking into Wayfair Arena in Miami, Florida. Carrington is known for her interactions with the women's basketball phenomenon Caitlin Clark During Clark's rookie WNBA season in 2024.
Carrington gave Clark a black eye by nicking it with her fingernails during a match between Clark's Indiana Fever and Carrington's Connecticut Sun in the first round of the playoffs in September. Carrington laughed with Fever teammate Marina Mabry after the incident.
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Gaines demonstrated this in her first critique of Carrington on Saturday.
“So, you're telling me the same girl who poked Caitlin Clark in the eye and then laughed around also wore a hoodie that said, 'Donald Trump tour'?'' in a post on X.
Carrington said she did not win over Clark on purpose and that she was not laughing about the incident. But Gaines felt no reservations about implying Carrington's poke at Clark was intentional and she laughed afterward.
Jeans followed up with another critique of the Sun player and even brought LeBron James into the conversation.
“What has Donald Trump done to make your life worse? Get LeBron off the court,” Gaines wrote on X in response to a photo of Carrington wearing the jersey.
Carrington teased Clarke's fans before the recurrence incident with multiple statements linking Clarke and her fan base to her.
During a game in June, Carrington Clark was fumbled after Clark received an incoming pass from teammate Christy Wallace. Clark caught the lane and started toward the basket. Carrington got behind Clark because of a screen by Aliyah Boston, and Clark was shocked.
Caitlin Clark, Right, of the Indiana Fever, Fouls Dijonai Carrington (21) of the Connecticut Sun during halftime at Mohegan Sun Arena June 10, 2024, in Uncasville, Conn. (Brian Fluharty/Getty Irish)
Later that month, Carrington Posted on xsaying Clarke should do more to speak out about people who use her name for “racism” and other forms of bias. She also described the Fever fans as “the purest” in the league.
Carrington made light of the controversy surrounding Clarke being black in an Instagram Live video in October. In the video, Carrington and her friend, Nalyssa Smith, who plays Indiana Fever with Clark, were in their kitchen when Smith poked Carrington in the eye.
“Or, you shot me in the eye,” Carrington said. Smith apologized, and the two laughed.
“Did you do it on purpose?” Carrington asked.
Carrington isn't the first target of Gaines' wrath when it comes to talks about Clarke being in the WNBA, either.
After Clark Made a comment On taking advantage of white privilege in the WNBA During her Time Magazine Athlete of the Year interview, Gaines got into heated heat with journalist Jemele Hill.
After Gaines posted on X criticizing Clark for making the comments, Hill started the debate and even ended up making it personal.
“You rant all the time about supporting and 'protecting' women, and yet the moment Caitlin Clark expresses her appreciation for Black women and respect for Black women in the WNBA (many of whom she grew up watching and observing), you suddenly act like a 'disappointed parent,'” Hill wrote. .
Riley Gaines is sworn in during a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services on Capitol Hill December 5, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Gaines quickly clapped back, responding to Hill's post by mocking the idea of ”white privilege” in the WNBA.
“'White Privilege' in the WNBA is literally hilarious. Maybe you're like Sunny Hostin & Think CC also has a long franchise, a beautiful franchise, and a straight franchise,” Gaines wrote. “There are a lot of black players in the WNBA that I like (and respect) too, but I don't like them because they're black. I admire them for their play. That's the difference.”
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Gaines then doubled down by sharing Hill's initial post with a screenshot of comments the journalist made in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in May. In the article, Hill insisted that it was “naive” to say that Clark's race and gender as a straight woman did not play into her popularity in the WNBA, where the majority of players are black and many are lesbian.
“The Baiter of long-term professional racing must be very stressful,” Jeans told Hill in response.
Following Jean's comment about Hill being a professional racer, Hill responded with a message mocking the former swimmer for attending to an incident when she tied with trans athlete Leah Thomas at the 2022 women's swimming championships.
“Girl, you should be thanking Leah Thomas every day of your life for helping you get famous, otherwise you would've just been a decent college swimmer that no one knew about. She wrote the book about getting down — not me,” Hill wrote.
Former President Donald Trump is joined on stage by Riley Gaines at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas, August 6, 2022. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Gaines responded by saying: “How much does the misogyny (and) it takes for Tam to tell me to thank a man?
That was the last message on the stock exchange.
Gaines has also picked online fights with other liberal figures, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban.
Both of Gaines' payoffs to liberal figures were met with a roar of participation from her followers.
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