Dallas Wings star fires back at claim from upcoming Caitlin Clark book

DiJonai Carrington is clearly not pleased with the latest report of her and NaLyssa Smith.

Jun 10, 2024; Uncasville, Connecticut, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) moves the ball against Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington (21) in the first quarter at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images / David Butler II-Imagn Images

In September 2024, Dallas Wings star defender DiJonai Carrington, then a member of the Connecticut Sun, poked Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark in the eye in a playoff game. Afterward, a USA Today reporter, Christine Brennan, asked Carrington if she intended to poke Clark, a question that people weren't a fan of.

"I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye," Carrington responded. "That 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 and I guess I followed through and I hit her, so obviously it’s never intentional, that’s not even, like, the type of player that I am."

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Jun 11, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Dallas Wings guard DiJonai Carrington (21) against the Phoenix Mercury at PHX Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Brennan has since gone on to write a book about Clark that releases on July 9th, titled "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports." CNN published an excerpt from that book, where Carrington was accused of confronting Brennan and two other writers about her partner, NaLyssa Smith, who was playing with Clark on the Indiana Fever at the time.

an excerpt from c. brennan’s book:

indiana beat writers were talking about how nalyssa smith would not be starting for game 2 against connecticut. dijonai carrington overheard them talking and started accusing them of saying she’s a bad teammate. later on told nalyssa this too pic.twitter.com/cXlYAaABqt

— cc akgae (@clrkszn) July 6, 2025

Brennan alleges that Carrington accused the writers of calling Smith a "bad teammate," while Brennan says she and the other reporters were discussing Smith's benching for Game 2 of the playoffs. That got back to Smith, who confronted Brennan on the court while they were waiting to interview players.

Carrington has seemingly caught wind of these excerpts, posting on Twitter/X with two responses, including, "defamation of character atp [at this point]."

🤥🤥🤥🧢🧢🧢😂😂😂

— dιjonaι carrιngтon♛ (@DijonaiVictoria) July 6, 2025

defamation of character atp 🥱

— dιjonaι carrιngтon♛ (@DijonaiVictoria) July 6, 2025

Brennan says the two other writers corroborated her side of the story and said that a WNBA official would follow up with the Sun about Carrington's behavior. But Carrington's tweets seem to imply that this isn't the whole story.

Carrington and Smith were both traded to the Dallas Wings last offseason as part of a massive 10-team deal, but NaLyssa Smith was traded again last week to the Las Vegas Aces for a future first-round pick.

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