DiJonai Carrington, the Connecticut Sun forward who gained internet infamy last weekend for poking Caitlin Clark in the eye, has been named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year for 2024.
Carrington, 26, saw her average points per game shoot up by nearly five points in her first year as a regular starter and an increase from three rebounds per game to five.
However, what Carrington will be remembered for most this year is her finger poke of Caitlin Clark on Sunday in Game 1 of the Sun’s three-game series against the Fever.
Despite Carrington clearly angling her hand in a downward angle and extending her fingers into Clark’s eye socket, this year’s most improved player denied that she intentionally poked Clark in the eye when USA Today’s Christine Brennan asked about it.
“I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye. 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.”
For her part, Clark denied that the eye poke was intentional.
“[Carrington] got me pretty good in the eye; I don’t think it affected me. I felt like I got good shots. They just didn’t go down—tough time for that to happen. I thought I got some really good looks. Three pretty wide-open 3s in the first half, you usually make.”
Sunday was not the first flare-up between Clark and Carrington.
In June, Carrington mocked Clark after bumping the Fever guard on an inbound pass.
Clark would get the last laugh in the regular season, though, after Carrington tried to “shush” the crowd in Indiana after scoring a basket, only to be immediately cooked by Clark.
Game 2 between the Fever and Sun is scheduled to battle on Friday in a must-win game for Clark and the Fever. The first game became the most watched WNBA game since 2000, with 1.84 million viewers.
