Fiery WNBA union claims over Caitlin Clark-DiJonai Carrington question a complete overreaction: Christine Brennan

Christine Brennan is not backing down.The longtime USA Today columnist is defending her questioning to Connecticut Sun star DiJonai Carrington — regarding whether she intentionally hit Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark in the eye during a playoff game — and was taken aback by the fiery WNBA players association statement criticizing her and saying she didn’t deserve credentials to cover the league.“I certainly was surprised,” Brennan said on Sarah Spain’s “Good Game” podcast.“I didn’t take it lightly.

I would never take it lightly.I was surprised to hear from, in this case the players association … that they want to ban me, I thought it was a complete overreaction.

I think many, many people in journalism thought the exact same thing as we’ve seen in columns and responses, and that’s fine and I’m heartened by that.If people think it’s fine and I should be banned, of course it’s a free country, they can say that.”WNBPA executive director Terry Carmichael Jackson described Brennan’s questioning as “a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating in a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic vitriol on social media.”Clark, who has led a wave of increased interest for the WNBA this season, suffered a black eye in Game 1 of the Fever-Sun playoff series on Sept.

22 after being hit by Carrington, who was trying to block a Clark pass.Two days later during an off-day media availability, Brennan asked Carrington the following question: “When you went and kind of swatted at Caitlin, did you intend to hit her in the eye and if so, or if not, either way, could you talk about what happened on that play?”“I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye.That doesn’t even make sense to me,” Carrington replied.

“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...