Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington is always authentic
A front-runner for WNBA Most Improved Player, the defensive star is as outspoken as she is vital to the Sun
Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington can name each of the players taken ahead of her in the WNBA draft.
Her memory isn’t at the level of Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, who remembers the exact order of the players drafted before him, but the 20th overall selection by the Connecticut Sun in 2021 remembers the 19 players taken ahead of her on draft night.
“As a competitor, you always think about those things,” said Carrington, who as the Big 12 Sixth Person of the Year out of Baylor in 2021 was projected as a first-round prospect. “Every single team had at least one or two opportunities to draft me and every single team decided that another player was a better fit for them. It’s definitely something I still think about and is a reason why I’ll have love for Connecticut forever.”
As the WNBA regular season ends, only four of the 19 players selected before Carrington are currently on active team rosters. Carrington, in her fourth season with the Sun, has put together a career year for Connecticut, where as a first-time starter she has solidified herself as one of the WNBA’s top defenders and transition playmakers.
As the title-contending Sun prepare for a playoff push in which they hope to overcome their previous championship shortcomings, Carrington, a front-runner for this year’s WNBA’s Most Improved Player Award, will be an integral component in the team’s success.
“I’ve been consistent and locked-in on what I need to do to help this team win a championship,” Carrington said. “That’s been my focus – to be an All-Star in my role on this team – to do whatever is needed.”
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Connecticut assistant coach Briann January calls Carrington a thermostat for the Sun. When Carrington plays, it’s expected that she will bring a heightened tempo and energy through deflections, hustle plays, creating extra possessions, cutting or running in transition.
Carrington’s offensive output is a direct reflection of her energy. According to stats.wnba.com, 25.8% of Carrington’s scoring is via fastbreak points and 29.1% of her points are off turnovers. Both percentages are first in the WNBA in those categories among players averaging 15 minutes per game. Carrington has three games with at least 10 points and five steals this season, the most in the WNBA.
“When she turns up, the team feeds off of that. When she is up and going, which she usually is, our team is on a level that’s hard to compete with,” January said.
Carrington, who is averaging 12.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game for the Sun – all career highs – was placed in the starting lineup to begin the season after starting in only three games during her first three seasons in Connecticut.
“She’s done everything we’ve asked of her this year,” Connecticut forward Brionna Jones said. “She’s really stepped up and it’s been great to watch her growth from the last couple years to this year. Watching her come into her own, it’s been amazing to watch.”
This season has been one of confirmation for Carrington that she can compete at a high level in the WNBA, and that she can stay healthy.
Carrington has overcome multiple severe injuries, including ACL tears to both knees and a ruptured patella tendon. Four times in her playing career, Carrington has endured nine-month injury rehabilitations.
“Since I’ve been in the ninth grade, I’ve only had one healthy offseason. I think that a lot of my ability is just my will to fight through things,” Carrington said.
“Seeing her overcome two surgeries on each knee, stuff like that throughout her whole career – and then finally just playing healthy and just back happy doing what she does – it’s great,” said Indiana Fever forward NaLyssa Smith, who is in a relationship with Carrington and was her former teammate at Baylor. “It’s huge.”
It’s because of what she’s overcome that when Carrington is on the floor she doesn’t take playing 25-plus minutes per game, or her role as a starter, for granted.
“I think going through that and having to sit out and watch and go through rehab – it gives you a different respect, different love and different desire for the game,” Carrington said. “It makes you want to play harder when you are out there because you really do know what it’s like for that to be taken away.”
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Carrington said she hadn’t always focused on excelling at defense. She’d always viewed herself as a pickpocket and growing up, her father, former NFL safety Darren Carrington, always stressed the importance of positioning. It wasn’t until she transferred to Baylor in 2020 that the need to be a standout defender became essential.
“When I transferred to Baylor for my last year, everybody knows that Kim Mulkey’s teams play through the post, don’t shoot a lot of 3s and play defense,” Carrington said. “That was something that I had no choice but to focus on, was playing defense, if I wanted to get on the court.”
Carrington ran into a similar situation with Connecticut, a team that was loaded with All-Star talent.
“I just carried that into the league when I got here,” Carrington said. “I knew that they didn’t draft me because they didn’t score. I knew that I had to find a way to impact and get on the court and that was through defense.”
With the Sun, Carrington guards the league’s best perimeter players. She relishes the opportunity to study an opponent and then outplay them on the floor. According to Second Spectrum, Carrington has contested 149 shots this season against the 12 backcourt players that were either All-Stars or Olympians this season, second in the league.
“There is no matchup that I think I’m at a deficit in and there’s no matchup that I want to be hidden from,” Carrington said. “I never go into a game where I am scared to guard [someone]. I want to make sure my team feels confident in knowing that I’m going to give them everything that I’ve got on that side of the ball every night. … I hope that’s something that they feel they can rely on every single night.”
When Carrington joined Connecticut as a rookie, one of her vets was January, who made seven All-Defensive teams during her career. Through watching January, Carrington learned how to use her physicality and defensive positioning. Now, Carrington studies film with her.
“[DiJonai] has all of the physical abilities to be a great defender. She’s quick laterally, has great hands, great court vision, great anticipation,” said January, who praised Carrington’s versatility. “I think the part that she has grown the most in is just being a student of the game – really understanding tendencies, knowing where teams want to get their spots. There’s been times with her where we’ve switched with her [defensively] 1 through 4. Her strength, her speed and her ability to keep whoever it is in front of her, stand them up if we need to. … I think that’s really helped her take the next step in being an elite defender – maybe even the best defender in the league.”
Carrington has limited some of the league’s best scoring talents, holding them below their season shooting averages. According to ESPN Stats & Information, this season Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd has shot 27% (4 of 15 field goals) when contested by Carrington; Dallas Wings star Arike Ogunbowale has shot 28% (5 of 18); Washington Mystics two-time All-Star guard Ariel Atkins has shot 26% (5 of 19); and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu has shot 36% (5 of 14).
“I think her play has been All-Star-level this year the way that she has locked up defensively for us, guarding the best players on the opposing team,” Jones said.
Carrington’s ability to lock down the opposition has become a season-long, team-wide campaign for the Sun bench, appropriately titled “seat belt season.” In the final seconds of a game against Chicago on Aug. 23, Carrington single-handedly disrupted the Sky’s final possession, deflecting the ball into the backcourt as the clock expired, giving the Sun a slim 2-point victory. As Carrington ran to the sideline, teammate Tyasha Harris mimicked the fastening of a seat belt to rule Carrington’s defensive job complete.
“I’m trying to [add] people to the seat belt gang,” Carrington joked.
Whether it’s her lashes and makeup that she’s worn during games since college or sharing her opinions on league matters that have impacted her, Carrington has always been one of the WNBA’s most candid presences.
“That’s just me,” Carrington said. “Whether that’s on the court, whether it’s at home, in my regular life, relationships, family – I’m authentic and don’t hold my tongue for anybody. That’s just how I’ve always been. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be in a disrespectful way, but I’m never going to sit back and let stuff happen. Especially if something is affecting me, then I am going to speak up about it 10 times out of 10.”
When the Sun hosted the Los Angeles Sparks in the first WNBA game played at TD Garden in Boston in August, Carrington called out the league for what she believed was a lack of promotion of the historic game.
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“I think that there could have been a lot more publicity or promo from the top. Connecticut had announced that we were having this game probably almost a year ago. … There was ample time to do what needed to get done,” Carrington said after the game.
Most recently, Carrington showed her displeasure with a recent CNBC interview with league commissioner Cathy Engelbert. When Engelbert was asked about how the league is trying to quell the racist comments on social media about the rivalry between Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, Engelbert promoted the importance of rivalries to growing the league without denouncing the presence of racism.
“One thing about DiJonai, she’s going to be outspoken about every situation,” Smith said. “I commend her on always speaking up for herself and never taking the short end of the stick. I’m proud of her for always doing that.”
While the increased attention on the WNBA this season has generated record viewership, it has also attracted hate speech and harassment often directed at Black players. Much of that vitriol has centered around the presence of Clark, with many using the star rookie’s presence as a means of launching attacks often stoked in racism and homophobia.
Early in the season, on June 13, Clark was asked about how she felt about her name “being used in culture wars,” to which she replied:
“It’s not something I can control. I don’t put too much time and effort into thinking about things like that. And to be honest, I don’t see a lot of it. … People can talk about what they want to talk about. … I’m just here to play basketball.”
A few hours later, Carrington posted a response to Clark’s comments. Carrington had drawn the ire of individuals online days earlier after she mimicked what she perceived to be a flop by Clark in a game between the Sun and Fever in Connecticut.
“Dawg. How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionalities of them all is nuts. We all see the s—. We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury.”
When asked again later that day about her name “being weaponized for racism/misogyny,” Clark replied:
“Everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect. The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect. People should not be using my name for personal agendas. It’s disappointing.”
Carrington says she has dealt with online harassment, even sometimes having comments directed at her while playing, all season. She said that at times it has affected her mental health.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” she said. “I literally majored in African and African American studies, so if people thought I was going to let anything that had to do with racism slide, then they are in for a rude awakening. Obviously, sometimes backlash comes with that, but you have to be willing to take that if you want change. You have to be prepared for that. I think it’s hard, mentally, a lot of things that people have been saying are so hateful and just completely out of line.
“I always go back to knowing my value and knowing who I am as a person outside of being a basketball player and knowing that, at the end of the day, this is a game and I have so much more to me than just basketball.”
“Whether that’s on the court, whether it’s at home, in my regular life, relationships, family – I’m authentic and don’t hold my tongue for anybody.”
— DiJonai Carrington
“I think she’s been able to handle it well,” Jones said. “I think her being able to speak her mind and be her authentic self, I think that’s keeping her head on straight. She’s able to say what she feels and she’s got us around her, her family, backing her up.”
Carrington remains focused on helping the Sun capture its first championship, followed by an offseason in which she’s excited to get in the gym and improve her game instead of repairing her body.
“I definitely don’t think I’m even near my ceiling of where I’m going to be at the end of my career or where I can get to in the next one to three years,” Carrington said. “I think there’s so much more potential for me to tap into.”