Christine Brennan reveals DeWanna Bonner confronted her after Caitlin Clark-Dijonai Carrington eye poke incident

Christine Brennan once again found herself at the center of one of the biggest stories in sports last year during the WNBA playoffs. The USA Today columnist was writing a book about Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark and was among media covering the team’s first round series against the Connecticut Sun, which featured DeWanna Bonner.

Perhaps the biggest storyline that emerged within minutes of the start of Game 1, when Sun guard Dijonai Carrington poked Clark in the eye. In a media availability later on, Brennan asked Carrington whether she had done so intentionally.

Carrington, of course, said it was an accident, but that in itself became a story. The WNBA Players Association later released a statement that directly called Brennan out and called for her credentials to be revoked.

Bonner, Brennan revealed in an excerpt of her book about Clark published on CNN, even confronted her afterward to stick up for Carrington. Brennan’s full book is set to be released July 9, and you can read the columnist’s account of that interaction below.

Just a couple of minutes after Carrington’s interview session was over and she walked away, I was standing near the other reporters at the side of the court when her teammate DeWanna Bonner walked toward me.

“You disrespected my teammate,” she said.

I put out my hand and tried to introduce myself, but Bonner did not want to shake it.

“You attacked my teammate,” she said.

I motioned to my phone in my hand. “Can I tell you what I said?

I was happy to show her the video I had just taken of Carrington’s answers to my questions. I again tried to introduce myself since Bonner and I had never met, but Bonner wanted no part of that.

“You attacked my teammate,” she said again.

I tried to introduce myself once more. “I asked her a question to give her a chance to respond to a controversy.”

“You disrespected my teammate,” Bonner said again, walking away.

Bonner never raised her voice, nor did I. 

Of course, that doesn’t seem like much given the fact that Bonner was likely just sticking up for her teammate. However, with the context of what has happened since, it becomes a lot more interesting.

Bonner signed a one-year contract with the Fever this offseason and became Clark’s teammate. She played nine games before leaving the team due to personal reasons. It was later reported that she did not intend to return to Indiana and preferred to play elsewhere.

It’s unclear exactly what happened to cause the sudden decision from Bonner, but the Fever later waived her. She has still yet to sign with a new team as of this writing.

As for Brennan, this will be the eighth book she has written and all the drama will certainly drum up some interest once it hits the shelves. With the increased interest in the WNBA since Clark joined last season, it surely has plenty more interesting nuggets from the phenom’s first year.