DiJonai Carrington and the Connecticut Sun pulled out a tight win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday night in front of a sold-out crowd in Boston.
But that game, the first WNBA game to ever be played at TD Garden, was limited to WNBA League Pass or the WNBA’s live stream outside of local markets. In fact, none of the three WNBA games on Tuesday night were on national television.
So on Tuesday morning, Carrington actually called out the league for not promoting their historic contest in Boston. In her eyes, they just treated it like any other game.
Since we gotta do our own promo…
We’re playing at the @tdgarden tonight & it’s SOLD OUT 19k+. First W game here ever. Historic. Not on tv, but you can catch it right here on twitter. 🙃 @WNBA— dιjonaι carrιngтon♛ (@DijonaiVictoria) August 20, 2024
“I feel like Connecticut as a franchise is historically disrespected,” she said, via SB Nation’s Noa Dalzell. “So sometimes if you want something, you gotta go out there and do it yourself. So that’s what I did for us.
“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.”
DiJonai Carrington was asked about calling out the WNBA for not sufficiently promoting this game:
“The game should have been on the national television broadcast. You should’t have to pay for any type of subscription to see a game that’s this historic, in my opinion.” https://t.co/iff6dMBKna pic.twitter.com/gA9A4zRTuI
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) August 21, 2024
Despite what she felt was a lack of promotion, more than 19,000 fans still packed TD Garden to watch the Suns’ 69-61 win over the Sparks on Tuesday night. Carrington dropped a game-high 19 points and helped launch a 14-0 run late to seal the win.
“I guess my tweet worked,” Carrington said.
Carrington also called out the WNBA for not making the game available on national television. Only 14 of the Sun’s regular season games were slated for national television when the schedule was first released earlier this year. By comparison, the Indiana Fever — thanks in part to the surging popularity of star rookie Caitlin Clark — had all but four of their games on national television.
“The game should’ve been on a national television broadcast,” Carrington said. “You shouldn’t have to pay for any type of subscription to see a game that’s this historic.”
Carrington is averaging 12.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game this season, her fourth in the league. The win pushed the Sun to 20-7 on the season, which has them in second in the league standings just 3.5 games back from the New York Liberty. The Sparks, on the other hand, have now lost five straight and are tied for the worst record in the league at just 6-22.
While it may not have been a high-profile matchup nationally, fans in Boston — a city that’s undoubtedly in line to land a franchise of its own in the future — still showed out.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas said, via The Boston Globe. “I mean women’s basketball, I keep saying this, is trending in this direction. I’ve been in Connecticut a long time and to play in front of a fanbase like this, I mean it gave us another level of energy tonight. It’s just exciting to see where basketball has come and being in Connecticut for 11 years and we have a great fanbase there but at the same time seeing the opportunity of what possibly could be.”
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