The refereeing only got more inconsistent from there. In the fourth quarter, Fever guard Sophie Cunningham wrapped her arms around Sheldon’s neck while the latter was driving to the basket and pulled her down to the ground (seemingly in retaliation for Sheldon’s earlier scuffle with Clark). Then the two women started shoving one another, with players from both teams eventually joining in. Cunningham was given a Flagrant 2 foul (unnecessary and excessive contact) and was ejected. Sheldon and her Sun teammate Lindsay Allen got technical fouls and were also ejected.
It was chaos, and the internet remains divided, with some people praising Cunningham for sticking up for Clark, while others, like the Sun coach Rachid Mezian, insist the foul was “stupid,” saying, “When you are winning a game by 17 points and you doing this stupid foul, this is just disrespectful. I don’t know how Jacy and Lindsay [got] rejected from the game when they did nothing.”
Both coaches pointed to the officiating problem, with Fever coach Stephane White saying in a postgame press conference that, “It was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing…When the officials don’t get control of the ball game, when they allow that stuff to happen—and it’s been happening all season long, it’s not just this game—this is what happens, right?”
Since her debut in 2024, there have been many conversations about Clark’s alleged in-game mistreatment (commentator Skip Bayless recently said she is being “blatantly” bullied by the league), with some suggesting players and fans are jealous of her or frustrated by her meteoric rise. Naturally, this has turned to conversations about race—Clark’s popularity isn’t just because of her astromonical talent: she’s a white, straight player from a heartland state, playing in a league full of queer and Black women (a 2019 racial and gender report card stated that 67% of WNBA players were Black). Clark, for her part, has acknowledged her privilege, and in a 2024 Time magazine interview, urged others to “elevate Black women” in the league. (This was dishearteningly but unsurprisingly met with further derision from MAGA supporters, who considered her their white basketball savior.)
Her alleged mistreatment has opened up the floor for blatantly racist commentary about Black women in the league, particularly Chicago Sky player Angel Reese, who was Clark’s collegiate rival. Recently, Atlanta Dream player Brittany Griner was accused of calling Clark a “fucking white girl” by former collegiate swimmer, right-wing political commentator, and virulent transphobe, Riley Gaines. The Atlantic sports writer Jemele Hill debunked this, quoting Gaines’ post on X/Twitter and writing: “I get that your whole personality is caught up in stuff like this, so you don’t care about spreading misinformation…the foul call made on her had nothing to do with Caitlin Clark. It was because she fouled Natasha Howard…She clearly says “trash” and “fucking WACK CALL.”
On Tuesday night, several commenters pointed to the unequal ways WNBA players are treated, suggesting that Cunningham’s foul was praised by many, but would have been derided if she were Black. And, as is now the sad tradition in the WNBA, some commentators tried to drag Angel Reese into the conversation, even though she doesn’t play for either team. An Athlon Sports report about the chaos that ensued during the Sun/Fever game originally had the title “Caitlin Clark Goes Viral After Getting Decked by Angel Reese’s Former Teammate” before it was seemingly changed to “Caitlin Clark Goes Viral After Getting Decked by Marina Mabrey.”
Still, last night’s game—and the reaction to it— seemed to mark a shift. Clark is a lightning rod, and the WNBA is doing a shit job at ensuring its referees can handle the game with her in it, without getting struck by a bolt—whether that’s more player injury or an amping up of bigoted rhetoric by fans.
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