Controversial hard foul on the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark dominates WNBA news

The GIST: We’re roughly one-fourth of the way into the WNBA season and women’s hoops is still the talk of the town, but this weekend’s conversation was dominated by a controversial hard foul on Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark. Let’s cut through the noise.

The foul: The play came in the third quarter of Saturday’s fiery 71–70 Fever win over the Chicago Sky. Chicago’s Chennedy Carter shouldered Clark away from the ball, knocking Clark to the floor. The play was not reviewed during the game and Carter was only issued an away-from-the-ball common foul.

• However, the league later reviewed the call and issued Carter a flagrant 1 yesterday. Given this was her first infraction of the season, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2020 draft will not be suspended, but she will accumulate points under the league’s flagrant tracking system.

• Meanwhile, the Sky’s Angel Reese was fined $1K for failing to speak to the media after the game.

The discourse: Saturday’s situation followed Clark’s previous comments on the physicality in the WNBA, in which she said she feels like she’s getting “hammered.” Her coach, Christie Sides, agrees and called the Carter foul “unacceptable,” while noting she’ll continue to send these plays to the league for review.

• Elsewhere, Carter took to social media after refusing to answer questions about the play in the postgame press conference.

• Beyond Saturday’s game, the physicality in the W has been on display all season long, notably when the Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul on aforementioned Reese back on May 25th.

The bottom line: These plays understandably had the basketball community (and sports world at large) abuzz, but both Clark and Reese — two big name rookies drawing new eyeballs to the W — have remained committed to keeping the focus on the court. They got knocked down, but they get up again.