Caitlin Clark Tells the WNBA to Just Schedule Her Suspension. The Ridiculous Tech Drama Explained
Caitlin Clark is three technicals away from an automatic suspension. She knows it. She does not care. And after Monday night’s game against the Phoenix Mercury, she basically told the WNBA to pencil her in for whichever game they want to sit her.
The latest technical was for clapping. Yes, clapping. Clark clapped at a foul call after a physical confrontation with former teammate DeWanna Bonner. The refs called it a technical. That gave her five for the season. Eight gets you suspended.
“It is ridiculous. I got a technical for clapping,” Clark said after the game. “We should all just go on the calendar now and pick a game that I am going to be suspended for if I am going to get technicals for clapping.”
Good for her. The WNBA’s officiating has been a disaster all season. Clark gets fouled more than any player in the league and gets fewer of those calls than anyone with her usage rate. She gets bumped, hacked, and clobbered constantly. When she expresses any frustration about it, she gets a tech. That is the kind of thing that drives players crazy and fans crazier.
Clark also made it clear she is not changing how she plays. “I am going to play with emotion. I am going to play with passion. And if they are going to give me a technical foul for clapping, then so be it.” That is a star athlete telling the league office she will not be bullied into being quieter. That is what you want from your franchise player.
Stephanie White, the Fever’s head coach, walked the line on this one. “There are some that we could do without. There are natural things that happen, the energy of the game creates when you do get those, but there are some that we can be a little bit more in control.” That is coach speak for “I would love it if my star player did not get tossed for clapping.” But White did not throw the refs under the bus, which is probably smart.
Here is what makes this whole thing absurd. The WNBA is in the middle of a popularity boom. The league has more eyeballs, more TV money, and more national attention than at any point in its history. A massive chunk of that attention is Caitlin Clark related. Her games are the highest rated WNBA games on TV. Her jersey is the league’s best seller. Her highlights are the most watched WNBA content on social media.
And the officiating crews are out here giving her technicals for clapping.
The league should be doing everything possible to keep Clark on the court. She is the reason a casual fan flips on the Fever game. She is the reason a teenager in Indiana is wearing a Fever jersey. Suspending her for a regular season game over a clap is the kind of thing that makes the WNBA look small.
That is the irony of all this. Clark is right. The refs are being ridiculous. But she is also drawing the wrong kind of attention to the league by talking about it publicly. The cleanest play here for the WNBA office is to issue a directive to officials to be less quick on the technical, especially with star players, and let the game play out. That is what the NBA does. That is how Steph Curry and LeBron get away with stuff that should be a tech.
The Fever play next Friday. Clark probably will not be suspended for that one. But she has 17 regular season games left. Three more techs and she is sitting. The WNBA needs to figure this out fast, because nobody benefits from the face of the league watching games in street clothes.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
