PBS News Hour | Heated video games and tough performs spark controversy in WNBA | Season 2026

AMNA NAWAZ: A few heated video games and a few tough performs this week have sparked a brand new controversy within the WNBA round celebrity Caitlin Clark.

On Monday, her Indiana Fever performed the Phoenix Mercury in a sport with six technical fouls, together with one for Clark and an ejection.

Their second assembly on Wednesday introduced this second, when the Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas pressed her fist into Clark’s neck throughout a free ball, and no foul was referred to as.

Clark left the sport early with a again damage.

After the sport, fever coach Stephanie White referred to as it unacceptable.

STEPHANIE WHITE, Head Coach, Indiana Fever: We have a generational expertise and a WNBA celebrity who had two low cost pictures proper there that weren’t referred to as.

We spent all low season taking a look at officiating, all low season.

And I nonetheless say the one factor that we preserve asking for is consistency.

She just isn’t referred to as the identical means everyone else is named.

AMNA NAWAZ: A day later, the league retroactively gave Thomas a flagrant foul and suspended her for one sport.

But the questions round Clark’s therapy and the WNBA’s officiating haven’t quieted.

For extra, we’re joined by Seerat Sohi.

She covers the WNBA, NBA, and ladies’s school basketball for The Ringer and she or he hosts their WNBA podcast.

Seerat, welcome to the “News Hour.”

Thanks for becoming a member of us.

SEERAT SOHI, The Ringer: Thanks for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So why do you assume the response to that foul and the no-call on the time, why has it been as fiery as we’ve got seen it?

SEERAT SOHI: Well, I believe as a result of followers are beginning to see a sample the place there have been low cost pictures in opposition to Caitlin Clark which have gone uncalled.

Forget a flagrant foul.

We have seen a few of these low cost pictures not even get an everyday foul.

Fans will bear in mind, in 2024, Chennedy Carter hip-checked Caitlin Clark on an out-of-bounds play the place she did not even have the ball in her palms, and it wasn’t referred to as a foul.

The WNBA, I believe, must reckon with its historical past of inconsistent refereeing, and it hasn’t up up to now.

So now, when this stuff occur, they hearken again pre to earlier cases, and at this level I believe followers are simply fed up.

AMNA NAWAZ: There’s lots of difficult narratives at play right here.

You define them very well in your newest piece for The Ringer.

And you place it this fashion.

You say: “Outside the arena, the league is filtered through two polarized narratives, both of them unflattering.

One, the league is stacked against Clark.

Players resent her, referees won’t protect her, and league leadership has been reluctant to acknowledge her obvious mistreatment.

And, two, the league is a hotbed of racism, homophobia, and misogyny.”

So let’s simply take these separately right here, Seerat.

The narrative that Clark is handled in another way and unfairly, is there reality to that?

SEERAT SOHI: I do assume that there are stars, due to the magnitude of Caitlin Clark stardom, that have been questioning her entry into the league and why she had such an enormous highlight.

At the identical time, I do assume that refereeing points are persistently unhealthy throughout the WNBA.

I do not assume that the WNBA actually has a normal for or a imaginative and prescient for the way they need the sport to look.

They are very reactionary.

I believe that is why you noticed this flagrant foul and suspension issued after the sport, when the general public stress was actually beginning to get to them.

You can see that with earlier cases with actually each disaster the WNBA has handled.

I believe one of the simplest ways to have a look at it’s that Caitlin Clark is a magnifying glass to lots of points which were plaguing the WNBA for a very long time.

Lots of mainstream sports activities followers are simply now discovering out about issues which have bothered gamers for fairly some time.

And, to me, actually, lots of it simply comes right down to the league’s management.

AMNA NAWAZ: There’s a second level you increase right here, which brings collectively lots of very troublesome subjects, which is the truth that Clark is a straight white girl in a league that was constructed largely on the backs of Black girls, lots of them queer and out.

How is all of that enjoying into the dialog and the best way it is being checked out?

SEERAT SOHI: Well, I believe there are a variety of nuances right here.

The WNBA has had white straight stars earlier than.

They have by no means had a white straight star with this magnitude of fame, and who has are available to the WNBA at a time the place social media may be very prevalent and in a really charged political second on this nation.

So there have been individuals who have used Caitlin Clark as an avatar to precise their racial grievances, their homophobia, and sometimes the WNBA gamers that she is confronted in opposition to are the targets of these assaults.

So, you possibly can perceive from the attitude of these stars why they might, in fact, take challenge with one thing like that.

AMNA NAWAZ: There was lots of controversy too I’m certain you noticed with this new poster the league revealed, their thirtieth anniversary celebration, and Caitlin Clark just isn’t on the poster.

Do you’re feeling like that controversy was warranted?

Is the league fumbling how they’re dealing with considered one of its largest stars?

SEERAT SOHI: Well, the fact with that controversy is definitely that the group that made that poster really simply doesn’t have the licensing rights to Caitlin Clark’s picture and likeness.

For most organizations that are not the WNBA or Nike, they solely have the rights to her identify and quantity.

Now, you might say, why did not the WNBA go to a special group to do that?

I believe that is a very reasonable query, particularly for — whenever you’re making an attempt to have fun the thirtieth anniversary of the league.

There are additionally distinguished Black gamers that weren’t on this record as nicely, similar to Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker, two of the largest legends within the sport.

And, once more, it simply to me goes again to the WNBA’s management.

This is a rocket ship that has a foul captain.

It’s an airplane flying within the sky, and there is a ton of turbulence, they usually have no idea easy methods to navigate it.

AMNA NAWAZ: What does all this imply for the followers?

I imply, your self, you cowl this, however you are additionally a fan.

What does it imply for the individuals who love the sport and the league?

SEERAT SOHI: It’s extremely irritating.

I believe that the majority followers want to have fun nice basketball alongside all the different issues that the WNBA brings to the desk that, frankly, do not essentially exist in different sports activities.

The WNBA is a — it is a cheaper ticket with a extra linked fan base that from my expertise has had a real affect on my life so far as creating group at a time once I assume lots of people are searching for that.

So there’s so many lovely issues concerning the WNBA because it stands proper now, however the irritating factor is that the mainstream tales that come out concerning the league typically need to do with racial strife and incompetence, really.

And that I believe has simply been a irritating dynamic for the final three years.

AMNA NAWAZ: Seerat Sohi of The Ringer, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us tonight.

Real pleasure to speak to you.

SEERAT SOHI: Thank you for having me.