The WNBA’s Self-Flagellating Indifference to Caitlin Clark
The women’s basketball league is three years into enjoying new popularity, all while its cash cow is being used as a punching bag.
When Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark entered the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) three seasons ago, a change happened. People started actually caring about women’s basketball.
Clark is a generational talent who is accruing significant wealth for the WNBA. In 2025, the perennially stagnant WNBA actually generated enough revenue to share among its 13 teams (it now has 15). Until last season, this had never happened in WNBA history. It was no small bag, either. Each team received $8 million to distribute among its active players. Since the WNBA’s inception in the late ‘90s, it has been a charity case of the men’s National Basketball Association (NBA). Now, thanks to Clark, all the teams in the WNBA are making money.
The WNBA generated enough revenue in 2025 to prompt revenue sharing with its players for the first time in history, per @katie_barnes3.
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 23, 2026
All 13 WNBA teams will receive a total of $8 million to disperse among players 💰 pic.twitter.com/w3A0dMldV3
However, instead of protecting and promoting Clark, the players and the league are content to use her as a personal punching bag. Why? Well, the obvious answer is that Clark is a straight white player in a sport that is predominantly made up of black women and lesbians. The WNBA as a whole sees Clark as an interloper.
There is also a strong element of jealousy under the guise of competitiveness. That frustration manifested itself right away in Clark’s rookie season, during which the opposing team players took every opportunity to bully Clark on the court. Officials would ignore flagrant fouls, and former WNBA greats would sneer.
This past week featured yet another torrent of insults, and fans and observers alike are fed up.
On June 22, in a game against the Phoenix Mercury, Clark got into it with a former teammate/current opponent, DeWanna Bonner. Clark got a personal foul, then a technical, for “antagonizing” Bonner after the incident. Here’s a clip so you can judge for yourself:
Caitlin Clark cannot believe it. Technicals all around 🚨
— USA Sports (@usasports) June 23, 2026
Alyssa Thomas, Myisha Hines-Allen, DeWanna Bonner, Sophie Cunningham, and Caitlin Clark all issued technical fouls.#WNBAonUSA | Mercury ☄️ | Fever 🔥 pic.twitter.com/K8A4UGNDaL
Clark’s teammate, Sophie Cunningham, stepped into the fray and stood up for her teammate with a now-infamous finger point.
All that feistiness was just a lead-up to the second game on June 24, where Clark was after a loose ball and three Mercury players jumped her. The worst of the three offenders was Alyssa Thomas, who appeared to punch Clark in the throat and kick the downed superstar as Thomas sauntered away.
The officials did nothing. Nada.
Caitlin Clark got punched in the throat & stepped on by Alyssa Thomas.
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) June 25, 2026
No foul, of course 🙄 pic.twitter.com/peBy5K3kfi
Clark’s coach, Stephanie White, was furious at the “absolutely egregious and utterly disrespectful” treatment of her player and pointed out that the fist to the throat was a dangerous and reckless act. Furthermore, one of last week’s scuffles tweaked Clark’s ongoing back injury.
Coach White goes off in the post game press conference and calls out the league. Caitlin is “a generational talent” says White and finally unloads on the awful officiating and the treatment of Caitlin Clark
— ericaf455💙 (@ericaf455) June 25, 2026
Via @tonyeast on YouTube pic.twitter.com/VogDOeWNZI
Clark did not play in Saturday’s game and won’t play again until July 5, pending her injury status. The more she is sidelined with injuries from hard-contact fouls, the less people will want to watch women’s basketball. Yet the WNBA’s attitude is indifference.
After fan outrage, the WNBA did ultimately upgrade Alyssa Thomas’s foul to a Flagrant 2 and issued a one-game suspension. However, this seems kind of moot; the WNBA enforcing consequences after the fact has become a pattern.
As for Caitlin Clark, what can she do that she hasn’t already tried?
Clark has tried an apology tour, she’s tried being positive, and she’s tried being just as fiery and aggressive as her opponents. But nothing seems to be changing. Even The Athletic columnist Candace Buckner has declared that the Caitlin Clark experience has worn off. For Buckner, though, the reason has more to do with the culture wars and Clark being injured last season, both of which are outside Clark’s control.
For the rest of us in the peanut gallery, it’s simply baffling as to why the WNBA is content to let its players assault Clark. It’s less of a mystery with her opponents. There’s a definite racial aspect to it, but also jealousy. Women are excellent at tearing each other down just to make themselves feel better about their own mediocrity. That sort of toxicity will cost them all dearly in the end. A person can only be eye-gouged or throat-punched so many times before she decides it’s not worth it to be the WNBA’s punching bag.
