Over a week after the controversy surrounding an incident with Alyssa Thomas led to a nationwide debate over her treatment and officiating in the WNBA, Caitlin Clark has broken her silence.
The reaction to Thomas’ non-foul sparked a firestorm directed at the player, officials and the league for what some believe is a routine failure to protect the Indiana Fever star.
Both players dove for a loose ball that resulted in Thomas’ closed fist striking Clark in the throat during a quick play that the officials missed.
In the days that followed, Thomas says she was racially abused online and received threats toward herself and her family – including her children.
Clark spoke for five minutes to media in Indianapolis on Friday – which were her first public comments since the incident took place on June 24.
‘As I’ve stood up here and said before, like the harassment, the hate, none of that is okay. That goes for the opposing team we play, that goes for my teammates, that goes for my coaches, there should never be a question of character,’ Clark told reporters.
Caitlin Clark disavowed the hate being directed at Alyssa Thomas after her flagrant foul
Nine days ago, Thomas hit Clark in the throat with a closed fist after going for a loose ball
Thomas says she’s been the victim of racial abuse and threats to her family after the incident
‘I’ve always stood up here and said that, and that’s truly what I believe. That’s how I was raised. So none of that is okay and I don’t want anybody to ever experience that.’
Clark also believes that the media’s focus on the incident nine days after it happened is not helping the situation and isn’t helping the league.
‘It’s really interesting to me because, I turned the TV on on Sunday, and that game was on Wednesday, and that’s all people are still talking about,’ Clark recalled. ‘And I feel like that’s just a real disservice to our league.
‘And I get it, you talk about it, you talk about whether it’s flagrant, you talk about whatever it is.
‘But to continue to beat down, beat down, and then for the narrative to be taken other places, that’s just really not acceptable. I think it’s just— it’s hard to see, you know.’
Clark said that the constant conversation about it made her feel ‘bad for the players that were playing the games those days. And also, I feel bad for my teammates.
‘They played on Friday and they dominated and they played really well and nobody wanted to talk about that. They were just worried about everything else.’
She added, ‘I think it’s all of our jobs to help refocus the narratives a lot of the times and we can do better at that. And I think it’ll help our game grow a lot more.’
Clark said she didn’t want anyone to experience that level of abuse and hatred and called on the media to move on from the incident – rather than continue to cover it for days on end
Clark also called out people who are ‘using my name in ways that are just inappropriate’
When pressed for specifics about what she found frustrating, Clark called out the people who used her name to push their own agendas – which has become all too common since she entered the league.
‘I think people just using my name in ways that are just inappropriate. You don’t know me, you don’t know who I am,’ she said.
‘At times, you know, whether you’re me, whether you’re LeBron, whether you’re the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, whether you’re the coach of the New York Giants, there’s going to be things that happen that aren’t a reflection of you.
‘That doesn’t make that okay. I think that’s the frustrating part… it seems like everyone wants a click, and that’s really disappointing.
‘I get it, you have a job to do, I get that… but at the same time, like that’s all you’re going to talk about? It’s frustrating.
‘Again, talk about it, talk about if it was a flagrant or not. But everything that came after that is confusing to me, and it’s not acceptable.’
She added, ‘We can’t just beat on each other, beat on each other and put each other down. We just have to continue to find ways to uplift.’
Clark began her statement by saying that the standard of officiating needed to be raised
At the beginning of her statement, Clark reiterated her belief that the foul was indeed a flagrant and demanded that the standard of officiating be raised.
While she admitted that officiating is ‘one of the hardest jobs in the world,’ she added, ‘The league’s just got to do better protecting our players in that regard.’
‘I don’t really think that it was up for debate,’ she added, ‘Obviously it wasn’t called in real time.’
‘You go back and watch the clip, I think it’s pretty straightforward. It’s kind of been a discussion for like 3 years now, and I think we really need to do a better job protecting the people in this league.
‘Obviously I’ve been involved in a few of those plays, but there’s been plenty others across the league that haven’t got called, you know, go back and postgame or whatever it is, teams submit clips, nothing really changes. So I think overall the league just has to do better and we have to invest in those areas.’
