Caitlin Clark has extended well wishes to the popular halftime performer, Red Panda, after she fell off her unicycle on Tuesday night.
In the middle of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup final between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx, the performer was unable to finish her show as she was seen holding her wrist after falling, and was removed from the court in a wheelchair.
In a livestream following the Fever’s 74- 59 win, Clark appeared on her teammate, Sydney Colson’s livestream to acknowledge Red Panda’s injury.
“Red Panda, if you’re watching, we love you,” Clark said.
Red Panda, whose real name is Rong Niu, has been a regular at NBA halftime shows since the 1990s, having notably performed at Game Five of the NBA Finals in Oklahoma City last month. Coming from a family of acrobats, her act consists of riding a unicycle that is around eight feet tall while balancing dishes on her head and lower legs.
Although the Fever pulled out a win and were awarded a $500,000 prize pool, Clark did not play as she missed her third consecutive game with a groin injury. Earlier this season, the Fever star missed five games with a quad injury. Before her latest setback, Clark was averaging 18.2 points, 8.9 assists, and five rebounds in her sophomore WNBA season.
Just days after her return from the quad injury, Clark had an incident with a Connecticut Sun player, Jacy Sheldon, who poked her in the eye during the third quarter of the game when Clark had possession of the ball.
The two shared a tense exchange following the play when the Sun’s center, Tina Charles, interjected in an attempt to calm both parties down. But then, Sun player Marina Mabrey knocked Clark — largely viewed as the face of the WNBA since she was chosen first overall during the 2024 draft — to the ground.
After the incident, Sheldon was given a flagrant one foul while Mabrey, Clark, and Charles all were given technical fouls.
Many viewers were quick to question why Mabrey was allowed to shove someone but remain in the game.
One of the game’s officials, crew chief Ashley Gloss, told the Indianapolis Star following the match that Mabrey’s actions didn’t warrant her being ejected from the game.
“The contact made by Mabrey did not rise to the level of an ejection,” Gloss told the publication at the time. “Additionally, [it] did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two.”
