After 20 years of raising hell on the hardwood, Diana Taurasi has finally hung up her jersey. She didn’t just give us basketball, she gave us drama, fire, and a whole lot of technical fouls. DT led the league in techs like it was a badge of honor. She was blunt, bold, and never once held back. But before you start thinking we’ve lost that edge, there’s already someone else carrying the torch, and she’s doing it with the same fire. Caitlin Clark.

In just her rookie season, Clark made a name for herself with technical fouls. Six of them, to be exact. One more and she would’ve been benched for a game. She’s earned a reputation really fast for talking back to refs when she feels like something’s off. Fans either love her for it or… well, let’s just say they talk.

But this year, she’s got a different game plan. Or at least, she had one. “I came close to getting suspended for our last game, and obviously every front office tries to get your technicals taken away, and they wouldn’t take any of mine away,” Clark shared on the Bird and Taurasi show. 

She even listed out the offenses—two techs for slapping the stanchion, one for accidentally hitting someone in the eye. “Half of them weren’t even me talking to refs,” she said. “Which was dumb.” Then, Taurasi decided to play oddsmaker and set the over/under on Clark’s techs this season at 4.5. Clark, though, had other ideas. “I already told Steph (coach Stephani White) two max,” she said, flashing a peace sign.

Well, about that…..

In Saturday’s preseason game against the Atlanta Dream, the Fever grabbed the W, 81-76. Clark dropped 13 points, but she also picked up her first tech of the season. It happened in the second quarter after a bounce pass got intercepted and led to a layup. Clark, clearly frustrated, chucked the ball at the stanchion and the ref didn’t hesitate. Tech number one.

A fan-shot video shows her walking away, heated, after exchanging words with the ref, while teammate Sophie Cunningham tried to cool her down. Well, Clark might have by now, but her fans are not ready to ‘cool down’ yet. 

“Get better referees!” Caitlin Clark’s fans call out WNBA refs

The moment that whistle blew, social media exploded with outrage, and the debate about WNBA officiating was back in full force. One fan flat out said, “Referee is fed with Caitlin Clark, well maybe if the referees were better the game would be”. They believed it was the officiating that ruined the last year.“GET BETTER REFEREES!” the fan added.

That wasn’t just a lone internet rant. Even Clark’s own dad had voiced some frustration about this way back in her rookie season. When asked what stood out to him about the WNBA, he didn’t sugarcoat it. “Well, I think there’s a lot of room for improvement there, particularly in the officiating,” he said. Sure, he tried to play nice, tossing out a polite nod to the first preseason game, looking “better.” But at this point, he must have traded in that optimism for a more skeptical pair of glasses.

Another fan jumped in with a “wow that’s absurd” after the tech, assuming it was just for Clark chucking the ball off the stanchion in frustration. Turns out, as Fever writer Chloe Peterson clarified, CC earned that technical for having a word with the ref after a turnover led to an open Bri Jones layup. So, it wasn’t just the throw. A third fan penned, “And she still gets the worst whistle.” Even Clark herself has admitted that some of last season’s technicals left her scratching her head.

Fans have been complaining about this stuff since her college days. Remember the 2023 NCAA Women’s National Championship game? She got a tech just for casually flipping the ball behind her back after a teammate’s foul. Ref Lisa Jones said it was because Iowa had already been hit with a delay-of-game warning, but the call still sparked major backlash. So if anyone’s wondering why people are so heated about one preseason whistle, it’s because this drama isn’t new.

Then there’s the fan who did not hold back any punches, saying, “That ref is not going to have a pleasant night!” But even before the tech, Clark was walking a tightrope. In the Fever’s preseason matchup against the Mystics, when she wasn’t even playing. Then, just over four minutes before halftime, CC jumped up from the bench, cheering after a full-court press led to a turnover. She was so hyped, she ended up halfway onto the court, clapping and celebrating.  Teammate Aliyah Boston had to gently pull her back before the ref decided to hand her another tech for being a little too excited from the bench. Players on the bench aren’t supposed to step onto the court unless they have official permission.

Even a recent practice video caught a lot of attention. In a late-game out-of-bounds play drawn up for Clark, she missed the shot at the buzzer. While she cracked a smile, her competitive fire immediately flared. She let out a yell and slapped the sideline padding—a move that brought to mind a similar moment from last season, when that same gesture earned her a technical foul. So, Fans cannot help but wonder if she can really limit herself to just two techs this season. And yet, they are all guarded to defend her when a call is unfair. 

Hence came another fan who just summed up the whole vibe in two words, “Bull cr–.”  Well, that’s been the general sentiment among Clark’s fans. But here’s the silver lining—preseason techs don’t count toward the regular season limit. So, Clark’s in the clear for now. But if we’re being real, that “two max” goal she promised Coach Stephanie White? Yeah, we might want to go ahead and toss that out the window.