It is not the first time Caitlin Clark has vented at a referee this season. And it happened again in the Fever’s Wednesday game against the Golden State Valkyries. While the Fever’s play-by-play voice Debbie Antonelli believed the foul should’ve been called, Clark went a little too far with the manner in which she expressed her frustration.
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“From my angle, I thought it was a foul. And the way Caitlin responded, obviously she thought it was too,” Antonelli said on Thursday’s episode of The Ride with JMV podcast. “Look, Caitlin responds a lot to calls and no-calls. I did think that maybe her behavior crossed the line at that moment.”
The incident that triggered Clark’s reaction came right after a no-call situation. During the second quarter, Clark drove to the basket for a layup. But in the process, she took a hit from Valkyries center Kiah Stokes, leaving her with a painful leg contusion.
The referee called no foul, but on the following play, when her teammate Aliyah Boston made contact with Veronica Burton while driving for a ball off the rim, the referee called the foul. That was when Clark lost her cool.
According to international rules, approaching a referee like that would result in a technical foul. That prompted the host, JMV, to raise an interesting question. Could it be that the referees chose not to assign a technical because they privately acknowledged they had missed the call and were, in effect, making up for it? Or could it be that the WNBA, given the extraordinary level of public scrutiny surrounding Caitlin Clark right now, decided to let it slide?
Antonelli’s answer was neither. For her, Clark’s outburst was born purely from frustration. The accumulated frustration of a player who has repeatedly been on the receiving end of physical plays that go uncalled. The most recent example being Alyssa Thomas’ hard contact on her throat during the June 24 game against the Phoenix Mercury.
However, despite considering Clark’s perspective, she maintained her position that the manner of the reaction still crossed a line. And Antonelli wasn’t the only one who thought Clark was lucky to get away with that outburst. During the live telecast, the commentator on the Valkyries stream said, “Usually that’s a technical in every state of this country.”
So while Caitlin Clark has landed in trouble for less, this time official Gerda Gatling chose not to penalize her.