Few players in the WNBA get talked about the way Caitlin Clark does. Every hard foul on her turns into a debate, a league review, and a round of questions about whether anyone is looking out for her. So when the league’s newest champion was asked about it, her answer stood out.

Gabby Williams, 2026 WNBA Finals MVP, was asked about the league’s relationship with Clark in an interview with CNBC’s Alex Sherman. 

“What Caitlin has to carry is probably very, very heavy,” Williams said. 

“I think she herself would be the first person to say that she doesn’t need to be protected. And I think she’s just as competitive. And I’ve played against her and you can see that. I don’t think she asks for anything to be easy. None of us do. We’re all just athletes. But it’s been great just seeing multiple stories be told. Multiple women kind of earn their praise, and just seeing the game grow collectively,” she added.

Williams knows what it takes to win in this league right now. The Valkyries beat Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream 4-3 in the first seven-game Finals in WNBA history, and she averaged 19.6 points in the series. Golden State became the fastest expansion team to win a title, doing it in just its second season.

The question she was answering has followed Caitlin Clark since she arrived. In June 2024, Chicago’s Chennedy Carter committed a Flagrant 1 foul on her, and the reaction was loud. In June 2025, Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey knocked Clark down after Jacy Sheldon raked her across the face, and Clark ended up with a technical foul. 

“LMAOOOO Caitlin quite literally did nothing wrong,” one fan wrote on X.

Another said, “Its always been protect the women in the WNBA and their mental health until it’s time to pick on the hooper from Iowa.”

This season, the debate hit its peak. On June 24, Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas pressed a fist into Caitlin Clark‘s neck during a loose-ball scramble, and no foul was called. The league reviewed the play the next day, upgraded it to a Flagrant 2 and suspended Thomas for one game with a $1,000 fine. Thomas called the contact “a complete accident.”

Fever coach Stephanie White had already called the no-calls “absolutely unacceptable,” “egregious” and “utterly disrespectful,” and said officials were failing to safeguard a “generational talent.” Even WNBA legend Lisa Leslie stepped in and said, “the officials have got to do better.”

Still, plenty of voices have said what Williams did. In 2024, Sports Illustrated’s Clare Brennan wrote that the impulse to protect Caitlin Clark is paternalistic and undersells her as a physical competitor, noting that Clark led the league in technical fouls at the time. 

“Clark isn’t a meek person in need of shielding,” she wrote.

This summer, WTOP’s Rob Woodfork compared the hits Caitlin Clark takes to the “Jordan Rules” the Pistons used on Michael Jordan, and argued that she has to earn her way up like every great before her.

Those same writers did not say the problem is made up. Woodfork wrote that inconsistent officiating is a real problem and that the fix is better calls for everyone, not special treatment for one player. 

Forbes argued that the language of protection can portray women athletes as fragile, which hurts a sport that has worked for years to be seen as tough. She agreed that calls for more consistent officiating are warranted.

So what does Caitlin Clark need? Analysts say it is help from her roster, not from the referees. Indiana had the league’s top offense and still lost in the first round, and it has advanced past that round only once since she arrived. The Fever were 11th in points allowed and ninth in field-goal percentage allowed.

That is why Williams’ answer fits. She did not say the league should ignore the hits Caitlin Clark takes or the officiating. She said Clark is not asking for it to be easy, and that the game is better when many women earn their praise. 

Caitlin Clark’s burden may be “very, very heavy,” as Williams put it, but the way to lighten it, at least on the court, may be a better team around her.