Alyssa Thomas’ uncalled fist-to-the-throat foul against Caitlin Clark on June 24 became the catalyst for conversations surrounding everything from the W’s officiating to players facing online harassment and the league being unable to protect its players. So when Caitlin Clark sat with reporter Malika Andrews for a candid interview, the topic came up once again, and CC was completely honest.
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Unfortunately, Clark feels she has been unable to escape these situations and not for her lack of trying. For her, the only lapse on June 24 came from the officials missing the call, and everything that followed could’ve been avoided.
“It seems like there’s always a moment like that in every season that I’ve played so far. And I think for myself, I just try to navigate it the best I can. It gets exhausting.” Clark told Malika Andrews during their conversation on ESPN Sports Center.
“It gets frustrating because I think especially, like, that’s a perfect example. It was a hard foul, and it probably should have been dealt with in the moment, and they should have decided what it was then and reviewed it. Great. We move on. You see it happen in the NBA all the time. It’s not anything more than that.”
“It’s emotionally exhausting. It’s draining. It makes your shoulders tense, because people don’t wanna talk about the basketball. They just wanna stir it up and make it something else.”
Caitlin Clark has indeed been the subject of such defining controversies, typically fueled by a physical play that gets taken far beyond the hardwood. In her rookie year, it was the Chennedy Carter body check. The then-Chicago Sky guard caught Clark with a hard, away-from-the-ball hip check that sent her to the floor.
Officials initially ruled it a common foul, but the WNBA eventually upgraded it retroactively to a Flagrant 1. At the time, it ignited a national media firestorm over whether Clark, the league’s newest star, was a deliberate target.
That same season, the DiJonai Carrington eye-poke incident and missed call became a central part of the debate because it resulted in Clark getting a black eye.
Hopefully, these draining and exhausting cycles begin to ease. Clark has always made it clear that she wants nothing more than to come in and hoop. But every season, something comes along to make that harder than it should be.