When Cheryl Reeve saw Napheesa Collier fall, she immediately lost her temper. She rushed to the court and charged at the refs. Her coaching staff had to intervene and stop her. Although the damage was already done, Reeve still ensured to shed some light. “One of the best players in the league, shot zero free throws, and she had five fouls, got her shoulder pulled out, and finished the game with her leg being taken out, and probably has a fracture,” she said after Game 3. Well, the jab was pretty clear. Be it in Alyssa Thomas or the referees’ face. However, Nate Tibbetts isn’t accepting one side of the argument.

During the pregame presser before Game 4, when asked about Phee’s injury, Tibbetts said, “First off, everybody in our organization, our team feel bad for Phee. You hate seeing a player, any player, especially a player of her caliber, to go down in a series like this. It stinks. It stinks for them. It stinks for the competition, all of it.” That was not the end of his statement because the head coach anticipated what the follow-up question was going to be.

“The second thing is if anyone has a glimmer to think that AT made that play on purpose, that that was a dirty play, it is just straight up out of line, in my opinion. So, yeah, I mean, obviously, there was a lot of stuff that went on at the end of that game, but we’re here focused today,” Tibbetts confidently expressed. And can you blame him? It’s quite understandable that seeing your star player go down in a crucial game is gut-wrenching. The ankle roll was quite painful, and Phee didn’t return after that. While the entire situation was messy, yes, AT didn’t make that play on purpose. But was it a foul?

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NBA veteran Eddie A. Johnson took to X, sharing a zoomed-in video of the exact moment. It was clear as day that Alyssa Thomas didn’t know what had happened because she continued with the play, while Napheesa Collier was on the ground. “It was the correct no call. Once ball is knocked loose, the contact after does not count. Thomas had a right to that space and it’s unfortunate a tremendous player is injured,” he explained in his post.

This was not the first time Thomas and Collier were in the headlines. During Game 2 of the same series, AT lowered her shoulder and then banged into Collier to back her down closer to the hoop. But one attempt wasn’t enough, so AT did it again, but Collier grabbed her arms to prevent her from getting a shot. Within a matter of seconds, the two of them were chest to chest, and the Mercury star didn’t hesitate to give Phee an earful.

The truth is, Phee and AT had been going at each other all series long, and Game 3 was no exception. For AT, though, this isn’t new—it’s her signature brand of basketball. She thrives in the chaos. You see her grin her way through transition, spinning past defenders for a crafty finish at the rim. That same smile doesn’t fade when she’s muscling a weaker defender in the paint. So, you know why she’s often called “bully ball” by her fans. But for her, it’s fun.

“I think you still have to have fun with it,” Thomas told Andscape. “As hard as it is and as competitive as it can get, basketball is supposed to be fun. I don’t want to lose sight of that. I feel like when I’m not having fun anymore, then it’s probably that time for me to move on.”

But this season, she’s just one step ahead. She’s averaging 15.4 points with 9.2 assists and 8.8 rebounds per game. And not just that—according to ESPN, Thomas ran 348 picks as the ball handler this season, which is a significant increase from her 256 picks when she was with Connecticut last season. So, yes, all this is merely AT being her true self. But why is she getting targeted?

Alyssa Thomas is the ‘dirtiest’ player across the WNBA, yes or no?

In July, Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman of The Athletic shared the results of an anonymous WNBA players’ poll titled “Who is the league’s biggest trash-talker?” 13 votes out of 33 respondents voted for Alyssa Thomas.

The following comments, anonymously, were also submitted.

“She smiles and talks s—, that’s the crazy part, it’s psycho stuff, she’s crazy, man.”

“Everyone knows AT talks s—-. I don’t even guard her, and she talks s— to me.”

“She always has something, and she’s always talking.”

When Alyssa Thomas has the ball in her hands, she’ll survey the court, weigh a handful of scenarios, and make it count for Mercury. This is exactly how she’s made it to the W’s single-season record for assists with her 357 dimes this year, while posting the second-highest assists-per-game average in W history.

The goal is quite clear in her mind: “She wants to win. She wants to win the championship bad,” said DeWanna Bonner, Thomas’ Mercury teammate and fiancée. “She’ll do whatever it takes.”

What do you think about the entire Collier-Thomas controversy? Drop your thoughts below.