Stephane White, the head coach of Women’s National Basketball Association franchise, the Indiana Fever, has demanded that referees put an end to their ‘egregious’ and ‘utterly disrespectful’ officiating treatment of star player and household name, Caitlin Clark, in a recent stinging rebuke following a string of controversial calls in their last few fixtures.
With The Fever falling to a 111-109 loss on Wednesday in their court battle with Phoenix Mercury, a further number of very questionable referee calls went against the 24 year old Des Moines native Guard and after she went off injured following multiple tussles, it is fair to say that White had both seen, and, had enough with the reverse special treatment she felt Clark was now receiving.
The incidents in question that White made an issue of firmly raising have certainly had basketball fans debating their own opinions on the events, and fans will be looking at their sports betting app in future rematches. One clash saw Mercury’s star guard Alyssa Thomas seemingly appear to knee Clark in the groin, and push her fist into her neck in a tussle for possession after Clark was already on the floor.
No official called a foul for this during the game, but Thomas was then subsequently sanctioned retrospectively on Thursday for her actions with the WNBA handing her a one game suspension for ‘recklessly making contact with her fist to the throat area’. It is an interesting way of phrasing it.
Later on in the game, Clark was fouled during a three pointer and the 24 year old landed funny and was clearly in some discomfort getting back to her feet, but after reviewing the play they decided Clark should be punished for a potential hostile act of hitting the defender in the face.
White went on to describe Clark as being a ‘generational talent’ and a ‘WNBA superstar’ who was clearly on the wrong end of two ‘cheap shots’ that were wilfully not called for by the officials, and for her, everyone watching on knew how ;absolutely unacceptable’ that was. She further railed that having spent large parts of the off season specifically looking at officiating, where all everyone was actually calling for was some consistency in decision making – it has now become abundantly clear that decisions are being taken based on who a players name is and not on the merits of the potential foul calls themselves, and that it is becoming more and more obvious that officials are treating Clark differently and unfairly just because of her status.
The incidents followed on from a heated game earlier in the week between the two sides where The Fever took the win 88-77, but that encounter was also marred by a series of fouls and confrontations.
