At some point, with all the tinder lying around, it was inevitable that a spark would catch fire.
Chennedy Carter was the flint. Caitlin Clark was the rock. And days later, the landscape is still raging with ever-growing flames.
It’s true that Carter’s shoulder check on Clark wasn’t a basketball play. It’s also true that this kind of competitive physicality is quite common in basketball, and especially in the WNBA. If things had been different, if history had been kinder to women’s athletic and professional endeavors, it could have remained a moment in the season’s timeline. A video to put in the bucket for a rivalry feature.
Instead, it added fuel to the growing discourse surrounding Clark and the WNBA. In the same way that leaders have described the rising tide in women’s basketball that led to a sellout crowd watching Clark’s Indiana Fever beat Carter’s Chicago Sky on Saturday afternoon, the play in question caused the collision of too many atoms that were already active.
Clark is almost undeniably the most famous name in the 28-year-old WNBA. There have been plenty of other superstars, but none have been able to make it into the league yet in national TV commercials and on supermarket window stickers. Only the early players from 1996 – Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, etc. – could come close. That’s why many people are watching the WNBA for the first time. There are media personalities who are talking about it for the first time, and their recordings are not always rooted in historical knowledge. Players are facing media attention and criticism that they have rarely received at this level.
Carter’s shoulder check was cheap, even within the accepted reality of physical W basketball. It was clear it wasn’t a basketball game, and it didn’t need to be. Referees often go to the monitors to assess possible upgrades on smaller, more incidental plays, and confusing technical calls can be considered a WNBA hallmark. The egregious event should have been assessed as “unnecessary contact,” and we should all have moved on.
Before Saturday’s match, three players received fouls that were upgraded during in-game reviews. Mercury guard Kahleah Copper had a flagrant 1 on opening night when her shooting hand landed on Kelsey Plum’s face. Sparks guard Aari McDonald’s foul on Clark was upgraded to a flagrant 1 for a “reckless closeout” while defending a deep transition 3-pointer. Alyssa Thomas drew the previously most high-profile flagrant this season when she threw Angel Reese to the ground on a rebound opportunity and was ejected on a flagrant 2.
That Clark’s most recent incident has not been reviewed or upgraded at this time, as it clearly should have caused the initial spark. Even in the hours after the incident, fans and social media personalities continued to insist it wasn’t a big deal because the play was in fact called a technical play. Add in the TV angle and slo-mo replays that make the hit look worse, with Carter yelling something at Clark while hitting her, and Angel Reese jumping up in celebration on the couch, and we had all the makings of a good, old-fashioned disagreement.
Clark followed a grueling college schedule that included 11 games in 20 days for the Fever. That’s about a third of a collegiate season crammed into three weeks, and she’s the No. 1 target in defensive game plans for the league’s best teams. A lot of the physicality she faces is part of the game and part of being a star rookie that veterans don’t want to embarrass themselves with. Clark herself has said repeatedly that she understands the nature of the competition, and with a full offseason she will have time to rebuild and compete better, just as guards Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum have done in recent years. She doesn’t need anyone to protect her from that reality. She is a die-hard fan of the game and grew up attending Minnesota Lynx games with her father during their dynasty. She knows.
Other things, like that Carter hit, are borderline and shouldn’t be let go without consequences. And while on paper that only meant one free throw and the ball for the Fever, in reality it should have sent a stronger message that this type of play will not be tolerated.
“Physical play, intensity and competitive spirit are hallmarks of Chicago Sky basketball,” Sky head coach Teresa Weatherspoon said in a statement Monday. “Chennedy got caught in the heat of the moment trying to win the match. She and I discussed what happened and that it was not appropriate, nor is it what we do or who we are.
Weatherspoon is right. Sports is a competitive atmosphere and emotions can get away from a player. Why the Hall of Famer said nothing about the game after the game other than her blunt “all they do is compete” only added more heat to the fire.
Weatherspoon shut down post-match media questions directed at Carter, which offered the player a chance to explain the incident in her own words. In the Fever’s room down the hall, Clark took the high road by answering multiple questions about the interaction and didn’t blame anyone. “It is what it is,” she said several times. She sits for 10-15 minutes at a time three times a day on game days, of which she has already had 11 compared to the Sky’s seven, and answers simple, difficult and sometimes repetitive questions. Fans see that and respond to it.
Meanwhile, Reese, one half of the rookie duo alongside Clark, declined to speak to the media on Saturday. That reignited the charred branch of media access and player accountability in a league known to demand more coverage. WNBA media protocol requires teams to make two players and a head coach available at a press conference after a cooling-off period of up to 10 minutes. Any other healthy player must be made available if requested by a media member through written or verbal communication. The arrangement was agreed to by the WNBA Players Association and the league to replace open locker room access that was closed before the 2023 season.
Multiple media members asked to speak with Reese on Saturday. It doesn’t help that the Sky franchise has a history of not following the rules and often makes access to players difficult. The WNBA has fined Reese and the franchise, as it has done with 2023 Finals runner-up Liberty and 2021 runner-up Mercury.
Lacking context from the players themselves, the controversy spread further. It opened up space for people, some of whom have never watched women’s basketball but have seen a clip on their social media timeline, to fill in their own assumptions and misleading claims about intentions.
Carter’s one major comment after the game — “I don’t answer questions from Caitlin Clark” — only added to it. And she kept her feet away from the heat, because while she may not have wanted to answer questions about Clark, she clearly had things to say about the new star. She shut down the comments and bounced wherever she wanted on social media after the match.
Carter, a 2020 lottery pick with a troubled history in the league, can talk whatever she wants. Anyone who followed Clark, a noted talker, to the WNBA should appreciate that. But if you’re going to talk bullshit, stick to it when it matters.
But cheapness aside, the league could use the beef. It used to market itself as the ‘144’, a nod to the number of roster spots. It now wants to focus on rivalries and superstar marketing, because that’s how sports work. More people saw Carter’s performance with Clark live because they tuned in to see Clark, Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. The number of people now watching the Sky-Fever rematch is growing.
Years of egregious fouls predated Carter and attracted considerably less attention. An iconic clip of Diana Taurasi Seimone bumping into Augustus and giving her a kiss on the cheek during the 2013 playoffs made the rounds this weekend as an example of W drama. Taurasi received a technical inspection. They all commented on it in post-game media availability (again, iconic).
Still, that was a different time on a smaller platform. The game is growing now and the players have to grow with it.
