The WNBA announced Thursday that Alyssa Thomas has been suspended for one game after reviewing the now-viral moment that involved the Phoenix Mercury forward’s fist making contact with Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark’s throat after landing on her during a recent game.
The league’s action came the day after the Mercury’s 111-109 victory against the Fever on Wednesday. The game followed the teams’ chippy Monday matchup, which saw Thomas and Clark receive technical fouls along with three other players for their involvement in a scuffle during the final frame of the Fever’s 86-77 win.
Former WNBA player-turned-studio analyst Cynthia Cooper said the situation could have been different if the foul had just been assessed during the game in which it occurred.
“I think if the play had been reviewed and the decision was made there that it was a Flagrant 2, I think this all would have been handled differently,” the Hall of Famer said during Prime’s WNBA postgame show on Thursday. “This is probably blown out of proportion a little bit, just because maybe the officials missed it in the game. Then, when they had the replay, they could have fixed it. They could have righted the wrong, and they didn’t.”
Thomas and Clark got tangled up at around the 6:52 mark during the second quarter of the Wednesday game. Clark, who had Mercury guard Lexie Held defending her, fell to the floor and lost control of the ball. As players scrambled for the ball, Thomas landed on Clark, pressed her fist into Clark’s throat as she got up and stepped over her as play continued. No fouls were called at that time, and screenshots and video from the incident quickly made their rounds on social media.
Following the game, Fever head coach Stephanie White called the incident a “cheap shot” and said the lack of a foul call was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“We spent all offseason looking at officiating,” White said Wednesday. “The one thing we keep asking for is consistency. [Clark] is not called the same way everybody else is called.”
In its Thursday statement following a review of the game, the WNBA said that it determined that Thomas “recklessly [made] contact with her fist to the throat area of Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark” in what it described as a “non-basketball act.” The six-time All Star will serve her first-ever suspension during the Mercury’s game against the Toronto Tempo on Saturday. Flagrant 2 fouls also carry a $1,000 fine.
In Prime’s postgame discussion Thursday with Cooper and Hall of Famer Swin Cash, former WNBA player and coach Ty Young said she did not believe Thomas’ foul was intentional, especially watching in real-time.
“From what I saw, I don’t feel like it was intentional,” Young said. “Playing against AT, guarding AT, and knowing … AT as a player — she’s a physical player. And if she wants to do something, [you can tell] it’s intentional. That wasn’t intentional. She wasn’t looking, she’s trying to get up. But when you freeze something … it looks worse than what it actually is.”
The WNBA is known for its physicality. While Cash acknowledged the importance of the league and teams protecting their players, she also noted that star players have always had to figure out a way to play through it.
“It’s a physical game,” said Cash. “Superstars — whether you’re A’ja Wilson, whether you’re Napheesa Collier, all the different superstars — they have gone through these processes of people being physical with them. And they still elevate to that next level. So I think we keep that in mind [with] this unfortunate situation. We’ll see what happens after this.”
