Clark’s eighth technical briefly became a one-game problem
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark picked up what was first ruled her eighth technical foul of the season during the third quarter of the Fever’s Saturday win over the Chicago Sky. The call came after Chicago guard Natasha Cloud bodied Clark out of bounds, causing Clark to brush against a referee. Officials ruled the contact with the referee was intentional, which turned a sideline collision into a league paperwork festival. Because it would have been Clark’s eighth technical, it carried an automatic one-game suspension for Tuesday’s game against the New York Liberty. The Fever appealed, and after the clip drew wide attention, the WNBA rescinded the technical foul.
An earlier foul made the game even hotter
The Clark ruling came after another rough moment in the first quarter involving Fever player Sophie Cunningham and Chicago Sky player DiJonai Carrington. Cunningham was going in for a layup when Carrington made hard contact around Cunningham’s face and sent her to the floor. Officials first called it a flagrant 1, then upgraded it after review to a flagrant 2, which means the contact was judged excessive and unnecessary. Carrington was ejected. The source article also noted that Carrington later posted “white privilege” on X and tagged the Indiana Fever. That did not exactly lower the temperature, but then again, modern sports debates often come with instant replay, hot takes, and a free side order of culture war.
The league reversed the Clark call quickly
Before the WNBA rescinded the technical, crew chief Maj Forsberg said the official “deemed that Clark intentionally made contact; therefore, a technical foul was assessed,” according to ESPN. Once the league changed course, the automatic suspension threat was removed, keeping Clark from being sidelined for the Fever-Liberty matchup over a play that many viewers saw as accidental contact after she had been pushed off her path. Scott Agness reported the reversal on X, noting that the technical would have been Clark’s eighth of the season and praising the league for handling it quickly. It was a rare case where the bureaucracy found the reverse gear before the outrage machine finished warming up.
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