Caitlin Clark Chennedy Carter hard foul Caitlin Clark fouled by Chennedy Carter

Saturday’s game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever has been the talk of the sports world in recent days due to the hard foul from Sky guard Chennedy Carter on Caitlin Clark.

Most around the sports media landscape ripped Carter for the rather unnecessary shove. But the Chicago Tribune took things to a whole other level when analyzing the play.

On Monday, the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board released an article that likened Carter’s foul on Clark to “an assault” if it had happened off of the basketball court.

“The foul committed by Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter was egregious,” the article stated. “Outside of a sporting contest, it would have been seen as an assault. Even within a sporting context, it was bad: before the ball even was inbounded, Carter came up from behind Clark, shoving her at the hip and knocking her over. Lip readers simultaneously construed a five-letter epithet dancing on the Sky player’s lips. She should have been ejected from the game.”

Was the play unnecessary? Absolutely. Should the foul have resulted in a flagrant foul and potentially even an ejection for Carter? There is a good argument. But calling it an assault is a much more serious accusation.

And understandably, the article received a ton of backlash on social media.

“Told y’all we were gonna mess things up when we showed up,” wrote Bomani Jones on X.

“I cannot overstate the depth of my disappointment in this piece,” wrote Chicago Bulls beat writer for the Chicago Tribune Julia Poe. “The editorial board operates completely separately from the sports section. There is no oversight from myself or our staff. This is not a reflection of how we will cover the Sky.”

“Perhaps the Editorial Board could also weigh in on this play from the 1984 NBA Finals,” wrote Lance Medow of Mad Dog Radio on SiriusXM Radio on X, referring to Kevin McHale’s infamous foul on Kurt Rambis. “How society managed to move on the following day from sports entertainment without the FBI or CIA launching an investigation, we’ll never know.”

 

Regardless, the foul and the aftermath of it have created a ton of different narratives about both Clark and Carter that can be debated, as this Chicago Tribune article does. Just maybe not in the most productive way possible in this instance.

[The Chicago Tribune]

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.