The drama surrounding the WNBA is not just meant for Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and the Indiana Fever.
The Fever have made national headlines for nothing to do with basketball following Cunningham’s comments about transgender athletes in an ESPN profile. It has led to rallies in support of her at arenas where the Fever are playing and photo ops with conservative influencers like Riley Gaines. It has also led to protests and strong statements from inside the WNBA world. When the Fever played the Minnesota Lynx, head coach Cheryl Reeve wore a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt.
Thankfully, this time around, we’re focused on basketball and criticism of WNBA officiating, which has also been a major talking point this season.
Chicago Sky head coach Tyler Marsh was the latest person to be dissatisfied with the league’s standard of officiating this season. In his press conference after a 106-101 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Monday night, he unloaded on the referees, calling them a “f*cking joke” and the lack of calls for star center Kamilla Cardoso.
“It was a joke. It was a fucking joke.”
A very upset Chicago Sky coach Tyler Marsh on the lack of foul calls and free throws that Kamilla Cardoso received again, this time in the defeat to the Mercury.
“I tried to talk calmly to officials…it’s a joke.”
🎥 @TWDTV1 #WNBA pic.twitter.com/kW7eHqLQHx— Andrew Jerell Jones, Luke 1:37 (BlueSky too now) (@sluggahjells) August 4, 2026
“It was a joke. It was a f*cking joke. It’s a joke,” Marsh said. “How many more games does she need to go without getting a free throw? It makes no sense. Zero sense. It didn’t come to that. We fought our asses off today. We could have been more disciplined, put them on the line 40 times. Not saying the officials made 40 wrong calls or 20 wrong calls or whatever it is. Not saying that at all. But for her to play as hard as she does consistently, she doesn’t give much pushback to the officials, I try to talk as calmly as I can to officials before it gets out of hand, it’s a joke.”
Cardoso had a double double with 16 points and 13 rebounds and incredibly did not shoot a free throw in the entire contest. For the game, the Sky were 17-25 at the charity stripe while the Mercury made 31 out of a whopping 40 attempts. So perhaps that’s why Marsh feels entirely justified in his rant. Frustration is also brewing with the Sky on their way to their fourth consecutive losing season and an 11-19 record this year.
While it might have felt good to get those frustrations off his chest, odds are Marsh will have to pay a hefty fine for it.
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