After two physical, foul-riddled games for Caitlin Clark against the Phoenix Mercury this week that ended with a dirty hit by star center Alyssa Thomas toward Clark’s throat, the WNBA league office was strangely quiet.
And as veteran radio host Dan Patrick revealed Friday, even as his producers worked to reach the league throughout Thursday, they could not reach a league representative to provide a statement on the incident, even after head coach Stephanie White became the latest figure to excoriate the league over its officiating. The result, Patrick said, is that the situation spiraled “out of control” and allowed the most bombastic opinions in the media to set the tone of the conversation.
“Just a note to the WNBA, have somebody available,” Patrick said Friday on his show.
“Yesterday, we’re one of the few outlets that called looking for a quote. We couldn’t even get a quote out of anybody. And Paulie was working on that most of the show. Like, have somebody available, alright? You have to answer tough questions sometimes. And this is a time when you have to answer a tough question. But have somebody available. That’s all. Have somebody available for comment. Everybody was traveling; nobody was available yesterday. And then it spirals out of control, and it gets even worse. And then everybody’s got an opinion about this. Even people who probably didn’t see the game.”
Patrick corrected the record from commentators like Boomer Esiason, who argued Thomas’ hit was some sort of retribution for Clark being a straight, white star in the WNBA, but argued that the league still needs to “protect” Clark.
“[Rival players] don’t like that she gets all the attention, that’s all,” Patrick said, noting that the WNBA has had plenty of straight, white superstars before.
Patrick also acknowledged that Clark milks contact and tries to sell fouls on nearly every play, which he said was “bothersome to the league” and “to the opposition.”
However, Patrick made clear that while it is understandable for players to be bothered by Clark and to have their own opinions, the job of a league is to enforce its rules and promote the moneymakers. In the case of Clark’s altercation with Thomas, Patrick said the league is in part to blame for not getting out in front of the story and laying down the law.
“I just want to make sure this doesn’t get out of hand where she suffers a really bad injury,” he said. “Yesterday, they let it kind of metastasize. And that’s on the WNBA … you can even say, ‘Look we have no comment on that,’ or, ‘We can’t comment on that.'”
The WNBA suspended Thomas for one game
Patrick also suggested the same was true for the WNBA’s recently released 30th-anniversary commemorative poster, which did not feature Clark as the stand-in for the Indiana Fever. Some business analysts online have noted that the WNBA likely left Clark off because it does not have the rights to her likeness for such a product.
The uncertainty around the poster, which has since led to viral discourse as well, is also a byproduct of the WNBA’s lack of assertiveness behind the scenes, Patrick said:
“Why the mystery here? You just make it worse. Every time you think they’re going to build on something, they don’t.”
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.