***CC22 and the Fever mega thread***
- Thread starter LetsGoHawks83
- Start date
On the same day they announce AT’s suspension!?!? Very sus.The fix is in.
I've always liked her game, her run-in with Caitlin aside.
Was 9-18 from three to go along with 8-10 inside the arc and 10-12 free throws. Totally smashed her previous best of 37 points.
To tie the all-time scoring record with Wilson and Cambage obviously puts her in pretty good company. What a game for her.
Correct. That is not CC; it is the thug Thomas' lesbian lover.
and rightfully so.
The stuff will happen again. Behaviors are difficult to change sometimes. The big question is, when will the next incident happen? Sad.
A 10 game suspension and at least a $10,000 fine is what Christine Brennan (who has been covering sports for the last 45 years) suggests is warranted.Brennan was the first woman sports writer at The Miami Herald in 1981 and the first woman to cover Washington’s NFL team as a staff writer at The Washington Post in 1985.
She has covered every Olympic Games (22 of them), summer and winter, since the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Her column from last night:
Caitlin Clark made the WNBA bigger. It’s still playing small | Opinion
Christine BrennanUSA TODAY
Updated June 25, 2026, 7:21 p.m. ET
A fist to the throat. That’s the picture that has immediately become part of WNBA lore. In it, Caitlin Clark, the most famous, marketable and important women’s professional team sport athlete in history, is being punched by Alyssa Thomas, whose earnings, fame and way of life have all been greatly enhanced over the past couple of years by the woman she is hitting.
For three seasons now, in ways big and small, the WNBA and its players have continued to show their unabashed jealousy, disdain and outright hatred for the greatest thing to happen to them. The league’s paltry one-game suspension of Thomas, with a tiny $1,000 fine (she makes a base salary of $1.2 million a year) and no mention of punishment for the officials overseeing the incident, barely begins to address the problem. Ten games and a fine well into five figures would have sent a significant message. One game does not.
Clark is getting pummeled on a regular basis and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert — who was given the greatest gift, in Clark, any women’s sports commissioner has ever received — has done precious little about it, until today, kind of, just a little. What an opportunity she had to throw the book at Thomas, who has a history of dirty play, including severely injuring Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier’s ankle last year. Thomas also happened to knee Clark in her left groin, which was injured last season, moments before her fist ended up on Clark’s neck.
The hit parade against Clark started way before this: A brutal hip check from Chennedy Carter in Clark’s rookie year, an eye poke from Jacy Sheldon and a freight train of a shove from Marina Mabrey last year. Cheap shots all. No one was ever suspended. Other fouls were not called. Clark argues with the refs, of course, and throws up her hands, something she has done since high school and AAU ball and definitely overdoes at times, although rarely is she wrong in her complaint.
Sadly, Engelbert’s history in the WNBA’s Clark era has been to disappear when she should rise. She has avoided when she should engage. In interviews about Clark, she “and Angels” or “and Paiges” when she should say what is undeniably true: it’s Caitlin Clark. She’s the one. No need to add other names. If we’re talking TV viewership, moving to bigger arenas, sponsorships, bringing in waves of new young fans who want her autograph and will be around for the next 50-60 years, shoes, apparel, trading cards, you name it — no one else belongs in the same sentence.
What is especially aggravating about Engelbert’s inability to give Clark her due and keep her safe when the league desperately needs her presence for its financial future is all the possibilities the WNBA is squandering by refusing to fully embrace Clark’s superstardom. Many women who grew up playing sports at the beginning of Title IX, women like Engelbert and me, dreamed of a time when a women’s team sport athlete would take over the nation the way Clark has. Team sports were always strictly the domain of men. Women excelled in the Olympics, tennis and golf, but team sports? They were not ours.
And then, and then … along comes a young woman in Iowa who is chucking shots from the parking lot and confidently celebrating as they go in. As social media clips spread and State Farm commercials launched, fans lined up for hours across the Big Ten during the winter for Iowa games — as if Taylor Swift or Beyoncé was the one on stage that night. Fans came in the tens of thousands to do something I still cannot believe I am writing: Watch a woman play basketball.
Thirty years earlier, I would appear on sports radio talk shows while covering a Women’s Final Four, or before a 1990s WNBA game, and would get laughed at by men who thought it ridiculous we were even talking about women’s hoops. Now those guys, or their sons or grandsons, proudly wear their No. 22 jerseys not only to WNBA games but to the grocery store and the gas station.
This is the point in the Clark conversation when those in the league and WNBA media who have been actively minimizing Clark’s extraordinary impact for three seasons will say she’s just another very good player, that A’ja Wilson and Paige Bueckers are better (Wilson certainly is, and Bueckers might be, although her statistics are not as good as Clark’s).
And this is where I will say back: That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about attendance and TV viewership and all the things Clark brings to the league to generate bigger revenue, bigger contracts, bigger arenas and bigger opportunities for all.
Just last week, Wilson and Bueckers played in a prime time Las Vegas-Dallas game on USA Network. It drew 457,000 viewers. The next day, Clark and the Indiana Fever played the lowly, expansion Toronto Tempo, also in prime time on USA Network. One million people watched.
This was not a one-off. When Clark was first injured last season and disappeared for two weeks, more than half the TV audience for the league disappeared too, according to Nielsen. Playoff numbers without her dropped similarly. Perhaps the most stunning sports TV viewership statistic of all is how Clark drew 18.9 million viewers to her last college game, the NCAA women’s final — four million more than watched the men’s national championship game the next night. Again, a feat that seemed unimaginable until Clark made it happen.
Just a month later, Clark’s fame and the accompanying security risks forced the WNBA to initiate charter flights immediately upon her arrival after decades of making players endure commercial flights, middle seats and missed connections. Thomas was among dozens of veteran players who benefitted.
In her rookie WNBA season, Clark and the Fever drew an average of 17,036 at their home games, more than the average home attendance of five NBA teams that year. In her rookie season last year, Bueckers couldn’t consistently sell out a 6,251-seat arena. In 20 home games held there, seven sold out.
These facts make some longtime WNBA players, reporters and fans (especially those from UConn) mad, even sad. I understand they wish a player like Maya Moore, Clark’s favorite growing up, would have been so famous that everyone -- sports fan or not -- knew her name, as they do with Clark. I wish it happened too. But it didn’t. Do they want the small thing to stay small forever?
Of course race and sexual orientation play a massive role in this conversation. The WNBA is a league that is 74% Black or mixed-race, with a sizable gay population, according to my book, "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports." Clark is white and straight. Here the WNBA also failed to anticipate Clark’s immense appeal and facilitate conversations about these issues before she arrived, as any workplace should when an enormous cultural shift is about to occur.
The WNBA didn’t do that, allowing the void to be filled with anger and aggression. Three seasons in, it’s all clearly still there, night after night, game after game, a significant problem that a one-game suspension hardly begins to solve.
Christine Brennan writes columns on national and international sports issues for USA Today. She's is the best-selling author of seven books including "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports."
Caitlin Clark made the WNBA bigger. It’s still playing small | Opinion
The league’s paltry one-game suspension of Alyssa Thomas after her fist to Caitlin Clark's throat barely begins to address the problem.
www.usatoday.com
Oh good a Christine Brennan article pouring gas on this fire is exactly what we needed
It would come as little surprise if you're into dudes licking you. You have to be top 10 stupidest mofo on here.
Having the best year or best player?
Plum and Mabry should be added if year. Miles definitely. It if it’s overall.
And there is a player who is top 4 scoring and 2nd assists which I’m not sure people understand is a crazy accomplishment and rather rare.
It’s kind of ironic that #1 can’t play right now because of #3.
To be the best you gotta beat
Ignoring the stats and buzz, if I were picking the Olympic team I'd pick these five without without blinking - A'ja Wilson, Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, Rhyne Howard, and Angel Reese. You can count on these players day-in and day-out.
No Collier? She was arguably the best player in the league before her injury. If she is able to return to her old form then she seems like a no-brainer in 2028.
Sure - if she were healthy, she's a no-brainer. At this point, I wondering if she'll ever be back. Good old AT ran her over pretty good.
I think this team can win it all if Clark can limit turnovers and Reese would kick it out when she has 3 people towering over her. But TBH if the olympics were this year I'd probably swap out Reese for Shepard.
Swap out Reese? Are you okay? Should we call for an ambulance?
Look I love Reese. She's a baller and she's funny as hell, but Shepard has nearly identical stats and shoots like 20% better.
I am sure the broadcaster is pleased as punch at the league for this.
please, beat up the only reason we bid on these rights.
"Tune in Saturday when the Indiana Fever host the LA Sparks as Caitlin Clark hopes to tally a bench-technical foul to surpass her rival Angel Reece for the favorie to win the Diana Taurasi League's Top Complainer award."
I'm a big CC fan, but that's not her in the pic. Caitlin does not wear a purple jersey with the number 24.
The Mercury shared a doodle of a stick figure lying on the ground with the words, "De-Wanna piece of this?!?" The stick figure — dressed in DeWanna Bonner's No. 24 Mercury jersey, pony tail and her signature white headband — referenced Bonner celebrating her and-one opportunity in the second quarter of Wednesday's win.
But the social media post promptly received backlash and some called it inappropriate in light of a viral clip of Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas pushing down on the neck of Fever guard Caitlin Clark. The Mercury removed the post to avoid further misinterpretation, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.
The doodle shared on Wednesday, June 24, references a key moment in the second quarter. Bonner made a layup with 4:49 remaining in the first half to come within one point of the Fever, 44-43. She was fouled on the play by Indiana's Monique Billings and gave a triumphant roar while lying on her back. Bonner cashed in on the 3-point play at the free-throw line to tie to the game as boos rained down.
Phoenix Mercury delete social media post after win over Indiana Fever. Here's why
The Phoenix Mercury's sixth win of the season wasn't without controversy and a now-deleted social media post inadvertently fanned the flames.www.usatoday.com
Yes for Gods sake let's just whitewash this **** and move on... nothing to see here. Why are you even here? Troll?Oh good a Christine Brennan article pouring gas on this fire is exactly what we needed
No Kelsey Plum or Cameron Brink for the Sparks, either. CBS and their sponsors must be pretty excited about all the tens of thousands of fans who will tune in for this primetime battle between Kelsey Mitchell and (checks notes) Ariel Atkins.
What did I say that whitewashed the incident? I was just pointing out that even though the Mercury tweet looked bad it wasn't an attempt to toll CC. It was about a totally different play.
What happened to Caitlin was awful. Thomas deserved the suspension(it could have been longer) and fine.
You really put the old in Oldhawk.
Cheap shots happen in sports. The league handed out a suspension. It's time to move on.
If you can't handle it I'd suggest you watch Real Housewives or something. That way you can get all the drama you love to focus on and non of the actual competition.
Your 2nd sentence is where I stand. 1 game suspension is the punishment for a Flagrant 2.
Nothing to watch Saturday, out.
Oh good a Christine Brennan article pouring gas on this fire is exactly what we needed
Christine Brennan has been covering women's basketball since the 1984 Olympics. What she says matters and people with a functioning brain take note. What you & @AFM22 say clearly doesn't matter, and instead of people "taking note," you are mocked and laughed at.
You're both idiots.
You both should be suspended for10 days on here and fined for the crap that you post.
I haven't been watching even when Caitlin has been playing.
CC and the Fever were must see before. Now, they are not. I am sure this is what TV executives want to hear.
Would you like my posts better if I copy and pasted every tweet that crossed my feed on here?
He doesn't even watch her games, just scrolls feeds for content.
Since basketball doesn't seem to be your thing. Maybe take up another hobby instead of spamming this board. I'd hate for you to be triggered any more than you already are.
That's why the post game presser was BS. If she was REALLY that pissed, she would have come at the refs long before the post game presser. That was staged so that she doesn't get blasted for doing absolutely nothing to protect Clark, as always.....