WNBA Suspended Alyssa Thomas One Game for Punching Caitlin Clark in the Throat and Fans Are Furious
The Phoenix Mercury punched Caitlin Clark in the throat, posted a meme mocking her while she lay injured, then deleted it when the backlash hit.
The WNBA's answer was extremely lacking.
Fans reacted the way anyone with a pulse would – and the league's Thursday night promotional posts were buried under an avalanche of outrage that had nothing to do with the games being advertised.
What Actually Happened on That Court
With 6:52 left in the second quarter of Wednesday's Fever-Mercury game in Indianapolis, Clark drove to the lane, fell, and landed on her side.
Multiple Phoenix players piled on top of her going for the loose ball.
Alyssa Thomas balled up her fist and drove it into Clark's throat.
No whistle.
Clark grabbed at her back moments later after a separate hard foul on a 3-point attempt – also uncalled in real time.
She left in the third quarter and never returned, finishing with 19 points and 8 assists in just 20 minutes of play before exiting with a back injury and no return timetable.
Phoenix won 111-109.
Then the Mercury's official account posted a cartoon-style meme of a player lying on the floor with the caption "DE-WANNA PIECE OF THIS?!?" – a play on DeWanna Bonner's name – and quietly deleted it when the blowback started.
No apology. No statement. Just gone.
The WNBA's Answer Was One Game
The league reviewed the footage Thursday and upgraded the play to a Flagrant Foul 2, ruling Thomas had "recklessly made contact with her fist to the throat area" and committed a "non-basketball act."
The punishment: one game.
Thomas will miss the Mercury's June 27 matchup against the Toronto Tempo.
That's it.
Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White wasn't buying it. "We have a generational talent and WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots right there that weren't called," White said after the game. "She is not called the same way as everybody else is called. The fist in the throat is crazy. It's crazy. It's dangerous."
Caitlin Clark's biographer Christine Brennan called it plainly: a one-game suspension with no punishment for the officials who missed the call live is "a very poor response to a significant WNBA problem."
Fans hijacked the league's Thursday night promotional posts on X – games featuring A'ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart – and turned them into a flood of Clark content.
One wrote: "Can you stop letting people punch Caitlin, or what's the endgame here? Bankruptcy?"
Another: "Nobody gives a damn. WNBA is the worst. You have players attacking Clark nonstop."
This Is a Pattern the League Refuses to Name
This isn't new.
In Clark's rookie season, Chennedy Carter hip-checked Clark while she stood waiting for an inbound pass – a no-call the league later upgraded to a Flagrant 1.
Marina Mabrey picked up a flagrant for a separate incident.
There have been hard fouls, reckless closeouts, and borderline plays involving Clark throughout both her WNBA seasons – multiple upgraded after the fact, which means the refs missed them live every single time.
Meanwhile, Thomas – a 13-year veteran who had never served a WNBA suspension – will sit out one game against a team sitting seventh in the Western Conference.
Here's what makes this worse: the same media figures who spent three years telling you Clark's success was a racial story are now telling you race has nothing to do with her getting punched in the throat.
https://twitter.com/Rightanglenews/status/2070183784847216725
ESPN spent years running segments calling Clark's popularity "problematic." When broadcaster Boomer Esiason suggested Clark should consider leaving the WNBA because she isn't being protected, Jemele Hill fired back asking whether he was "implying that she should receive special treatment because she's straight and white." Angel Reese posted a TikTok calling Clark a "white girl afraid to catch the fade."
You can't spend three years making Clark's success a race story and then demand everyone ignore race the moment she takes a fist to the throat.
Clark's own coach said it directly after the game: "She is not called the same way as everybody else is called."
The WNBA has known that for years.
It's still handing out one-game suspensions to prove otherwise.
Sources:
- "WNBA Suspends Alyssa Thomas for 'Recklessly' Hitting Caitlin Clark in Throat During Scramble," Fox News, June 25, 2026.
- "Mercury's Alyssa Thomas Suspended 1 Game for Shot to Clark's Throat," ESPN, June 25, 2026.
- "Mercury's Now-Deleted Social Media Post Mocking Caitlin Clark Draws Scrutiny After Star's Injury," OutKick, June 25, 2026.
- "WNBA Fans Threaten to Boycott League Over Caitlin Clark Treatment in Hijacked X Post," The Mirror US, June 26, 2026.
- "'Very Poor Response': Caitlin Clark's Biographer Voices Frustration With WNBA Punishment in Alyssa Thomas Incident," Yahoo Sports, June 26, 2026.
- "Haters Who Framed Caitlin Clark's Success as Racial Now Dismiss Race When She's Targeted on the Court," OutKick, June 25, 2026.
