Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has finally addressed the controversial incident involving her and Phoenix Mercury veteran Alyssa Thomas. After a week-long silence and no media interactions, Clark has asked for better referee decisions in the WNBA.

On Friday, Clark spoke with reporters during a Fever practice session. Without any prompts or questions about it, she addressed the viral incident from the June 24 game, where Thomas had her fist on Clark's throat after the latter was down on the floor during a play.

"First of all, I know what you guys are gonna ask, and I did think it was a flagrant foul, and our reffing just needs to be better," Clark said in a video shared by reporter Tony East on X. "Obviously, the refs are in a difficult spot, it's one of the hardest jobs in the world, in my opinion, is to make calls, and all you do is get yelled at the whole time by everybody."

"But for us, the league just got to do better at protecting our players. I don't think that it was up for debate," she added.

In the second quarter with 6:52 left, Caitlin Clark went down in the paint, after which Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner pounced on her to grab the ball. Thomas, while trying to stand up, pushed her fist into Clark's throat and stepped over her, which caused the controversy.

After a post-game review, the WNBA gave Thomas a one-game suspension and a Flagrant Foul 2 penalty for "recklessly making contact with her fist to the throat area" of Clark.

But this incident opened another ugly can of worms, with uncontrolled hate against Thomas on social media. Clark also addressed this trend of players getting 'harassed' over on-court incidents.

Caitlin Clark speaks out against hate speech after the viral incident

Alyssa Thomas spoke to the media on June 30, addressing how she received threats and hate after her foul on the two-time All-Star.

"It's unfortunate that it's come to this over basketball," Thomas said via ESPN. "A lot of us -- myself included -- didn't even know the play took place until after the game. Now we're being painted as thugs. There's d**** threats out on us. It's really unacceptable. It's something that needs to change in this league, and I'm just really sick and tired of it."

Caitlin Clark, in Friday's interaction with the media, condemned this hate, be it against her Fever teammate or the opponents, saying:

"The harassment, the hate, none of that is okay. It goes for the opposing team we play, that goes for my teammates, coaches. There should never be a question of character like I've always stood up here and said that, and that's truly what I believe; that's how I was raised. So, none of that is okay, and I don't want anyone to experience that."

The WNBA players' union sent a letter to its members last week addressing player safety and urging players to seek help from security if there are any problems.

Clark also announced her absence from Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Aces. It remains to be seen what further steps the WNBA will take to ensure the safety of its players amid ongoing hate and refereeing problems.

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Written by

Dhruv Singh

Edited by

Yash Kotak