Caitlin Clark Went Off On WNBA Referee, But It Was Sophie Cunningham Really Getting Shafted By Officials
The two Indiana Fever stars have every right to be furious with WNBA officiating.
OutKick has written this many times, but it bears repeating: the WNBA has a massive officiating problem. The league's referees are terrible, and it's particularly noticeable when the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark take the court.
Clark lost it on a referee during Indiana's win over the Connecticut Sun at Boston Garden on Tuesday night.
But if anyone had a right to lose their mind on officials, it was Clark's teammate Sophie Cunningham.
There were two non-calls on Connecticut players against Cunningham that, quite frankly, deserve a WNBA investigation. In the first, Cunningham took a clear – and purposeful – elbow to the side of her head while setting a screen. There was a referee standing right there, too, and nary a whistle was blown.
After the game, Cunningham wrote on social media that referees told her they saw the play, but determined that she flopped. Uh, what?
That wasn't the only ridiculous non-call, though. Late in the game, with the outcome still very much in the balance, Cunningham drove the Sun baseline and tried to get to the basket. However, the Sun defender literally threw her chest into Cunningham and knocked her out of bounds.
It was as clear-cut a blocking foul as one could imagine during a basketball game. Yet, no call. Instead, referees simply ruled that Cunningham went out of bounds on her own, thus resulting in a Fever turnover.
Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark lost it on a WNBA referee in Tuesday's win over Connecticut, but it was two non-calls on Sophie Cunningham that were particularly alarming.
(Imagn Images & Getty Images)
After the play, video shows Cunningham laughing at the absurdity of the no-call, and then she says to the referee, "I know you saw that."
There's really no excuse for either of these no-calls. The fact that referees told Cunningham that she flopped – meaning they saw her take an elbow to the head – makes it even worse. On the second one, I'm not even sure what to say. Cunningham had possession of the ball, so referees presumably saw the defender throw her body into Cunningham yet decided it wasn't worthy of a foul call.
There's not much else to say at this point. The WNBA has an officiating problem, and it appears to only be getting worse.