If it happened in the NBA, the league would have suspended her. Watch the replay again. The ball isn’t even in play. It’s still in the hands of Indiana Fever inbounder Aliyah Boston and hasn’t entered the court. It’s not a “heat of the moment” play as Carter claimed, because there is no play going on. Carter comes up behind Clark, appears to yell “b—-,” lowers a shoulder and piles into Clark’s body from the rear and side, driving her to the ground. There’s nothing competitive or incidental about it.
Better yet, watch it side by side with Patrick Beverley’s play. There are sundry comparable instances in the NBA, and they all earned suspensions. The closest comparison is Beverley, who has been suspended twice for almost identical acts — or less. In 2021, when Beverly was with the Los Angeles Clippers, he earned a one-game penalty for merely shoving the Phoenix Suns’ Chris Paul in the back with two hands during a play stoppage in the Western Conference finals.
In 2022, the league office gave him a three-game suspension for a hard shoulder blow almost exactly like Carter’s flagrant-one. Late in a heated contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and Suns, Beverley had been going back and forth with Phoenix’s Deandre Ayton. During a stoppage, Beverley lowered his shoulder and drove it into an unsuspecting Ayton, knocking him to the ground. “That is a straight body check,” ESPN’s announcer declared. That time, Beverley got a more severe suspension because of his history.
The NBA league office knows what happens if you don’t penalize that kind of flagrancy: escalation, an injury or a bench clearing. And the WNBA may have to face that kind of ugly spiral because of its laxity in this case. It has made targeting Clark permissible.
“Cheap shots aren’t allowed,” Fever General Manager Lin Dunn said in a phone conversation Wednesday. “They’re going to happen — I know it. But you pay the consequences, and the consequences should be high.”
Clark is absorbing more fouls statistically than any other WNBA rookie. It’s not just a function of typical rookie hazing or Clark’s own conduct. Were there words and physicality earlier between Clark and Carter? Yeah. Same with Beverley. There is always a jawing prelude. It doesn’t justify a flagrant foul against a defenseless opponent. Is there jealousy of Clark’s enormous, almost inexplicable popularity and her massive sponsorship deals? You bet.
“Get to know there are players that are already here,” Carter said during a media availability earlier this week. She also posted on social media, “[Besides] three point shooting, what does she bring to the table man?” The answer: more than anyone has ever before.
One of the many dynamics in this situation is that the mauling hasn’t stopped Clark, so it’s liable to get uglier. She has averaged 15.6 points, 6.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds. She’s the fastest rookie in league history to reach 150 points with 50 assists and 50 rebounds. “Indiana better go invest in an enforcer … FAST!” Draymond Green wrote after watching the Carter foul. The WNBA’s inaction has created an inverse ethic, in which the Fever is supposed to protect Clark from cheap shots with cheap shots of its own. “We get criticized for not retaliating, which is crazy,” Dunn said.
The Fever has sent clip after clip to the league office asking for relief, not because it wants Clark to be coddled or given star treatment but because someone could get hurt. Dunn wrote: “There’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary — targeting actions.” Clark took a withering blow to the head to from Seattle Storm center Ezi Magbegor. Los Angeles Sparks guard Aari McDonald was handed a flagrant-one foul for a too-aggressive closeout when Clark pulled up to launch one of her trademark gasp-inducing three-pointers, denying Clark space to land. That’s how you take out a knee.
“When you send a clear message this behavior is not acceptable, players learn from it,” Dunn said. “ ‘Okay, if I do a cheap shot whether it’s in play or not in play, I get thrown out.’ Then they adapt and adjust. When the game is called tight, you adjust. When the is game called loosely, you adapt.”
Recall, in the 2022 NBA season, there were two instances of flagrant fouls that resulted in critical injuries. Grayson Allen, then with the Milwaukee Bucks, slammed Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso in midair, taking him to the floor and hurting his wrist. Even worse was Memphis Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks’s clubbing of Gary Payton II across the head during the playoffs, sending the Golden State Warriors guard down so hard that Payton fractured his elbow. “There’s a code. … You never put a guy’s season, career in jeopardy,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said afterward.
Leagues police flagrant, targeting fouls not to protect star scorers but because they’re dangerous and lead to retaliatory escalation and uncontrollable situations that give everyone black eyes. The WNBA, understandably, has not wanted to seem as if it’s giving Clark special protection or to admit to poor on-court officiating. But it has reached the point that the league is guilty of a double standard in the name of proving its legitimacy. Players defending Clark “get away with things that probably other people don’t get away with,” she has said. The WNBA should forget the “W” and protect the game.
