Caitlin Clark Targeted In WNBA, Sophie Cunningham Says

ASFN Admin · Saturday at 11:42 AM

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Sophie Cunningham isn't backing down. Just days after Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White ripped WNBA officials for allowing what she called "cheap shots" on Caitlin Clark, Cunningham took the argument even further. According to the Fever guard, Clark isn't just taking hard fouls—she's being singled out.

"But they are definitely targeting [Clark], and the league and the refs do nothing to protect her," Cunningham said on the latest episode of her Show Me Something podcast.

The comments followed a heated loss to the Phoenix Mercury, where Clark exited with a back injury after a pair of controversial plays. During a loose-ball scramble, Mercury star Alyssa Thomas appeared to drive a fist into Clark's throat while players fought for possession.

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Officials let the play continue, but the WNBA later reviewed the sequence, upgraded it to a Flagrant 2, and suspended Thomas for one game for "recklessly making contact with her fist to the throat area" of Clark.

Cunningham said the Fever didn't realize what had happened until after the game.

"During real time... none of our team saw it happen," she said. "Because I promise you, if we would have seen that happen, we would have had [Clark's] back."

She then accused the league of allowing the same pattern to repeat itself.

"Unfortunately, this type of sh*t happens every single game to [Clark], and the league and the refs do absolutely nothing about it," Cunningham said. "You see the videos of literally kneeing and cheap-shotting [Clark] in the throat."

Her remarks echoed White's emotional postgame criticism. The Fever coach blasted officials for missing what she described as two "cheap shots" and argued Clark "is not called the same way as everybody else is called."

White also questioned why officials failed to act after reviewing another play in which Clark landed on defender Valeriane Ayayi's foot following a three-point attempt.

The Fever's frustration isn't based on a single game. Since Clark entered the WNBA in 2024, no player has absorbed more flagrant fouls. She's been hit with nine in just 72 regular-season and playoff games, including high-profile incidents involving Chennedy Carter, Marina Mabrey and now Thomas.

Cunningham has become one of Clark's loudest defenders. Earlier this week, she went viral for silently pointing at DeWanna Bonner for nearly 22 seconds after Bonner got into a late-game confrontation with Clark.