NEW YORK — The debate surrounding WNBA star Caitlin Clark and league officiating has now drawn in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who says the young player has been caught in the middle of a much larger cultural battle.
Speaking Thursday at the Game Plan Summit — a event presented by CNBC and Boardroom — Silver sat down with Andrew Ross Sorkin for an onstage discussion that touched on the controversy surrounding Clark and a recent on-court incident involving Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas.
“Ultimately, the issues around Caitlin Clark are not largely about officiating,” Silver said, “and that particular incident is not about whether a foul should have been called at the time in the game or whether that was ultimately a flagrant on review.”
Silver went on to describe his personal impressions of the star guard. “I have come to know Caitlin really well,” he said. “She’s an incredible player and also an incredible person. And she wants to focus on being the best player she can. She has become a bit of a political football in this country, and I think it’s incredibly unfair to her. I don’t think that issue is ultimately about officiating. It’s become political ping-pong with her. And she’s a young woman who’s trying to improve her game.”
The incident at the center of the controversy took place during a June 24 matchup between Clark’s team and the Mercury. Thomas made contact with her fist to Clark’s throat during the second quarter of that game. No foul was called during live play, but the league later reviewed the incident and upgraded it to a flagrant foul, handing Thomas a one-game suspension for “recklessly making contact with her fist.”
Thomas has maintained the contact was accidental. However, in the aftermath, she revealed she received death threats and was subjected to racial slurs. She also publicly criticized WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, saying the league failed to do enough to protect its players from that kind of abuse.
Both Clark and her head coach Stephanie White have spoken out against the threats directed at Thomas.
Since arriving in the WNBA, Clark has been credited with driving a dramatic rise in ticket sales and television viewership. Despite that positive impact, much of the public conversation around her has been pulled into divisive territory, including debates about race, officiating standards, and politics.
Silver addressed the broader officiating question directly. “I don’t even think it’s fair to her that this has become a separate storyline about one foul,” he said, before adding: “Do we need to improve WNBA officiating? No doubt about it.”
