WNBA news turned on Thursday when the league suspended Alyssa Thomas for one game after reviewing the hit on Caitlin Clark. The punishment came after a play in which no foul was called during the game, and it put officiating and contact standards back at the center of the conversation.
Friday in Knoxville, Tenn., Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Cheryl Reeve all pushed the same point: the WNBA needs to do a better job of protecting players. Their comments came before their induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, giving the league's latest discipline decision an unusually public stage.
Parker and Delle Donne
Parker said, "The physicality has always been there" and added, "It's just now you're having more visibility and new fans and new opinions coming into the game. Because we went through [so much physicality], does not mean that I think that [it has to be that way]." She won titles with Los Angeles in 2016, Chicago in 2021 and Las Vegas in 2023, and she framed the issue as one of enforcement, not nostalgia.
Delle Donne, who won a title with Mystics in 2019, was even more direct. She said, "Trust me, my back wishes I had had a little more of that" and, "It's more fun to watch, and there are such skilled players out there. We want to see them do what they can do. We don't want to just see them get beat up."
Reeve and league reviews
Reeve tied Thomas' suspension to a broader league pattern. She said, "We believe those are the acts that have led to some of the more challenging moments in our league of altercations, and that's not what we want to be" and also said, "We have a tremendous product, basketball-wise." Her comments matter because she also said officiating has gotten better this season, even while the league still has to address missed dangerous plays.
That friction is not new for Reeve. She was suspended for Game 4 of the WNBA semifinals after criticizing officiating and WNBA leadership last season, and she said the Lynx made a request earlier this season for the league to review what they believed was a dangerous play in one of their games. Napheesa Collier injured her ankle on a play involving Alyssa Thomas and missed the rest of the series, which the Mercury won 3-1.
For now, the league has taken one step: a one-game suspension for Thomas after a flagrant 2 foul. The bigger question is whether that punishment leads to stricter enforcement on excessive contact or just another round of criticism after the next hard play.
