Sky HC: Chennedy Carter’s Foul on Caitlin Clark Was ‘Not Appropriate’

Chicago Sky head coach Teresa Weatherspoon addressed Chennedy Carter’s flagrant foul on the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark, calling it “not appropriate” and not “what we do or who we are.”

“Chennedy understands that there are better ways to handle situations on the court, and she will learn from this, as we all will,” Weatherspoon said.

Late in the third quarter of Chicago’s 71-70 loss to the Fever, Carter nailed a mid-range jumper along the baseline. She approached Clark on the ensuing inbounds play and hip-checked the rookie.

While only deemed to be a foul away from the ball at the time, it was subsequently upgraded to a flagrant foul by the league office.

The moment may have gone unnoticed for the most part if the player on the receiving end of the excessive contact wasn’t one of the WNBA’s brightest stars. Since it involved Clark, the foul became a flash point in larger conversations.

The Fever have called out what they believe to be consistently poor officiating toward the 2024 No. 1 overall pick. There’s also the notion that older players in the WNBA are gunning for Clark in a way that is atypical of how rookies are traditionally welcomed on the court.

Carter threw some fuel onto that fire when she basically called Clark overrated in a post on Threads

Beyond Carter, the discourse has amplified what have long been underlying structural problems for a sports league in which the vast majority of the players are Black women. With more people following the WNBA than ever, problematic opinions about players are being platformed in a way they never were before.

Weatherspoon’s statement will ideally help to dial down the temperature a bit

But you can expect Carter’s foul to be front and center again when Chicago and Indiana next meet on June 16.