Tamika Catchings calls out WNBA over Caitlin Clark cheap shot: ‘Have to protect your players’

Since Chennedy Carter knocked Caitlin Clark to the ground with her shoulder Saturday, there has been plenty of criticism connected to Carter’s hard foul.

There has been criticism of Chicago Sky teammate Angel Reese’s reaction to the play — when she jumped off the bench and appeared to celebrate it — and the general physicality that has greeted Clark, the No. 1 overall pick, across her first 11 WNBA games.

Other opinions centered around the response of Clark’s teammates and the need for the Fever to add an enforcer, too.

And now Tamika Catchings, a WNBA champion and 10-time All-Star with the Fever, thinks the league needs to “protect your players” and was surprised that the original call wasn’t reviewed — something Clark asked officials to do — in the moment, she told USA Today.

“The cheap shot, I don’t agree with that, I don’t agree with that, especially that’s where injuries happen,” Catchings told the outlet. “The play itself was wrong. As a whole, we all have a responsibility to make sure that things like that don’t happen, for anybody to get hit like that.

“From the league standpoint, you have to protect your players. The fact that the referees didn’t take the time within the game to go and look at it, I was really surprised. I was at the game. I was really surprised that they didn’t look at it and that they just kept it moving. That’s not a basketball play.”

The league eventually upgraded the call to a Flagrant I the following day, but the ESPN broadcast captured Clark asking an official to review it Saturday in the third quarter of the Fever’s win — their second of the season — against the Sky.

Last week, Clark, averaging 15.6 points and 6.4 assists per game as a rookie, mentioned that the felt like she was “getting hammered” by opponents, and Fever head coach Christie Sides said Sunday that Indiana will continue “fighting to get calls” just as it did last year with 2023 No. 1 overall pick Aliyah Boston.

“They want to show that they’re vets in this league and they want to make it hard on these rookies,” Sides said before the Liberty defeated the Fever, 104-68, at Barclays Center on Sunday. “That’s just like how it goes.”

Carter told reporters Monday that she has “no regrets” about what unfolded despite head coach Teresa Weatherspoon saying in a statement that the play was “not appropriate.”

And Catchings told USA Today that Reese should also know that “all eyes are watching you.”

“Angel has got to be herself but there’s got to be a maturity level from all of our rookies, as you grow in this game and as you become more mature, you understand what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable,” Catchings said. “And you learn from the mistakes that you make. Angel hopefully has the right people around her that are like, hey, you know what, not cool right there. And how do you adjust and how do you learn from the situation.”

The Sky will face the Fever two more times this month on June 16 and 23.