Did you see that egregious foul on Indiana Fever rookie star Caitlin Clark from Saturday's game against the Chicago Sky?
The Sky's Chennedy Carter committed "a Flagrant 1 foul" on Clark, who didn't have the ball, late in the third. Carter approached Clark from behind and to her left — clearly in Clark's blind spot — said the b-word, and body-checked her to the ground.
If you somehow haven't seen it, here it is.
Okay, this IS HATING on Caitlin Clark. Face guarding, extremely aggressive play and the occasional hard foul can be describe as competitiveness. Going out of your way to call her out of her name and body check her to the floor without the ball is HATING. https://t.co/osFk320wMp pic.twitter.com/cRtiSnDVkm
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) June 1, 2024
Two days before Carter's cheap hit on Clark, former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III posted on X that "The women in the @WNBA aren’t 'hating' on her. They are showing her respect by trying to beat her on the court." On Saturday, Griffin was telling a different story. "Okay, this IS HATING on Caitlin Clark. Face guarding, extremely aggressive play, and the occasional hard foul can be described as competitiveness. Going out of your way to call her out of her name and body check her to the floor without the ball is HATING."
The Daily Mail reported Monday, "14-year NBA veteran and former champion Matt Barnes heaped further criticism on Clark's Fever teammates — telling them they must do more to protect the franchise's star player."
"My issue and my question is, Where the f*** are her teammates at? I've seen a couple of girls smirk when she's got knocked down, half-a** to pick her up. Like, y'all supposed to protect the asset, protect the star." Barnes said.
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Watching St. Louis Blues games as a kid, a hit like that might have led to a bench-clearing brawl. At the very least, an enforcer would have been dispatched to teach a lesson about nearly cold-cocking a star player.
Men's hockey is not women's basketball, of course, but I have a bit of a tangent that does relate. The NHL did a great job cleaning up hockey in the '90s. In the '70s and '80s, the sport had become too much "boxing on ice" and not enough finesse. But in recent years they've taken it too far, and the game lacks some of the flair that makes it so great.
My best friend and I came up with an idea to fix that: bring back enforcers but with a twist. Let each team keep two dedicated enforcers on the roster, but they'd be limited to the amount of time they could play. Matt says five minutes per period, but I think two minutes would be plenty to settle any scores. Just the threat of having a couple of '70s-style brutes on the bench would improve manners without getting the refs overly involved.
I mention this because part of playing on a team is being part of a team and defending your teammates. Maybe that sounds stupid or redundant, but Clark got badly and blatantly fouled, and yet there was no team behind Clark to rally to her defense.
If WNBA players won't accept the presence of a talent like Clark, who has brought in more fans all by herself than most teams do — combined — then the league is condemned to permanent mediocrity as a collection of players who don't form teams.
WNBA fan or not, there's an undeniable thrill in anything — a business, a military unit, a sports team — when you get to see a team come together.
Nobody saw a team in Indianapolis on Saturday. I don't know if that's a sad commentary on the Fever or the WNBA in general, but it is sad.
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