Indiana Fever legend Tamika Cats said the WNBA has to do a better job of protecting its players after a hard foul on Caitlin Clark ignited hot takes on social media and television.
Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter delivered the hip check on Clark in the third quarter of the team’s 71-70 loss to the Fever. Carter was initially hit with a common foul, but it was later upgraded to a flagrant-1 foul. Carter said Monday she had no regrets over the incident.
Catchings called Carter’s foul a “cheap shot” in an interview with USA Today and said it was up to the league to do more to protect players from things like that.
“The cheap shot, I don’t agree with that, I don’t agree with that, especially that’s where injuries happen,” said Catchings, who is one of the greatest Fever players in franchise history. “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.”
