WNBA Suspends Alyssa Thomas One Game for Hitting Caitlin Clark in the Throat

If you follow women's basketball at all — even casually — this one's going to grab your attention.

On Wednesday night, June 24, the Indiana Fever hosted the Phoenix Mercury in what was already a heated rivalry game. During the second quarter, things got ugly fast. While both players scrambled for a loose ball, Phoenix forward Alyssa Thomas drove her fist into the throat of Fever star Caitlin Clark. The referees on the floor? They saw nothing. No foul was called in the moment.

That's the part that really set people off.

Clark — the WNBA's biggest name and most-watched player — walked away from the play visibly affected. She later left the game in the second half dealing with a back injury (separate from the throat hit, though the timing didn't help the optics). She still managed to put up 19 points and 8 assists in just 20 minutes of play. The Mercury won the game 111-109.

The next day, the league stepped in. The WNBA reviewed the play and hit Thomas with a Flagrant Foul 2 — the most serious foul classification in the rulebook — and handed down a one-game suspension. The league's official language called it "recklessly making contact with her fist to the throat area," and labeled it a non-basketball act. Thomas served that suspension on June 27 when Phoenix visited the Toronto Tempo.

Indiana's head coach Stephanie White didn't hold back after the game. She called out the officials directly, saying Clark had taken "two cheap shots" that went uncalled, and described what happened as "absolutely egregious and utterly disrespectful." The Fever's team president, Kelly Krauskopf, echoed the frustration in a statement, emphasizing that "player safety should be paramount in our league."

On the Phoenix side, Thomas got some public backup. A teammate and Mercury associate head coach Kristi Toliver both posted on social media in Thomas' defense after the suspension was announced.

Here's why this matters beyond just one game: it's not the first time the WNBA has had to retroactively upgrade a foul involving Clark. Back in her rookie season, then-Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter had a foul upgraded to a Flagrant after shoulder-checking Clark. The pattern — physical play on Clark, officials miss it in real time, league acts after the fact — is becoming a recurring story. And a lot of people are asking the same uncomfortable question: why is a fist to the throat something that has to wait until the next day to get called?

For WNBA fans, this is the kind of moment that tests your faith in the officiating. For casual viewers, it's a reminder that the drama around Caitlin Clark isn't manufactured — it keeps finding her on the court.