WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert wasn’t planning to suspend Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas for an incident with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark last month until Adam Silver intervened.
Multiple sources tell Sports Business Journal’s Tom Friend that the NBA commissioner encouraged a ban for Thomas. She was ultimately given a one-game suspension for the incident that occurred on June 24.
After Clark and Thomas had gone to the floor chasing a loose ball, Thomas drove her hand into Clark’s neck. There was no foul on the play. The Fever went on to win the game by a score of 111-109. Clark left the game early with a back injury and did not return.
The following day, the league assessed Thomas with a Flagrant 2 and a one-game suspension for “recklessly making contact with her fist to the throat area.”
In the aftermath of the suspension, Thomas said she received racial abuse and death threats.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this over basketball,” Thomas told reporters on June 30. “A lot of us -- myself included -- didn’t even know the play took place until after the game. Now we’re being painted as thugs. There’s death threats out on us. It’s really unacceptable. It’s something that needs to change in this league, and I’m just really sick and tired of it.”
Days later, Clark decried the abuse faced by Thomas.
“As I’ve stood here and said before, the harassment, the hate, none of that is okay,” Clark told reporters before a Fever practice on July 3. “That goes for [the] opposing team we play. That goes for my teammates. That goes for my coaches. There should never be a question of character. I’ve always stood up and said that and that’s truly what I believe. That’s how I was raised.”
Neither Engelbert, nor Silver has offered comment on the report.
