OPINION:
It should be pretty clear to anyone who watches the WNBA that the league is more like hockey than basketball. The game officials certainly treat it like hockey. The Indiana Fever had to resort to getting an enforcer to protect its star player, Caitlin Clark ,who should be getting some protection from the officials.
Even after Ms. Clark got hurt and was out for a few weeks and the WNBA viewership and ticket sales tanked, nothing has changed. What the players, coaches, owners and league official built — and which remains in the red every year — is a “brawl ball” and “hackfest” game that is clearly not working. When will they wake up and see that basketball talent like Ms. Clark is what the fans want?
Ms. Clark, after coming back from the injury, was poked in the eye and body checked to the ground — and no one was ejected. Teammate Sophie Cunningham had to take matters into her own hands to send a message, and only then did the offending players get ejected. Now even the enforcer herself, Ms. Cunningham, is in concussion protocol after being flagrantly fouled with a shoulder body check (which did not even result in an ejection).
Across the board, the coaches are complaining about the terrible officiating in the league. They’re telling their players to play rough because they know they can et away with it. The officials are not calling fouls because the league doesn’t want them to call fouls.
This problem can be fixed, but it will take the league’s front office doing something or the players refusing to play, citing unsafe working conditions.
TOM HENION
Stafford, Virginia
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