Additional Coverage:
- Joy Taylor wades in with foul-mouthed Caitlin Clark opinion after taking fist to throat (themirror.com)
Joy Taylor has strongly pushed back against suggestions that Caitlin Clark should receive special protection from WNBA officials, responding to renewed debates sparked by a physical game between the Indiana Fever and Phoenix Mercury.
The controversy dates back to a June 24 matchup where Clark was involved in several intense physical exchanges. During a loose-ball scramble in the second quarter, Phoenix forward Alyssa Thomas ended up on top of Clark in a fight for possession. In the collision, Thomas’s fist made contact with Clark’s neck, yet no foul was called at the time, and the game continued.
Clark stayed in the game and finished with 19 points and eight assists but later left in the third quarter due to a separate back injury sustained on a landing. Phoenix narrowly defeated Indiana 111-109.
Following the game, Indiana’s head coach Stephanie White criticized the officiating, labeling the missed call as “egregious” and arguing that Clark was not being officiated fairly compared to other players. White said, “We have a generational talent and a WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots there that weren’t called.”
The league reviewed the incident afterward and upgraded the contact to a flagrant foul 2, deeming Thomas’s action as a “non-basketball act” involving reckless contact to the throat. Thomas was subsequently suspended for one game.
This sequence led to Joy Taylor’s pointed remarks, in which she rejected the notion that Clark should be treated differently by the league. Posting on Instagram, Taylor said, “It’s so dismissive of who she is as a talent. It’s so demeaning to the league and to the women who play in the WNBA.”
Taylor further emphasized that such special treatment would be unheard of in men’s sports. “You would never talk about a male player like this.
You would never have the audacity to say a college player was better than the best professional player before she even plays in the league. You would never say that.”
She dismissed comparisons to other sports and the idea that young or rookie players need extra protection. “We’re talking about a professional sports league… with real competition, real professional players who get paid to play,” Taylor said.
“And you think the league and other players should treat her differently in a contact sport where physicality matters? That doesn’t make sense.”
The debate around Caitlin Clark has become one of the most talked-about storylines this WNBA season. Since joining the league, Clark has been at the center of multiple flagrant foul reviews, some leading to retroactive foul upgrades and suspensions, underscoring the physical nature of her transition to the professional level.