The WNBA world is buzzing around Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter’s hard foul on Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark Saturday. That foul was initially seen as flagrant by many media outlets, including ESPN, and tweeted that way at first, but it was only ruled a common foul on the court. However, upon further review Sunday, the WNBA has now upgraded it to a flagrant foul.
The WNBA confirms that it has upgraded Chennedy Carter’s foul on Caitlin Clark at the end of the third quarter from an away from ball foul to a flagrant 1 after league review.
Carter won’t be fined, but there is a points scale for flagrant fouls in the WNBA.
— Chloe Peterson (@chloepeterson67) June 2, 2024
As Peterson (who covers the Fever and the WNBA for the Indianapolis Star) notes there, that change won’t lead to a fine for Carter. (The only fine to come out of this was for Carter’s teammate Angel Reese for refusing to talk to media afterwards, and for the Sky for violating league media policies by not making her available.) But it is still a notable decision on two fronts.
The points scale means there could be further punishment for Carter if she commits other flagrant fouls. And, perhaps even more notably, the WNBA’s decision that this was a flagrant foul illustrates that they won’t tolerate these kinds of moves. And that somewhat supports Clark’s post-game comment that this was “Not a basketball play,” and the “Clean up the crap!” comment from Fever general manager Lin Dunn, referencing how this is far from the first discussion about fouls on Clark in both the NCAA and WNBA ranks:
There’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary— targeting actions! It needs to stop! The league needs to “ cleanup” the crap! That’s NOT who this league is!! https://t.co/jI0xgTPfrC
— Chalk Talk (@LD_ChalkTalk) June 1, 2024
We’ll see if players’ approach to fouling Clark changes after this one was upgraded to a flagrant. And we’ll see if hits like this are called flagrant fouls on the floor next time.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.