Caitlin Clark hard contact timeline: WNBA's growing history of brutal hits against the face of the sport
From Chennedy Carter's hip-check to Alyssa Thomas's closed fist to the throat, a timeline of the most controversial hits on Caitlin Clark's WNBA career.
Caitlin Clark has appeared to carry a target on her back since she came into the WNBA in 2024, or at least many fans see it that way.
From the very first month of Clark's rookie season, she absorbed controversial hits from opposing players, sparking outrage among many fans. Some referees have also come under heavy scrutiny for how they've handled those moments.
The hits on Clark have sparked ensuing debates that often invoke race, sexual orientation and politics.
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Here's how it's all gone down:
Clark was whacked in her first pro game in the Big Apple.
New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart sent Clark flying to the hardwood simply by standing still and setting a screen. Clark was blindsided as she ran full speed into Stewart without looking ahead.
The play was legal, and appeared more to do with Clark not seeing what was in front of her as opposed to Stewart intentionally trying to hurt Clark. But the hit still got the fire started on social media, with many brandishing the play as Clark's "welcome to the league" moment, and some fans criticizing her teammates for not warning her of the screen.
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Clark spoke her mind very early.
During an early-season game against the Los Angeles Sparks, veteran guards like Kia Nurse and Aari McDonald shadowed Clark relentlessly, full-court pressing her, face-guarding her, and bumping her off her spots every time she tried to navigate through screens. Clark ended up shooting 15 free throws in that game alone.
But even with all those free throws, Clark suggested the Sparks players may have gotten away with some more.
"I think everybody is physical with me, they get away with things that probably other people don’t get away with," Clark told reporters after the game. "It's tough, but it's a very physical game. That's just professional basketball."
Two days later, Clark was chest-bumped by Seattle Storm guard Victoria Vivians.
After Clark hit a three-pointer, Vivians bumped into her, sparking a face-to-face exchange that resulted in double technical fouls for both players.
"I think just being competitive is who I am and what I've done my whole career. At times, there's ways I can probably channel it a little better. That's just basketball at the end of the day. That's never going to change, I'm never going to lose that. Feel like I'm getting hammered," Clark said after the game.
The "Caitlin Clark vs. the rest of the WNBA" culture war essentially began during Clark's first game against the Chicago Sky.
During a dead-ball inbound play, Sky guard Chennedy Carter approached Clark and delivered a hard shoulder/hip-check away from the ball, knocking Clark to the floor.
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Footage of the foul set the internet ablaze with anger, and then even more anger in response to that anger.
The officials initially called it a common away-from-the-ball foul, but the WNBA retroactively upgraded it to a flagrant-1 violation the following day. This hit sparked a massive media firestorm — even reaching mainstream daytime talk shows — about whether Clark was being unfairly targeted with non-basketball plays and whether her teammates were doing enough to protect her on the court.
Meanwhile, many long-time WNBA fans opted to defend Carter, claiming the criticism against her was racially charged.
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Carter prompted more scrutiny with her post-game press conference, when she refused to answer any "Caitlin Clark questions."
Just one day after getting leveled by Carter, Clark suffered a ruptured eardrum during a play with former league MVP Jonquel Jones.
During a game against the Liberty, as Clark chased her matchup around the perimeter, she slammed into Jones's screen. Clark could immediately be seen grabbing the side of her head and motioning to the bench. She briefly left the game to get checked out.
Weeks later, Clark revealed to reporters that the impact of the screen had actually ruptured her eardrum. However, she candidly stated that the play was a "great screen" and her own fault for not hearing her teammates call it out.
"I actually ruptured my ear drum when we were in New York on a tough screen….great screens, I just didn’t hear them. So, it’s kind of my own fault," She said.
Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese had arrived in the WNBA.
After the Fever and Sky's first matchup that ignited a national media controversy, Reese was set to take center stage over Carter in the Clark defense force.
During the third quarter, Clark drove to the basket and went up for a layup. Her college rival in Reese contested the shot but missed the ball entirely, instead smacking her forearm into Clark's head and knocking her to the hardwood.
After reviewing the play, officials upgraded the common foul to a Flagrant-1.
Then after the game, Reese threw a bone to the people arguing online.
"Going back and looking at the film, there were a lot of calls that weren't made. I guess some people got a special whistle," Reese told reporters.
Clark took the high road.
"Just a part of basketball. It is what it is. Trying to make a play on the ball, get the block. It happens," Clark told reporters.
During a July 14 matchup against the Minnesota Lynx, Clark finally let her frustration boil over into a physical retaliation.
In the third quarter, Clark was trying to push the pace up the court on a fast break. Lynx forward Alanna Smith reached out and hooked Clark's arm to slow her down. And Clark unleashed a forceful arm swipe backward to free herself, accidentally striking the Lynx player squarely in the face.
The referees went to the monitor to review the play. They assessed a personal foul on Minnesota for the initial grab, but they slapped Clark with a technical foul for the swipe to the face.
The Chicago Sky went three for three in delivering controversial hits to Clark in their first three games agains the superstar.
In their third meeting, it was Diamond DeShields that took the spotlight in the Clark rogues' gallery, with one of the most brutal levelings of the then-22-year-old rookie for Iowa of the season.
DeShields charged nearly full speed into Clark like a linebacker, smashing into her and sending her flying horizontally and sliding across the floor, as her skin scraped against the hardwood.
Clark shrieked in pain on the floor in a harrowing image.
The foul was upgraded to a flagrant-1 after review.
And just like fellow Sky players Reese and Carter did after fouling Clark in the prior two games, DeShields garnered more controversy after the game.
DeShields posted a screenshot of her notifications list on Instagram, which included a string of hate comments from a user. The comments were about a tumor DeShields overcame in 2020. That year, she was diagnosed with a benign tumor on her spinal cord in 2020. She risked paralysis when she had it surgically removed and suffered painful tremors while recovering from the procedure, according to Yahoo Sports.
Over her screenshot of the comments, DeShields wrote, "Thank you God for covering me, I pray [you] cover those who wish harm unto me as well."
Clark took a hard, inadvertent elbow directly to the face from Aces guard Jackie Young during a Sept. 11 loss to the Las Vegas Aces.
Clark went down to the hardwood grimacing in pain. Visibly upset by the contact, she made a stern plea to the referees, arguing that the play warranted a review for a Flagrant-1 foul.
The referees did not upgrade the foul and allowed the game to continue without assessing a flagrant penalty. This lack of a whistle further fueled the ongoing narrative among fans that officials were turning a blind eye to shots directed at Clark's head and face.
The most graphic injury Clark suffered her rookie year came in the first round of the playoffs against the Connecticut Sun.
The Fever traveled to Mohegan Sun Arena for Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. Early in the game, Clark was met with the aggressive perimeter defense of Sun guard DiJonai Carrington — the same player who had heavily guarded her in her WNBA debut back in May.
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In the first quarter, as Clark was making a pass, Carrington lunged to swat the ball. But Carrington missed the ball entirely, and her came down hard across Clark’s face, with her long fingernail poking right into Clark's right eye.
Despite Clark staying on the hardwood in visible distress, the officials did not blow the whistle for a foul, allowing play to continue.
Clark was left with a black eye and struggled to shoot for the rest of the series, as the Fever's season ended in a playoff sweep to Carrington's Sun.
Things escalated when slow-motion, zoomed-in replays of the incident went viral on social media. Many fans and commentators analyzed the angle of Carrington’s wrist and fingers, arguing that it looked like an unnatural basketball motion and accusing her of intentionally gouging Clark's eye.
The discourse became so heated that it actually spawned a secondary media controversy off the court. A few days later, veteran USA Today sports reporter Christine Brennan directly asked Carrington in a press gaggle if the eye poke was intentional. This line of questioning infuriated the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA), which released a scathing public statement condemning Brennan for asking a question they felt fed toxic and racist online narratives aimed at Carrington.
Carrington insisted that she didn't do it on purpose, and that when she was seen laughing with another player, it wasn't about Clark.
However, she appeared to make light of the controversy over Clark's black eye in an Instagram Live video weeks later in October 2024. In the video, Carrington and her girlfriend, NaLyssa Smith, who plays for the Indiana Fever with Clark, were in their kitchen when Smith poked Carrington in the eye.
"Ow, you poked me in the eye," Carrington said. Smith apologized, and the two laughed. "Did you do it on purpose?" Carrington asked.
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Clark threw up her arms, yelled at WNBA referees and punched the air in frustration after a controversial no-call cost her team a chance to knock off the defending champions early in her second season.
In the final seconds of the Indiana Fever's 90-88 loss to the reigning champion New York Liberty, Clark took the ball with a chance to tie or win the game.
New York's Natasha Cloud was defending Clark and leaned into the superstar enough to knock the ball out of Clark's hands and knock Clark back slightly.
A replay showed Cloud pushing her shoulder into Clark the moment the ball came loose.
But the referees did not blow the whistle, and the game ended there.
Clark immediately looked to the officials for a foul and quickly began to shout at them when she realized no foul call was forthcoming.
It also cost Clark a chance at a major WNBA milestone.
Clark, finishing with 18 points, fell just two points shy of a 20-point, 10-rebound game. It would have been the 11th of her career and the most by any player in league history. Clark is tied with Courtney Vandersloot with 10.
In Clark's second season, she had a new teammate that was ready to fight for her. That came in handy during a revenge game against the Sun, when Clark was poked in the eye again.
While defending Clark, the Sun's Jacy Sheldon poked Clark in the eye. When Clark reacted by pushing Sheldon away, Connecticut's Marina Mabrey intervened and forcefully shoved Clark, knocking the star guard completely to the ground.
Fever star Sophie Cunningham committed a hard foul on Sheldon, initiating an on-court fight that resulted in three ejections. It earned Cunningham adoration from Clark fans, and an immediate reputation as the "enforcer" teammate.
Fever head coach Stephanie White was visibly furious, stating that "bad officiating" was a league-wide issue and noting that the physical escalation was entirely predictable. She bluntly told reporters, "They've got to get control of it. They've got to be better."
Then after facing public backlash and a review of the tape, the WNBA stepped in the following day. The league retroactively upgraded Marina Mabrey's technical foul for shoving Clark to a Flagrant-2 penalty, which carries an automatic fine.
Clark's second season was cut short less than a month later. After already missing multiple games due to quad and left groin injuries, she suffered a season-ending right groin injury on July 15 of that year. And the league would have to finish the season without its biggest star.
The punch that is shaking the nation occurred on Wednesday in a game between the Fever and Phoenix Mercury.
During the second quarter of the Fever's 111-109 loss, Clark drove into the lane and fell to her side after some initial contact. In the ensuing scramble for the loose ball, veteran Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas dove to the floor. As the two jostled, Thomas appeared to knee Clark in the groin, and then pressed a closed fist directly into Clark's throat as she fell. To cap it off, Thomas stepped right over the young star to get back into the play.
Despite the shocking nature of the contact, the referees swallowed their whistles. No foul was called on the play, allowing the game to continue in real time as if nothing had happened. Clark managed to pass the ball away, but the lack of intervention sent the Fever bench — and soon, the entire internet — into an absolute frenzy.
Fever head coach Stephanie White did not hold back in her postgame press conference, calling the non-call "egregious" and "utterly disrespectful."
"We have a generational talent and a WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots right there that weren't called," White fumed to reporters. "[Clark] is not called the same way as everybody else is called. The fist in the throat is crazy. It's crazy. It's dangerous."
The incident was only amplified by the fact that the two teams had played a highly volatile matchup just two nights prior, a game that featured six technical fouls and an ejection. White voiced her sheer disbelief that the officials hadn't reeled in the physicality after that first meeting.
To make matters worse for Indiana, Clark ended up leaving the game in the third quarter with a back injury, adding injury to insult on a miserable night for the franchise.
Following massive public outcry, and a statement from Fever president Kelly Krauskopf demanding that player safety be "paramount," the WNBA league office finally stepped in the following day. The league retroactively deemed Thomas's hit a "non-basketball act," hitting her with a Flagrant-2 penalty and handing down a one-game suspension.
But for the legion of fans who have watched Clark take a beating over the last three seasons, a retroactive suspension felt like too little, too late. Once again, the cycle of hard hits, missed live calls, and ensuing social media culture wars continues to define the young superstar's incredibly turbulent — and immensely scrutinized — WNBA career.
