{"id":749031,"date":"2026-06-26T12:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/?p=749031"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:09:18","slug":"wnba-bully-suspended-after-caitlin-clark-throat-punch-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/2026\/06\/wnba-bully-suspended-after-caitlin-clark-throat-punch-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Bully Suspended After Caitlin Clark Throat Punch Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_CODE\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-CODE\" style=\"width: 745px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/images43\/caitlin-clark-745x596.jpg\" width=\"745\" height=\"596\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photo of Caitlin Clark\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-CODE\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alyssa Thomas suspended for 1 game after Caitlin Clark incident. Photo: Screengrab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The WNBA finally punished Phoenix Mercury player <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/2024\/06\/wnba-refs-under-fire-for-no-call-on-dangerous-foul-against-caitlin-clark\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alyssa Thomas<\/a><\/strong> after she punched Indiana Fever superstar <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/2026\/05\/jason-whitlock-accuses-indiana-fever-of-bullying-caitlin-clark\/\" target=\"_blank\">Caitlin Clark<\/a><\/strong> in the throat on Wednesday night. The league suspended Thomas for one game for a flagrant 2 foul against Clark in the Fever loss.<\/p>\n<p>Video replay shows Thomas punch Clark in the throat and knee her in the groin. Thomas, 34, and her fianc\u00e9e\/teammate, DeWanna Bonner, 38, double team Clark while she lay helpless on the court.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">?Hold up\u2026A closer look at the dirty play by Alyssa Thomas last night w\/ a new angle \u2014 Wait for the freeze + zoom on each.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Knee to the groin<br \/>&#8211; Pinches her underarm<br \/>&#8211; Fist to the throat<br \/>&#8211; Attempt to stomp on her (she moved)<\/p>\n<p>Why do <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WNBA<\/a> players hate Caitlin Clark so much? ? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/83JZSChdEu\">pic.twitter.com\/83JZSChdEu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; HeroOfTheDay (@Hero_OfThe_Day) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Hero_OfThe_Day\/status\/2070124191743934821?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Bonner is Clark&#8217;s former teammate. She <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/2025\/06\/jason-whitlock-dewanna-bonner-quit-the-indiana-fever-because-the-environment-is-too-heterosexual\/\" target=\"_blank\">quit<\/a><\/strong> the Indiana Fever last year because she wanted to play on the same team as her fianc\u00e9e, Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>The Phoenix Mercury tweeted this post mocking Clark after the game. The post has since been deleted.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/images43\/post-745x931.jpg\" width=\"745\" height=\"931\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photo may have been deleted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The suspension was <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/wnba-suspends-alyssa-thomas-recklessly-hitting-caitlin-clark-throat-scramble\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a><\/strong> after Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White criticized the refs for turning a blind eye to the abuse inflicted upon her star player.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have a generational talent and a WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots right there that weren\u2019t called,&#8221; White said after the game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact that it was a no-call &#8230; You got to call it,&#8221; White said, adding that the no-call was &#8220;absolutely unacceptable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA&#8217;s indifference toward Clark comes at a price. Ticket sales are slow and arenas are not selling out this season. Fans are fed up with what they see as a culture of bullying by veteran players like Thomas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WNBA finally punished Phoenix Mercury player Alyssa Thomas after she punched Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark in the throat on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":749032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[17675,18146,16845,5207,1706,18444],"class_list":{"0":"post-749031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alyssa-thomas","9":"tag-bully","10":"tag-caitlin-clark","11":"tag-lgbt-athletes","12":"tag-viral-video","13":"tag-wnba-suspension"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749031"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749037,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749031\/revisions\/749037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandrarose.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}