What Makes Her Explode: Caitlin Clark Says She Kneed On The Quad And Had To Play The Whole Game With An Injury
Sportswire Icon / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
By 
January Nelson
Caitlin Clark blew up referee Gerda Gatling in the second quarter, throwing her hands up and storming after the call went the other way. He just took a knee on the quad, and says the official didn’t blow the whistle.
The Fever lost 88-75 to the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, and Clark spent much of the game in pain. He finished with 13 points and 6 assists in 26 minutes, his shooting came from deep, and a knee to the quad left him with a leg injury that wasn’t called badly.
Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 20 points, and Sophie Cunningham chipped in 10 off the bench, including a free throw that gave the Fever their only lead of the game. The Valkyries entered on an 8-game winning streak as one of the toughest defenses in the league, and Indiana couldn’t beat them even with Clark battling multiple lower-body injuries.
When he confronted Gatling, the officer told him he had started it. “He told me to start communicating with him, okay, you can’t knee me in the leg, knock me down,” Clark told reporters afterward.
It’s the same officer who beat Clark professionally in June for clapping on the phone. The play-by-play announcer noted that other officials would have given him another technical Wednesday in the way he “showed”.
Coach Stephanie White wasn’t buying the explanation either. “They said Caitlin was the first to contact him. That’s what they’re saying. She always seems to be the first to contact,” White said. White has been pressing the point of consistency for weeks, including after a June 24 game in which Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas made contact with Clark’s throat punch on a loose ball, which the league later upgraded to Flagrant 2.
Clark doesn’t expect the knee to keep him out of Friday’s game against the Seattle Storm. “Well, we’ll just take it out,” he said. “Good old knuckles on it and call it a day.”
Stay up to date with Thought Catalog — follow us on Facebook or visit our website.
Related Topics
