Adam Silver says it’s wrong for Caitlin Clark to be a ‘political football in this country’
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has become “a political football in this country.” Silver, speaking at the CNBC x Boardroom conference in New York City, also declined to comment when asked if the report that prompted WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to suspend Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas for putting her fist to Clark’s throat was accurate.
When the Fever lost to the Mercury on June 22, Clark was on the verge of finding out what his coach did. Stephanie White said “two cheap shots.” The first was Thomas putting him first on Clark’s throat, the second was the dirt in the living area that hurt Clark’s back and resulted in him being out of action for two weeks.
No foul play was called in Thomas’ incident during the game, but the league reviewed the Flagrant 2 and suspended Thomas for one game. The incident made headlines, both inside and outside the WNBA, and Thomas subsequently faced death threats and online harassment.
In the weeks that followed, the performance of the WNBA, particularly in relation to Clark, was the subject of ongoing discussions. It has also come to the fore in recent days due to a Sports Business Journal report that Engelbert did not plan to punish Thomas until after Silver (a report the WNBA denied), and another controversial moment and Clark in the Fever’s loss to the Golden State Valkyries.
When Silver was on stage Thursday, she was asked directly about the report that she influenced the WNBA’s decision on the Thomas incident. Here are Silver’s comments in full:
CNBC: The report states that effectively the WNBA should not have punished [Alyssa] Thomas, but he came in and said it had to happen
Silver: Let me give you a serious answer to that question. I think in the end the issues surrounding Caitlin Clark are not too much to handle. And that incident doesn’t say if it was called incorrectly during the game or if it wasn’t reviewed.
I know Caitlin well. He is an amazing player and an incredible person. And he wants to focus on being the best player he can be. And he’s become a political football player in this country, and I think that’s incredibly unfair to him. I don’t think that problem is ultimately about management. It has become a political ping pong with him. She is a young woman trying to improve her game, focusing on becoming the best player she can be. And I don’t even think it’s fair to him that this has become a separate story about one wrong — should it have been called on time or should it have been called green afterwards?
That’s my answer. People are allowed to think whatever they can, and whatever they want about our league, but there is much to celebrate in the WNBA. I was part of the team that wrote the first business plan 30 years ago, and when women’s sports came — we missed our numbers for many years in the WNBA, but then it turned around. Now you see off the chart the ratings of WNBA teams. Joe and Clara Tsai have done an incredible job here in New York with Liberty. Caitlin came, she brought a whole new audience — and she started when she was in college — to the sport: little girls, women, men, across the board, people who never paid attention to women’s basketball. And then it was a rising tide. Because as we all quickly realized, it wasn’t just Caitlin. There is a lot of talent in this league.
But like I said, do we need to improve the performance of the WNBA? No doubt about it, but my day job is getting complaints about NBA performance.
CNBC: But is it okay to say you’re in?
Silver: I’m not going to comment on that, because I don’t think it’s fair to Caitlin, and Cathy Engelbert. I think that is not the real problem here. What people are trying to make of that is a big deal — not whether that was a blatant scandal or not. Apparently, the department decided after the fact that it should not only be called blasphemy, but it was a blatant insult.
Yes, we need to improve the performance of the WNBA, and there is a lot of work to be done in managing the NBA, but I think there is an opportunity to support Caitlin and say, let her be the best basketball player she can be.
At a press conference in Las Vegas for the NBA’s Summer League on Tuesday, Silver was noncommittal when asked about Engelbert’s future, though she said she is “happy” with the current state of the WNBA.
“I think Cathy continues to do a solid job of building that league,” Silver said, noting that he didn’t want to speak for Engelbert. “We will have ongoing discussions about what the future looks like.”
