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WNBA analyst Mariah Rose accused Caitlin Clark of faking an injury after the Indiana Fever phenom once again called out the league’s officiating following a non-call.
With just under five minutes remaining in the second quarter of the Fever’s 88-75 loss to the Valkyries last Wednesday, Clark — who declined an invitation to the WNBA's 3-point contest — drove hard to the basket and crashed into Golden State’s Kiah Stokes. As the star guard’s layup rattled home, she crumpled to the hardwood before limping down the court.
Once play was stopped moments later, Clark angrily pumped her fist and lambasted a nearby referee for the lack of a foul call. Yet Rose believed that she overreacted, alleging that the 24-year-old was untouched by Stokes.
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"When I saw the slow-mo replay of this situation play out, and I saw that she was not kneed, she was not touched. She was not brushed up on. That did not happen," Rose said on the ‘Hoops for Hotties’ podcast.
"And on top of that, she fake-limped to the other side of the court. Caitlin, I'm getting the ick! What are we doing, mama? I didn't like that. So the fake limping when you didn't get touched by Kiah Stokes."
Speaking to reporters during a postgame press conference, Clark continued to slam the WNBA’s officiating during, arguing that she was forced to play the remainder of the contest injured.
"I got kneed right in the quad. Like, that hurts. Like, the ref can't miss that," Clark explained. "And then I have to play with a contusion in my leg the rest of the game.
“It's ridiculous. [The ref] said I initiated the contact. Which is fine, but you can't knee me in the leg. Knock me over."
Rose ruthlessly described Clark’s complaints as a “Karen speech,” adding: "She freaked the f--- out on the ref, like she had gotten kneed in the quad, as she put it.
"And then after the game, she even gave, like… a Karen speech and was like, 'The refs just can't miss that.'
“And then when we look back at it in slow-mo and the replay, she wasn't touched. She's talking about, 'I had to play the rest of the game with a contusion,' but she didn't touch you. What was contused?"
Fever head coach Stephanie White, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped on whether Clark was fouled by Stokes, seemingly wary of drawing punishment from the WNBA.
"They said Caitlin initiated the contact. That's all they said,” White said. “She seems to always be initiating the contact. I'm trying to not get fined. Again, all I'll say is that we just keep asking for consistency."
Though Clark did little to hide her frustration with the non-call, the Iowa product insisted that the leg contusion she allegedly suffered wouldn’t slow her down. "Ah, we'll just rub it out," she said. "Good old knuckles on it and call it a day."
