“Naked discrimination against Caitlin”: Fans outraged as Diana Taurasi avoids technical for same outburst that penalized Caitlin Clark.
A group of WNBA fans expressed outrage, pointing out the apparent double standards in the league after Diana Taurasi avoided a technical foul for striking the stanchion in frustration during the Phoenix Mercury’s game against the Chicago Sky on Sunday. Fans were livid, drawing comparisons to Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark, who received a technical foul on Friday during the game against the Las Vegas Aces for a similar outburst.
The incident involving Taurasi occurred when the veteran Mercury guard completed a layup with 6:05 left in the third quarter and was fouled on the play. After the basket, the league’s oldest player struck the stanchion in frustration before calmly returning to the free throw line.
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Fans were shocked when Taurasi avoided a technical foul, especially since Clark had been immediately penalized for a similar incident just two days earlier.
“They can’t give Diana Taurasi 7 and suspend her. Naked discrimination against Caitlin and the Fever all year. Fever would be a seed higher if it wasn’t for league wide discrimination,” a fan commented.
“The #WNBA is pure hypocrisy. Caitlin Clark gets another technical foul for slapping the stanchion because it’s supposedly “automatic”! Diana Taurasi gets no tech after smashing the stanchion because…she’s not Caitlin Clark! The CC hate is seriously unhinged,” wrote another fan.
Another fan highlighted how the “bad” officiating was impacting the overall appeal of the WNBA.
“@WNBA officiating as a whole is so horrible that it lowers the quality of the product such as it is and the bias against the @IndianaFever and @CaitlinClark22 is so glaring as to make it professional wrestling levels of bad.”
“This is why the @WNBA has double standards. Where’s @CathyEngelbert on this?” a fan commented.
Another X user urged the league to improve officiating and avoid discriminating between players.
“@WNBA deal with your stupid refs. CC is getting techs for the exact same thing? Where is the parity? Get some real refs.”
“Blatant bias towards CC. Makes it hard to watch sometimes. It’s impressive that CC doesn’t get even more frustrated than she does,” wrote another fan.
Caitlin Clark’s latest technical foul
During the Indiana Fever’s 78-74 defeat against the Las Vegas Aces on Friday, Caitlin Clark was defending Tiffany Hayes and was called for a foul. The Fever rookie didn’t like the foul call and smashed the stanchion in frustration. The official instantly hit the former Iowa superstar with a technical for her actions.
Meanwhile, both Clark and Taurasi have been assessed with six technical fouls in the ongoing season. Seven technical fouls leads to an automatic suspension for a player.