Caitlin Clark risks WNBA fine after taking page out of Victor Wembanyama's book
Caitlin Clark risks WNBA fine after taking page out of Victor Wembanyama's book
Matthew NeschisFri, May 29, 2026 at 4:55 PM UTC
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Caitlin Clark skipped her media availability following Thursday's loss to the Valkyries -Credit:Getty Images (Getty Images)
Caitlin Clark could soon receive a slap on the wrist from the WNBA upon taking a page out of Victor Wembanyama’s book.
On Thursday, Clark declined to talk with members of the media following the Fever’s 90-88 loss to the Golden State Valkyries at the Chase Center. According to Yahoo Sports’ Chris Cwik, Indiana’s PR team informed reporters that she would not be speaking when asked about the star guard’s availability.
Earlier in the week, Wembanyama similarly missed his media availability after the San Antonio Spurs fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 127-114, in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. The French phenom promptly received a warning from the NBA, while Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams additionally refused to meet with reporters following Game 6.
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Taking to social media, droves of WNBA fans demanded that the league take action and punish Clark for skipping her media obligations. “Clark should be receiving a fine,” one X user wrote with another adding: “She should be suspended and fined!”
A third chimed in, “She should be fined. Like [Angel] Reese was in her rookie season. We’re paying attention.”
It should come as no surprise that Clark appeared to be frustrated on the heels of Thursday’s contest. The 24-year-old finished the game with a season-low 16 points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field and a team-high five turnovers while recording a negative plus-minus for the first time during the 2026 campaign.
Addressing how the Valkyries’ top-ranked defense managed to shut down Clark for much of the contest, Fever head coach Stephanie White said: “I think she gets guarded a certain way all the time.
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Caitlin Clark turned in her worst performance of the season against the Valkyries -Credit:Getty Images
“You know, 94 feet, lots of physicality. You’re not gonna give her any easy looks. She had a lot of tough contested shots. And so I think they’re an excellent, excellent defensive team.
“And when they can get their defense set, I feel like they really dictated the pace and tempo because they were able to set their defense. A lot of that came from our fouls, putting them at the free throw line. So they did what they were supposed to do.”
Clark expressed a similar sentiment while previewing the difficult matchup during a pre-game press conference Thursday morning. “They’re all really great defenders, and they switch a lot,” she said of Golden State.
“So you’re gonna see everybody that’s on their roster, everybody’s gonna get matched up with you. They’re gonna be physical, they’re gonna have their hands in the passing lanes.
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“I thought I saw a lot of traps off the ball screens. Obviously we want to set as many as we can in transition, but I told our team, ‘They’re really good when you allow them to set their defense. They’re really good half-court defenders.’
“We want to play in transition as much as we can, we want to get cross-matches as much as we can. But yeah, they’re all really good defenders.
“Basically about every guard is gonna guard me. At some points they had two on me. So just trying to make the right read and get my teammates the ball in a place they can be successful.”
Source: “AOL Sports”
