“Everybody’s getting better, except the officials. So we gotta find a way to remedy it,” Stephanie White had suggested earlier this year, talking about WNBA’s controversial officiating. It’s not just her. From New York to the Golden State on the West Coast, the concerns have echoed throughout the season, making positive changes a real possibility in the near future, as per many. And if that really is the case, executives might want to hear the suggestion Aliyah Boston made. We’re pretty sure Caitlin Clark would agree with it, too.

On September 2, during the latest episode of Post Moves with Candace Parker & Aliyah Boston, at one point, the duo started taking fan questions. One Redditor query read, “What is the biggest change you wanna seem implemented in the W.” The Indiana Fever player didn’t hesitate. “I think that there shouldn’t be a limit on your challenges if you continue to win them. Like, after two, you should still be able to challenge if you won both of them because: 1. You’re great at reviews, and 2. If there’s another call that could be close to the end of the game and you need to challenge it, but you can’t because you’ve already won twice. I feel you should be able to keep your challenge if you keep winning.” To this, Parker said, “I think that’s hilarious because of course someone would keep the statistic of the streak of challenges won. I could see it being some sort of record at one point.” While the conversation seemed light-hearted, the underlying frustration is understandable.

Notably, during the August 12 game against the Dallas Wings, while the Indiana Fever actually attempted more free throws, Boston still struggled to get calls near the rim. So, when White challenged a fourth-quarter whistle involving Li Yueru, the review upheld it. And once again, it was the officials’ call against the Fever. This left the head coach exasperated. But Boston wasn’t the only one to face the ordeal this season.

In the Fever’s second game this season, 3 calls were challenged by the coaches—2 by Stephanie White and 1 by Atlanta Dream coach, Karl Smesko. After the reviews, all three of them were overturned. “It’s tough when Coach White is put in a position to have to use both her challenges in the first half on calls that were pretty point blank, and then we’re left with none there in the second half,” Clark had expressed. The reigning ROTY has faced her own share of questionable whistles earlier this season. Back in the game against the New York Liberty, Clark argued against Natasha Cloud’s last-second steal, but the refs never budged. Indiana dropped a narrow 90-88 loss.

Having said that, during the podcast, the conversation reached familiar ground with a burning question soon: “How does the W solve the reffing problem?” Candace’s answer was as simple as it could get, when she said, “I guess, training. Because there’s always a way to get better. I think there’s training and accountability. I think the NBA has become very transparent with their refs and have developed an amazing training program. But we all know that training program costs money. So, I think the more that the WNBA decides to invest in reffing, the better refs they’ll get, but also the better reffing they’ll get.” And she’s not too wrong to ask for this.

While athletes try to push past the challenges, the vicious cycle continues playing out unless the league steps in. Cathy Englebert did announce that they would be looking into officiating, but whether the changes will reflect by next season remains to be seen. Until then, the Fever have a tough road to tread.

Can Indiana Fever clinch a playoff seat?

The road to the playoffs keeps getting narrower by the day, and so do the Indiana Fever’s hopes of clinching a spot. Sitting at the edge as the eighth seed, the team is already showing signs of spiraling.

While the Fever hold a near-even record of 21-20, they are stuck in a two-game skid. First came a crushing 75-63 loss to the Golden State Valkyries. Then the Phoenix Mercury, the league’s fourth seed, handed them an 85-79 defeat.

With only three games left in the regular season, the Fever are fighting to stay alive. They extended Odyssey Sims on a rest-of-season deal under a hardship waiver and renewed Shey Peddy’s 7-day hardship contract for the third straight time. What started as a championship run has turned into a race for survival.