Caitlin Clark got a technical foul for clapping during the Fever’s game against the Phoenix Mercury on Monday, and she found it completely unbelievable and “ridiculous”. But, as it turns out, Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers knows exactly how that feels, because the same thing happened to her earlier in the season.
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“But obviously, what I’ve learnt is that clapping is non-negotiable,” she said, responding to questions about how the adjustment to the officiating changes this season has been. “So, I’mma try to stay away from clapping, no promises. But I don’t want to keep losing money.”
As Bueckers pointed out, the WNBA has been considerably stricter in its officiating this season, a firsthand example of which she has.
The Dallas Wings star received a highly criticized technical foul last month for clapping in a game against the Atlanta Dream. After driving to the basket and drawing a foul with less than two minutes left in the third quarter, Bueckers clapped three times to celebrate her team’s rally. Referees penalized her for the gesture, leaving the second-year guard completely astonished.
But the increased foul calls are reportedly in an effort to reduce the extreme physicality that defined games last year. Unfortunately for players like her and particularly Caitlin Clark, that crackdown has come with some surprising consequences, including technical fouls for reactions that, in previous seasons, would have gone completely unaddressed. Bueckers, however, is trying to view the situation with some empathy for the officials navigating these new standards.
“Officiating is an extremely hard job. I would not want to be a ref,” she said. “Last year it got pretty physical at times. It was like a WNBA smackdown sometimes. So, obviously, they are trying to set the tone at the beginning of the season that they want to clean it up and make it a safer, cleaner game. And it’s tough. I mean, we’re just competitors, we just want to win, we show passion, we show fight, and sometimes it might get a little overboard. And it’s on the refs to decide on that, and it’s hard to read.”
Notably, the league did eventually rescind Bueckers’ clapping technical foul earlier in the season. Whether Caitlin Clark will receive the same treatment for her most recent one, or will simply have to absorb the fine and move on remains to be seen.
Notably, the incident happened when Clark got a controversial technical foul for clapping during a game against the Phoenix Mercury. After a physical tangle-up and a verbal exchange with Phoenix forward DeWanna Bonner, Clark clapped her hands toward the Mercury bench, with referees penalizing her with her fifth technical foul of the season and moving her closer to an automatic WNBA suspension.
Ultimately, these incidents show that WNBA players must now carefully check their passion (and their hands) to avoid costly penalties under the league’s strict new rules.
