In the Atlanta Dream’s game against the Toronto Tempo Monday, Angel Reese was assessed her fifth technical foul. On the same night, miles away in Indiana, six technical whistles flew, one going to Fever’s Caitlin Clark for “clapping and instigating” teammates against the Phoenix Mercury. In the rematch on Wednesday, a flagrant foul on her was not even called. Fiery matchups were a given. But everyone is now forced to ask the same question: Why is the officiating not consistent?
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In the wake of the heightened tension surrounding those incidents, Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery added her voice to the growing chorus of concern about the state of officiating in the league right now. The way she sees it, it appears to be going everywhere but right.
“All the Angel Reese fans that are coming to my mentions right now, I wish you got more foul calls too. It’s like every team, though,” she said, speaking on the Women’s Sports Now show. “If you look at it, it’s not even a one-coach thing; it’s like every coach after the game is having a complaint. So there has to be something figured out.
“And I know that the people in the committee are saying it’s going to take time. But if it takes a full season, we’re going to have a real problem. I just think that right now, no one is happy, and that is not a good look.”
The WNBA did make purposeful adjustments to officiating standards heading into this season. The intention was to produce a cleaner, safer, more consistent basketball. The reality, however, has been the opposite. Coaches, players, and fans are now regularly reacting to wrong calls made or obvious calls not made. And the league’s credibility on officiating is taking a hit with each passing game.
During the Atlanta Dream’s June 22 game against the Toronto Tempo, while trying to snatch a rebound, Reese hit a Tempo player. It was an unintentional action, but the officials saw it as a hostile act and assessed the forward her fifth technical of the season. Dream fans in the stands even responded with a sustained “Refs you s—!” chant, but nothing came out of it.
The situation involving Caitlin Clark was even more alarming. During the Fever’s tight loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday, Clark faced two egregious, uncalled actions before halftime. One involved a fist driven directly towards her neck, and the other was a reckless closeout. The non-basketball play went uncalled, while the other was only deemed a shooting foul.
What followed has been an outpouring of criticism from the broader basketball community, including Fever head coach Stephanie White.
“Number one, you gotta call it,” White said on Wednesday. “It’s absolutely egregious and utterly disrespectful. Number two, you’re coming in here knowing what happened two nights ago, and that still happens? Absolutely unacceptable.”
For now, Thomas has been issued a Flagrant Foul 2 penalty after the league reviewed the play later. She is suspended for the Mercury’s game against the Tempo on Saturday.
The league’s position appears to be that these things take time to correct. But at this point in the season, with the same complaints surfacing week after week and from every corner of the league, time is running out. Indeed, no one is happy, and that, by any measure, is certainly not a good look for the league.
