WNBA officials and their love for calling fines for absurd reasons is not new. Who can forget Sophie Cunningham’s now-iconic TikTok mocking officials, which earned her a $500 penalty? She’s not alone either. Sabrina Ionescu, Paige Bueckers, and several other players have all been hit with fines for actions the league deemed unacceptable.

The most recent case, or rather, near case, came after the Mystics-Wings matchup. During the postgame press conference, Dallas Wings forward Maddy Siegrist narrowly dodged a fine of her own. While she stopped just short of crossing the line, Siegrist didn’t hold back in criticizing the officiating, especially the number of fouls called during the game.

In the postgame press conference, Siegrist was asked about the high number of fouls, 18 exactly, called during the third quarter of the game. “How hard is it to play in a game that can be that disjointed because of the whistles?” came the question hurling towards her. She was ready to lay into the officials for it, but at the right moment decided to pull out. “I don’t want to get fined,” she admitted, which was met with a chuckle from her and Paige Bueckers.

However, Siegrist did speak her mind, just in a controlled manner, to not attract a $1,500 fine. “They called us a ton of fouls, and it’s obviously hard to get into a flow… I thought we let it affect us a little bit too much, and it’s like sometimes they’re going to make tough calls that don’t go your way, and we just have to be able to move on from that,” Maddy Siegrist said in response. The Dallas Wings have been on guard the whole time following their wonder rookie getting an absurd fine back in June 2025.

Paige Bueckers’ fine prompts Wings players on handling officials calmly

Back in June 2025, the Dallas Wings were cruising past the Connecticut Sun, led by rookie sensation Paige Bueckers, who dropped 21 points in a red-hot performance. But that game also delivered her official ‘welcome to the league’ moment: her first technical foul. After hitting a tough jumper, Bueckers turned to the nearest referee and clapped her hands.

The ref stopped play and promptly hit her with a technical, prompting an even louder clap in protest. Even Sun players looked baffled. “I clapped twice and said, ‘And one!’ He said I clapped in his face. So, that’s all,” Bueckers explained afterward. She paid a hefty $200 fine as her first.

However, since then, the rookie and her teammates have treated direct comments about WNBA officiating like a minefield. In the recent Wings–Aces matchup, Maddy Siegrist was tasked with babysitting Bueckers after she cheekily offered her glasses to a ref over a questionable call. Later, Bueckers claimed she was handing them to teammate Teaira McCowan, a playful dodge to avoid a fine.

Now, Siegrist herself has narrowly escaped a fine. One thing’s certain: the Wings are treading carefully to keep the league’s penalty slips at bay. Their next test? A showdown with Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on August 12.