Caitlin Clark finally came out to address the Alyssa Thomas situation. And just as the consistent and insistent calls for her to speak against the abuse and threats directed at Thomas had demanded, she did. But the manner in which she eventually got there, and the time it took, prompted a thoughtful and empathetic reading of the situation from WNBA analyst Rosalina Lee.

For the duration of Clark’s silence, Lee had been among those worried about what would happen when Clark eventually stepped in front of the microphones. And for Lee, the delay may not have simply been strategic, it may have been personal.

“She has been avoiding them for the past week because, you know, it’s a lot,” Lee said in her Friday YouTube analysis of Clark’s address. “It’s definitely a lot and I don’t know, maybe she’s hurt. She does also address her health. She says having taken these last few days off has been good for her health. They are being very abstract about what that means. I don’t know if it’s like a mental health thing. I don’t know if she’s having a nagging pain in her back physically.”

Looking at it from Clark’s perspective, Lee’s reading of the situation is entirely understandable. It was Caitlin Clark who received a fist to the throat. It was Clark who then missed games after sustaining a back injury. And it was not the first time she had endured this kind of physical punishment in the league. 

What makes it even more difficult to process is the fact that none of the WNBA players who have committed high-profile flagrant or hard fouls against her have ever issued a public apology. That, as Lee pointed out, can have far-reaching mental effects, generating genuine feelings of hurt and of being unsafe in the very environment she competes in every day.

And yet, amidst all of that piling up, the loudest voices around her were directing calls her way to address the abuse and threats that Alyssa Thomas had been receiving, framing it as a responsibility that was somehow hers to fulfil. There were even insinuations that her silence was evidence she did not care about the issue.

That could not be further from the truth. Because in each of the seasons she has been in the WNBA, Clark has had to publicly address issues of this nature. And so, the question that deserves to be asked is, for how long will she have to keep doing this before meaningful, systemic changes actually follow?

Caitlin Clark Calls Alyssa Thomas’ Controversial Foul ‘Flagrant’ in Honest Assessment

When Caitlin Clark eventually addressed the Alyssa Thomas fist-to-throat foul, she did not mince words. For her, the classification was straightforward, it was a flagrant foul.

“I did think it was a flagrant foul,” she said during her Friday media availability. “Our refs just need to be better. Obviously, the refs are in a really difficult spot. You know, it’s one of the hardest jobs in the world in my opinion. I guess the league’s just got to do better protecting our players. I think it’s pretty straightforward. It’s kind of been a discussion for like three years now. And I think we really need to do a better job protecting the people in this league.”

Of course, the Thomas foul was eventually assigned flagrant status. And Thomas served a suspension as a consequence. 

But as Clark’s comments made clear, the issue extends well beyond this single incident. There are other similarly dangerous plays that go uncalled across the league on a regular basis. The call for the league to do better is not a personal grievance. It is an urgent, overdue, and entirely reasonable demand.