Dave Portnoy was incensed at Marina Mabrey and the WNBA after the Solar guard bought right into a tussle with Caitlin Clark throughout Tuesday’s sport between Connecticut and the Fever.
“Imagine not kicking Marina Mabrey out after she assaults the face of the league?” Portnoy posted on X, together with a clip of the play. “Sick league @WNBA. Also shouldn’t have been a tech on Caitlin since that girl got in her face after gouging her eyes.”
A number of moments earlier, the Barstool Sports activities founder posted: “Kick Marina Mabrey outta the league.”
The dust-up started when Solar guard Jacy Sheldon poked Clark within the eye within the third quarter of the eventual 88-71 Fever win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Clark responded by bumping into Sheldon, earlier than Mabrey stepped in and knocked the Indiana famous person to the bottom.
After a prolonged assessment, the officers upgraded a standard foul on Sheldon to a flagrant 1, and assessed technical fouls to Clark, Mabrey and Solar heart Tina Charles, who was additionally concerned.
The Fever crowd was outraged on the referees’ choice, however it will have been tough to seek out somebody extra upset than Portnoy, who has been a superfan of Clark ever because the electrifying guard entered the league from Iowa.
After the sport, crew chief Ashley Gloss informed a pool reporter that Sheldon was issued a flagrant as a result of the preliminary foul was “unnecessary” and that “the contact to the face carried a possible for damage.
Nonetheless, Gloss stated Mabrey’s foul didn’t warrant a flagrant.
“The contact made by Mabrey did not rise to the level of an ejection,” Gloss stated. “Additionally, [it] did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two.”
With beneath a minute left within the fourth quarter, with the win in hand for Indiana, Sheldon had a quick break earlier than Fever guard Sophie Cunningham yanked her to the bottom, presumably in retaliation for the third-quarter scuffle.
Sheldon and Cunningham bought right into a shoving match from there, and each gamers, plus Solar guard Lindsay Allen, bought ejected.
Tuesday evening marked Clark’s second sport again from the left quad pressure damage that triggered her to overlook 5 video games.
She returned in fashion on Saturday, dropping a season-high 32 factors and 7 3-pointers in a 102-88 win over the beforehand unbeaten Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Clark notched 20 factors, six rebounds and one help within the win over Connecticut as Indiana earned a berth within the Commissioner’s Cup ultimate in opposition to the Lynx.
