Caitlin Clark Got a Technical for Clapping, and is Guaranteeing She'll Get Suspended Soon

Dylan Buell. Getty Images.

I think if there's one common complaint about the product the NBA is putting out - and why the TV ratings have been in a rapid, steady decline during a time when March Madness is setting viewership records - is the way the stars in the league get special treatment. I don't even need to show examples or cite data to make the case. Instagram and X are lousy with videos of your Lebrons picking up their dribbles and starting all over again with no call, your Embiids taking a dozen steps and the bucket counts, or SGA reacting to non-contact like he's JFK in Dealey Plaza, and drawing the foul every time. 

The WNBA has a much more interesting approach to how it treats its best players. And it's the complete opposite. They take the one figure who is guaranteed to put eyeballs on screens, asses in seats, and revenue on balance sheets and treat her with whatever the opposite of "special" is. 

To the point where not only will Caitlin Clark draw a foul like this one:

… she'll also get a technical for … you're reading this right … clapping. And she's not willing to be nice about it. Clark has chosen to be ungovernable:

"Yeah, it’s ridiculous. I got a technical for clapping. So, we should all just go on the calendar now and pick a game that I’m gonna be suspended for if I’m gonna get technicals for clapping. (The referee) said I got a technical for clapping. If any technical should be taken away, it should be that one if it’s truly for clapping. That’s what they said they gave it to me for. So, it’s just ridiculous. I don’t understand it at all. 

"I’m gonna play with emotion. I’m gonna play with passion. If they’re gonna give me a technical foul for clapping, then so be it. That’s their choice. The league can come back and review that play and I would love to hear what they say of the reasoning why I got the technical foul in that situation why players on the other team didn’t get a technical foul in that situation. If anything, split. OK, everyone gets a technical foul. That wasn’t how they were handed out. I’d love to know."

To elaborate on her talk of suspension, today I learned that after a player gets T-ed up for the eighth time in a season, she automatically sits for one game. On a side note, if the NBA had that rule in the '80s, those Celtics-Piston series would've ended up being games of one-on-one between Quinn Buckner and Kelly Tripucka. But I digress.

The WNBA has to know she is their meal ticket. The Fever only scored six points in the first quarter, Clark scored 15 in the second all by herself on the way to an 86-77 win. She put up 24 points, her fifth straight game with 20-plus. And she added nine assists. But the other players treat her like security would someone rushing the court carrying a protest sign. The officials treat her like a hockey enforcer looking to get a double major to keep the coach happy, not the best shooter and most compelling figure in league history. 

And in doing so, all they seem to be doing is poking the bear. If they're going to have rules for thee, but not for her, she's not going to play nicely with others. If they're going to keep up  this bullshit, she's "gonna play with passion" and clap her way into a suspension. If it wasn't for double standards, the WNBA would have no standards at all. 

So keep it up. They've chosen to treat Clark like a villain, and she's going full WWE Heel before our eyes. What's the sound of one Caitlin Clark clapping? It's the sound of their doom.