Alyssa Thomas Calls Caitlin Clark Incident 'Complete Accident' While Ripping WNBA

Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas spoke with the media for the first time since being suspended by the WNBA for her incident involving Fever star guard Caitlin Clark on July 24.

After saying she has received death threats because of what happened, Thomas said, "There's a difference between trolling and there's a difference between hatred. And the hatred that we're experiencing over a play that, honestly, was a complete accident—no one even knew it happened—is just unfortunate. But the league has to be better in this instance," per an X post from PHNX Mercury.

"There's a difference between trolling and there's a difference between hatred."

Alyssa Thomas on what the team has been experiencing this past week. pic.twitter.com/RoooL0hUCj
— PHNX Mercury (@PHNX_Mercury) June 30, 2026

Thomas put her closed fist on Clark's throat after the two were battling for a loose ball during the Fever and the Mercury's June 24 game. No foul was called at the time, but the sports community was outraged when slow-motion replays of the exchange surfaced afterwards.

Thomas was eventually suspended for one game and fined $1,000 because of what she did.

This shot of Alyssa Thomas & Caitlin Clark is crazy 👀 pic.twitter.com/DQTAVQvYrE
— Kyle Ingram (@SnapshotKyle) June 25, 2026

She also added on Tuesday, "A lot of us, myself included, didn't even know the play took place until after the game. And now we're being painted as thugs. And [there are] death threats out on us, so it's really unacceptable. It's something that needs to change in this league, and I'm just really sick and tired of it."

Thomas also called out WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert for her silence regarding the entire situation, which is something Thomas called "unfortunate when our lives are being threatened."

She also added that she dealt with similar social media hate when she was playing against that Fever for the Connecticut Sun in the 2024 playoffs, but not to the same extent as she has been dealing with right now.

It's also worth noting that this isn't an isolated incident for Thomas. Her seemingly unnecessary physicality during games has appeared several times over the past few seasons, including when she chokeslammed Angel Reese during a 2024 game and ran through Napheesa Collier's leg during the 2025 postseason, which caused Collier to suffer an injury.

Alyssa Thomas-Caitlin Clark Incident Being 'Accident' Shouldn't Change Its Outcome

There's no question that Thomas, nor anybody else involved in this situation, should be receiving death threats for this incident or for anything else regarding sports or sports discourse.

However, Thomas seems to be suggesting that the exchange between and Clark being a "complete accident" means that she shouldn't have been suspended, or at least that she should have received more notice from the league before getting suspended.

But this sentiment doesn't make sense because the fist on Clark's throat still took place, regardless of whether it was an accident or not. Plenty of things can be called "accidents" throughout the course of a game, such as a ball going out of bounds off a players' hand or them committing a foul on a shot. But that doesn't mean there aren't consequences to these supposed accidents.

And if anything that was called an accident after the fact could be excused because of it, every player who did something punishable could call it an accident then expect to escape retribution.

Ultimately, one would imagine that Thomas just wants to move on from this situation. But these comments are going to spark debate about this all over again.

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