Indiana Fever On SI

Aces' Becky Hammon Criticizes WNBA Referees Amid Caitlin Clark Physical Treatment

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon got honest about WNBA referees in discussing how Caitlin Clark is defended.
Grant Young|
Jul 5, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon at a press conference at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Jul 5, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon at a press conference at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

When the Indiana Fever tip off against the Las Vegas Aces on June 22, one thing seems guaranteed: that the Aces are going to be physical when defending star guard Caitlin Clark.

This has clearly been the prevailing game plan opponents have implemented when playing No. 22 this season (and during her 2024 rookie campaign). After the Golden State Valkyries' June 19 victory over Indiana, Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase (who was an assistant with the Aces for three years before accepting the head job at Golden State) said, "I mean, you guys saw what we were doing... We were being disruptive, we know she doesn’t like physicality."

Aces head coach Becky Hammon (who Nakase coached under) expressed a similar sentiment, which was quoted in a June 21 article from Callie Fin of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"She's a beast... and she's just going to continue to get better," Hammon said of Clark in the article, as taken from an X post from @nosyone4. "But she's a player [who] you have to be physical [with]. If you just follow her around, she's going to cook [you for] dinner."

However, Hammon also noted that WNBA referees could do a better job of making this less of an effective game plan against Clark.

"I think teammates should step in and defend Caitlin," Hammon said. "But at the end of the day... there's too much bumping, too much grabbing, too much fouling that's not getting called. And people are tired of getting hit."

It seems that Hammon believes it's up to the league to alter how Clark is being defended.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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