Caitlin Clark Accused of 'Punking' Team By WNBA Star After Heated Moment
Perhaps the most notorious moment from the 2025 WNBA season came during the Indiana Fever's June 17 game against the Connecticut Sun.
Caitlin Clark and Sun guard Jacy Sheldon were playing tight defense against each other, which seemed to frustrate Clark (who finished with 20 points in 29 minutes in an 88-71 win). After Sheldon seemingly poked Clark in the eye in the second half, the two had a brief shoving exchange.
This prompted veteran Sun forward Marina Mabrey to shove Clark to the ground. This set Clark's fan base off, especially because Mabrey wasn't ejected for her heated response. This ultimately led to Sophie Cunningham throwing Sheldon to the ground a quarter later, which came with its own consequences.
Marina Mabrey shoves Caitlin Clark to the floor pic.twitter.com/bLiXgKAf8U
— Clark Report (@CClarkReport) June 18, 2025
RELATED: Caitlin Clark Screams at Sun Bench After Fever Logo Three Over Flagrant Foe
Mabrey has a reputation for getting into on-court scuffles. However, even she admitted she took things too far with Clark, saying, "I probably overreacted a little bit. But my teammate is getting hit, and I'm not okay with that. It wasn't like, 'I hate her! Here I do!' I don't do stuff like that. Everybody knows that I've never done that before," during an August 10 interview with Sportskeeda's Mark Medina.
RELATED: Marina Mabrey Admits She 'Overreacted' Shoving Caitlin Clark
Marina Mabrey Says Caitlin Clark Was 'Punking' Sun Amid Shove Regret
Mabrey was the guest on a February 13 episode of "Bird's Eye View" with WNBA legend Sue Bird and shared more remorse over how she handled that incident with Clark.
“I know when I went too far with things, and it’s like shameful. It’s like, really, Marina, that was ridiculous. So, for example, the Caitlin thing. When the play was over, and everyone was like, that was obvious that my emotions of us losing, and losing and losing, and then she’s like low-key punking our team on top of it, like, that was too far. That was too much," Mabrey said.
She then spoke about a recent exchange she had in Unrivaled and called it "perfect" because it energized her team. Mabrey then added, "Then on the flip side, when we were in Indiana, everyone's booing us, it feels like s***, we end up losing by like 25. And it's like, 'Marina, that's your fault, buddy. You can't do that.'
Mabrey's use of "punking" here was actually a positive term for Clark, as it meant she was playing well against the Sun.
It doesn't seem like there's any bad blood on either side about this moment where tensions boiled over on the court.
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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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