Caitlin Clark's Cussing Message to DeWanna Bonner at Fever vs Mercury Game Surfaces
The Indiana Fever's record dropped to 21-20 after their 85-79 defeat to the Phoenix Mercury on September 2, which puts the Fever at No. 8 in the WNBA standings with three regular season games left to play.
There's no question that the Fever would have fared better against Phoenix if superstar guard Caitlin Clark was able to compete. Alas, she is still unable to play due to the groin injury she suffered nearly two months ago, and there's still no clear timetable for when (or if) she will return this season.
Losing to the Mercury hurts a little bit more than losing to most other WNBA teams for Indiana fans. This is because veteran wing DeWanna Bonner joined the Mercury after her brief tenure with the Fever went south earlier this season, which clearly created some bad blood between her and her former franchise.
And some of this bad blood appeared to boil over between Bonner and Caitlin Clark during Tuesday's game.
Clark's Cursing Message to DeWanna Bonner Surfaces
A timeout was called at one point in the second half of the September 2 Fever vs. Mercury game. Clark (who had been sitting on Indiana's bench) got up and appeared to be complaining to a referee near her.
Bonner was close by and began chirping at Clark. This prompted Clark to respond to Bonner and begin waving her back to the Mercury's bench.
caitlin told db to get tf on to her bench lmfaooooo pic.twitter.com/zdNmw7eyqJ
— correlation (@nosyone4) September 3, 2025
Despite it initially being unclear what these two former teammates were saying to each other, multiple clips of the exchange between them were posted on social media and went viral.
However, nobody knew what either side said to the other until a fan sitting courtside's video surfaced on social media on September 3.
The video (which was posted on X by @yunggsosaa) shows Clark yelling to Bonner, "It's not a f****** foul!" She followed this up by saying, "It's not a foul!" several times more.
“it’s not a fcking foul” let her know then 22😤😤😤😤 pic.twitter.com/hDAnAwgn0q
— bri (@yunggsosaa) September 3, 2025
It would have been fascinating to know what Bonner was saying back to Clark in that moment. But while Bonner spoke with the media after the game ended, no reporters asked her about that exchange with No. 22.
Regardless, this serves as further proof that there's still some bad feelings between these two sides after Bonner sat out and demanded an exit from Indiana shortly into the 2025 WNBA season.
While these teams won't play again in the regular season, perhaps they might match during the playoffs (so long as the Fever make it).
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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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