INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark says it was too loud inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse for her to hear racial comments from fans directed at Angel Reese during Saturday’s season-opening 93-58 victory over the Chicago Sky and that she supports the WNBA’s investigation.
A person familiar with the situation confirmed the details to The Associated Press on Sunday on condition of anonymity because the league had not publicly identified the subject of the taunts or who made the allegations.
Clark spoke for the first time publicly about the allegations Monday after practice. Indiana hosts Atlanta on Tuesday night.
“It’s super loud in here, and though I didn’t hear anything, I think that’s why they’re doing the investigation,” Clark said. “That’s why they’re looking into it. That doesn’t mean nothing happened, so I’ll just trust the league’s investigation, and I’m sure they’ll do the right thing.”
Both teams also have issued statements supporting the investigation, and so has the WNBA Players Union.
Reese was booed during player introductions, and they reached a crescendo when she walked to the free-throw line after Clark smacked Reese’s arm to avoid giving up an open layup with 4:38 left in the third quarter. Reese lost the ball and fell to the court before getting up and attempting to confront Clark as she walked away.
Fever center Aliyah Boston stepped between the players and following a replay review, the refs upgraded Clark’s foul to a flagrant 1. Reese and Boston each drew technical fouls.
While Reese, Clark, Fever coach Stephanie White and Sky coach Tyler Marsh all called it a basketball play in their postgame news conferences, none of the four addressed hearing what league officials described as potentially “hateful” comments.
“I told the team, obviously, we’re going to cooperate fully with the investigation,” White said Monday. “But there’s no place for that in our league, whether it’s at home, whether it’s on the road. It doesn’t matter. We want to encourage our players, our staff to bring recognition to it in real time if it’s heard, if it’s seen or anything of that nature.”
Clark finished the game with her third career triple-double — 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists — as the Fever matched the second-largest victory margin in franchise history. Reese had 12 points and 17 rebounds in her first regular-season WNBA game since suffering a season-ending wrist injury in September.
The Sky and Fever will play four more times during the regular season this year. The two Sky home games in that series, scheduled for June 7 and July 26, have been moved to the larger United Center from Wintrust Arena.
The Sky’s next game is their home opener, hosting the WNBA defending champion New York Liberty on Thursday.
The WNBA launched its “No Space for Hate” program this season. This investigation will be the first major test of it.
“There’s no place for that in our game, no place for that in our society and certainly we want every person that comes into our arena — whether player, whether fan — to have a great experience,” Clark said. “I appreciate the league doing that (investigation), I appreciate the Fever organization has been at the forefront of this really since Day 1 and what they’re doing. With the investigation, we’ll leave that up to them to find anything and take proper action if so.”
AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in New York contributed to this report.
