Tennis Legend Chris Evert Blasts WNBA for Letting Caitlin Clark Get Beaten Up: ‘Bad Look’

Women’s tennis legend Chris Evert is no fan of the rough treatment Caitlin Clark received Tuesday night in a game that saw her raked across the face and knocked to the ground.

During the third quarter of the Indiana Fever’s game against the Connecticut Sun, Clark was raked across the eyes by Connecticut’s Jacy Sheldon and then knocked to the floor by guard Marina Mabrey. Mabrey was only issued a technical foul and not ejected from the game. Clark was also called for a technical foul, apparently because the referees believed she was flopping or embellishing the incident.

While none of Clark’s teammates defended Clark in the moment, later in the game, as Jacy Sheldon, the same player who had raked Clark across the face, was on a fast-break to the basket, Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham grabbed Sheldon and threw her to the floor.

However, despite the Sophia-come-lately defense of Clark, tennis legend Chris Evert felt compelled to voice her frustrations at WNBA players for their animosity towards Clark, who has completely revitalized their league.

“When will these ladies realize, accept, and appreciate @CaitlinClark22 is the best thing that ever happened to women’s basketball,” Evert wrote on X. “This is a bad look for the sport and what’s happened to sportsmanship?”

Evert’s post was a caption to a post by sports journalist Christine Brennan, who criticized the WNBA for failing to “meet the moment.”

“The WNBA continues to fail to meet the moment—terrible decision to allow Marina Mabrey to stay in the game. People are watching as never before. And this is what they see?” Brennan wrote on X.

WNBA coach Stephanie White blasted the refs after the game, both for not ejecting Mabrey and for penalizing Clark, a foul that, according to White, was never explained.