The Phoenix Mercury shared a tasteless post after star Alyssa Thomas did a dirty, cheap hit against Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark this week.
The Phoenix Mercury squeaked out a victory against the Fever on Wednesday night, but the game took a dark turn when Alyssa Thomas punched Caitlin Clark in the throat while the two were entangled. As Breitbart News reported:
Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas kneed Clark in the groin several times while Clark was on the ground, even when Clark had already passed the ball off to her teammates, and there was no play near Clark and Thomas. To make matters worse, Thomas then jammed her fist into Clark’s neck as she got up from the floor. Then she kicked at Clark’s legs as she got up and stepped over the Fever star.
Clark later left the game with a back injury, and it remains unknown whether it resulted from Thomas. Following the game, the Phoenix Mercury shared a stick figure on X with the caption, “De-Wanna piece of this?!?” Fans immediately condemned the post, and the team later deleted it.
“Nice to know a team condones violent assault on a player,” one fan said.
“Posting a graphic of a player on the ground after tonight’s assault is actually insane,” another wrote.
“It is inappropriate for an official team account to post something like this after one of its players assaulted another team player,” said another.
Fans were also outraged when the WNBA announced that Thomas would be suspended for just one game for the hit on Clark.