The WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury has deleted a controversial Internet meme that many fans said seemed to mock the physical attack on Caitlin Clark by Mercury player Alyssa Thomas during this week’s Mercury-Fever game.
The meme showed a stick figure wearing Mercury player DeWanna Bonner’s No. 24 jersey, her ponytail, and a white headband, lying on the floor with a word balloon saying, “De-Wanna Piece of This?”
Many fans, though, immediately thought that the cartoon was actually mocking Wednesday’s game, in which the Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas kneed Clark in the groin several times, then pushed her fist into Clark’s throat as Clark tried to get up from the floor where both had fallen while trying to retrieve the ball.
The cartoon first appeared on the Mercury’s social media accounts on Wednesday morning, but after a backlash, it was quickly removed.
The meme is supposed to reference an incident during Wednesday’s game in which Bonner made a layup on a foul call in the second quarter. But many fans and social media users attacked the Mercury, saying that it was really a stealthy comment on Thomas’s attack on Clark.
Thomas didn’t initially get any punishment for throat-punching Clark, but the day after the game, the WNBA upgraded the incident to a flagrant foul 2 penalty and gave Thomas a one-game suspension.
Fans ripped into the Mercury for both Thomas’ foul and the controversial social media meme:
One even suggested that a U.S. Senator investigate the WNBA.
Many fans were also outraged that Alyssa Thomas only got a little one-game suspension after her flagrant foul on Clark.
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