INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) -- Fever head coach Stephanie White called out the officiating after the Fever's loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday.
On Friday, White said that she has not heard from the WNBA after her comments and has no idea if she's been fined. White said she's sure Fever general manager Amber Cox has heard from the league.
She doubled down on her sentiment of wanting consistency in officiating and expressed her frustration with the lack of a call for the contact to Caitlin Clark's throat by Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas.
"The biggest thing for me is that we have to see it in real time," White said. "Yes, I'm thankful that the league went back and used their ability to go back and review it. These are things that we can't miss in real time. We've got to be better."
The throat contact from Thomas was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 foul after reviewing the game. Thomas has been given a one game suspension for the act.
"I think I'm pretty consistent in messaging that we need consistency," White said. "Not just how a game is officiated, but how players are officiated and how Caitlin is officiated. We need consistency in that and we need to continue to hammer home that messaging. I think it's obviously one of the concerns of every coach in this league is consistency in officiating and for us in particular, consistency for her (Caitlin Clark)."
White coached Thomas for two seasons with the Connecticut Sun (2023 and 2024) and shared that she was surprised by the action.
"I didn't see it in real time and so when I went back to see it, yeah I was surprised," White said. "I was more surprised that it wasn't seen by the officials in real time. I think the eye discipline, for lack of a better term, sometimes I feel like all the officials are watching the ball and nobody's watching the play. You have a player that's down on the ground, certainly some things are going to happen, so I was very disappointed that they didn't see that in real time."
Clark (back) has been ruled out for the Fever's game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday. She left the game in the third quarter against the Mercury due to the injury.
The Fever are scheduled to tip off against the Sparks at 8 p.m. on Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
