{"id":725970,"date":"2026-06-25T22:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/725970\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:21:09","slug":"wnba-warned-it-could-lose-caitlin-clark-to-europe-over-constant-cheap-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/725970\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA warned it could lose Caitlin Clark to Europe over constant cheap shots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life has been rough lately for Caitlin Clark<\/a> in the WNBA\u2014so much so that some are starting to think the “W” in WNBA stands for “Wrestling” after watching the league’s biggest superstar get mauled in her last game. At least, that\u2019s the takeaway from Congressman Tim Burchett, who told TMZ that the league needs to stop bullying the Indiana Fever star, or they’ll live to regret it when she packs her bags for Europe.<\/p>\n

Burchett, a congressman from Tennessee, expressed deep outrage over the treatment of the Indiana Fever star, who has been the target of constant hard fouls and physical play from opponents. The latest flashpoint occurred Wednesday when she took a hard shot to the throat against the Phoenix Mercury, reigniting the heated debate over whether referees are doing enough to protect the face of the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark takes a blow to the throat, and officials don’t call a foul<\/p>\n

Burchett initially reacted to a screenshot of the incident on X, writing: “The thug treatment of @CaitlinClark22 by the @WNBA is pathetic,” but he doubled down when caught on Capitol Hill by Jacob Wasserman on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s trashy,” Rep. Burchett said. “She gets the crap kicked out of her.”<\/p>\n

The politician doesn’t just think Clark is being targeted on the court; he suspects something deeper is at play, especially after the WNBA left her off the league’s 30th-anniversary promotional poster.<\/p>\n

Some European league is going to pull her in and they’ll pay her and she’ll pull out and they’ll all be back flying coach.<\/p>\n

Like many others, Burchett views Clark as the undisputed face of the sport. He warned that if opponents keep beating her up, both the superstar and the fans will take their money elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Following Wednesday’s controversial throat shot, Fever head coach Stephanie White also came to Clark’s defense, calling out the officiating and demanding that referees do their jobs by cracking down on these types of hits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life has been rough lately for Caitlin Clark in the WNBA\u2014so much so that some are starting to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-725970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}