AMNA NAWAZ: A couple of heated games and some rough plays this week have sparked a new controversy in the WNBA around superstar Caitlin Clark.

On Monday, her Indiana Fever played the Phoenix Mercury in a game with six technical fouls, including one for Clark and an ejection.

Their second meeting on Wednesday brought this moment, when the Mercury's Alyssa Thomas pressed her fist into Clark's neck during a loose ball, and no foul was called.

Clark left the game early with a back injury.

After the game, fever coach Stephanie White called it unacceptable.

STEPHANIE WHITE, Head Coach, Indiana Fever: We have a generational talent and a WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots right there that weren't called.

We spent all off-season looking at officiating, all off-season.

And I still say the one thing that we keep asking for is consistency.

She is not called the same way everybody else is called.

AMNA NAWAZ: A day later, the league retroactively gave Thomas a flagrant foul and suspended her for one game.

But the questions around Clark's treatment and the WNBA's officiating have not quieted.

For more, we're joined by Seerat Sohi.

She covers the WNBA, NBA, and women's college basketball for The Ringer and she hosts their WNBA podcast.

Seerat, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

SEERAT SOHI, The Ringer: Thanks for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So why do you think the reaction to that foul and the no-call at the time, why has it been as fiery as we have seen it?

SEERAT SOHI: Well, I think because fans are starting to see a pattern where there have been cheap shots against Caitlin Clark that have gone uncalled.

Forget a flagrant foul.

We have seen some of these cheap shots not even get a regular foul.

Fans will remember, in 2024, Chennedy Carter hip-checked Caitlin Clark on an out-of-bounds play where she didn't even have the ball in her hands, and it wasn't called a foul.

The WNBA, I think, needs to reckon with its history of inconsistent refereeing, and it hasn't up to this point.

So now, when these things happen, they hearken back pre to previous instances, and at this point I think fans are just fed up.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's a lot of complicated narratives at play here.

You outline them really well in your latest piece for The Ringer.

And you put it this way.

You say: "Outside the arena, the league is filtered through two polarized narratives, both of them unflattering.

One, the league is stacked against Clark.

Players resent her, referees won't protect her, and league leadership has been reluctant to acknowledge her obvious mistreatment.

And, two, the league is a hotbed of racism, homophobia, and misogyny."

So let's just take those one at a time here, Seerat.

The narrative that Clark is treated differently and unfairly, is there truth to that?

SEERAT SOHI: I do think that there are stars, because of the magnitude of Caitlin Clark stardom, that were questioning her entry into the league and why she had such a big spotlight.

At the same time, I do think that refereeing issues are consistently bad across the WNBA.

I don't think that the WNBA really has a standard for or a vision for how they want the game to look.

They are very reactionary.

I think that's why you saw this flagrant foul and suspension issued after the game, when the public pressure was really starting to get to them.

You can see that with previous instances with really every crisis the WNBA has dealt with.

I think the best way to look at it is that Caitlin Clark is a magnifying glass to a lot of issues that have been plaguing the WNBA for a long time.

A lot of mainstream sports fans are just now finding out about things that have bothered players for quite a while.

And, to me, really, a lot of it just comes down to the league's leadership.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's a second point you raise here, which brings together a lot of very difficult topics, which is the fact that Clark is a straight white woman in a league that was built largely on the backs of Black women, many of them queer and out.

How is all of that playing into the conversation and the way it's being looked at?

SEERAT SOHI: Well, I think there are a number of nuances here.

The WNBA has had white straight stars before.

They have never had a white straight star with this magnitude of fame, and who has come in to the WNBA at a time where social media is very prevalent and in a very charged political moment in this country.

So there have been people who have used Caitlin Clark as an avatar to express their racial grievances, their homophobia, and often the WNBA players that she is faced against are the targets of those attacks.

So, you can understand from the perspective of those stars why they would, of course, take issue with something like that.

AMNA NAWAZ: There was a lot of controversy too I'm sure you saw with this new poster the league revealed, their 30th anniversary celebration, and Caitlin Clark is not on the poster.

Do you feel like that controversy was warranted?

Is the league fumbling how they're handling one of its biggest stars?

SEERAT SOHI: Well, the reality with that controversy is actually that the group that made that poster actually just does not have the licensing rights to Caitlin Clark's image and likeness.

For most organizations that aren't the WNBA or Nike, they only have the rights to her name and number.

Now, you could say, why didn't the WNBA go to a different organization to do this?

I think that's a very fair question, especially for -- when you're trying to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the league.

There are also prominent Black players that weren't on this list as well, such as Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker, two of the biggest legends in the game.

And, again, it just to me goes back to the WNBA's leadership.

This is a rocket ship that has a bad captain.

It's an airplane flying in the sky, and there's a ton of turbulence, and they do not know how to navigate it.

AMNA NAWAZ: What does all this mean for the fans?

I mean, yourself, you cover this, but you're also a fan.

What does it mean for the people who love the game and the league?

SEERAT SOHI: It's incredibly frustrating.

I think that most fans would like to celebrate great basketball alongside all of the other things that the WNBA brings to the table that, frankly, don't necessarily exist in other sports.

The WNBA is a -- it's a cheaper ticket with a more connected fan base that from my experience has had a genuine impact on my life as far as creating community at a time when I think a lot of people are seeking that.

So there's so many beautiful things about the WNBA as it stands right now, but the frustrating thing is that the mainstream stories that come out about the league often have to do with racial strife and incompetence, truly.

And that I think has just been a frustrating dynamic for the last three years.

AMNA NAWAZ: Seerat Sohi of The Ringer, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

Real pleasure to talk to you.

SEERAT SOHI: Thank you for having me.