Caitlin Clark had a tough night at the office on Wednesday. Not so much because of her skills, but the constant rough work the Phoenix Mercury put her through. Now, a former two-time Super Bowl champion has weighed in on this worrying trend and sounded the alarm for the WNBA.
LeSean McCoy Warns the WNBA About Protecting Caitlin Clark
LeSean “Shady” McCoy, appearing in the latest “Speakeasy” podcast, argued that if the league failed to protect Clark from excessive physical targeting, it faced destruction.
“I’m not gonna overreact over one little incident, but if you keep this stuff. there won’t be a WNBA,” McCoy said. “Yo, if Caitlin Clark says, ‘You know what man, I’m done y’all…’ What would they do?”
In Monday’s game against the Mercury, Clark was involved in a physical tangle with DeWanna Bonner. However, it was Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas’ actions that caught the spotlight during Wednesday’s game. She appeared to throw her fist into Clark’s neck during a loose-ball scramble.
Thomas then stepped over Clark after the scramble for the loose ball. Later in the third quarter, Clark left for the locker room after aggravating a lingering back injury that made her a game-time decision prior to tipoff.
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“If Caitlin Clark says, ‘You know what today, I’m done with WNBA.’ What would the WNBA be? It would be over. Fans, you know how it goes, when she doesn’t play. “Attendance drops, viewership drops. Money gonna drop,” McCoy added.
Numbers back his claims. Clark’s rookie campaign immediately smashed decades-old broadcast records, with TV viewership skyrocketing by 170% on ESPN platforms compared to the previous season.
In addition, when the Indiana Fever travel, away venues regularly experience attendance spikes exceeding 80% to 90%, often forcing franchises to relocate games to NBA- or NHL-sized arenas to meet ticket demands.
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Not only that, Clark was also instrumental in the WNBA’s massive new multi-billion-dollar media rights package, fundamentally altering players’ salaries.
To validate his argument, McCoy pointed directly to historical blueprints from the NBA and NFL. When physical defense threatened to compromise Michael Jordan’s health in the late 1980s, or when a devastating knee injury sidelined Tom Brady, the leagues quickly rewrote their rules.
“All I’m saying is when Michael Jordan was the man, the NBA made sure, ‘Hey, we can’t be doing that to him.’ You can’t be doing that to him no more,” McCoy explained. “Quarterbacks in the NFL… they hurt Tom Brady’s knee – you can’t tackle a quarterback by the knee anymore.”
“Bro, if you don’t take care of the young GOAt, what’s the hell gonna happen to WNBA?” McCoy concluded.
So, the message is simple: Protect Clark, save the league.
