Sheryl Swoopes Makes Blunt WNBA Referee Demand Amid Caitlin Clark Physicality Chatter

Even though the Indiana Fever's testy June 17 game against the Connecticut Sun was a week ago at this point, there is still a lot of discussion about all of the extracurricular activity that took place in that game, especially as it pertains to Fever star guard Caitlin Clark.

Clark getting poked in the eye by Jacy Sheldon and then shoved to the ground by Marina Mabrey in the span of about 15 seconds — and then Mabrey only receiving a technical foul for the shove and not getting ejected — reignited the narrative that Clark is subject to unnecessarily physical play by her peers.

It also has caused many in the WNBA media space to criticize the game's referees for not handling the situation well, which likely led to Sophie Cunningham retaliating on Sheldon one quarter later.

When speaking about everything that happened in this game during a June 24 episode of The Women's Hoops Show, WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes made her frustration with the league referees apparent.

"The refs, you have to take control of the game. You have to take control of it!" Swoopes said after discussing how everything escalated from Sheldon's eye poke on Clark. "And so because you didn't, Jacy and Caitlin are still going at it, and Caitlin basically says... 'I can do whatever the f I want to do.' Take that for what it is. But it was spicy!"

Swoopes later added, "At some point though, the refs are going to have to be better at what they're doing. Because I do think it can get to a point to where somebody is really going to get hurt."