Sun and Fever criticize “unacceptable” behavior of fans at the end of the series

UNCASVILLE, Connecticut — Both Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas and Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides called for an end to the offensive comments toward WNBA players during their respective press conferences following Game 2 on Wednesday night.

Thomas even went so far as to call on the league to intervene and do something about the behavior.

“In my 11-year career, I have never experienced such racist comments from Indiana Fever fans. It is frankly unacceptable,” Thomas said. “There is no room for that. We have conducted ourselves professionally the entire time, but I have never been abused like I have on social media.”

“Basketball is going in a great direction, but we don't want fans demeaning us and calling us racist names. I mean, we already see what's going on in the world and what we're dealing with in that regard. And we play basketball because it's our job and it's fun, but we don't want to go to work every day and have social media freak out about things like that. That's inappropriate. Something has to be done, whether it's them policing their fans or this league doing it, there's no time for that anymore.”

Sides first spoke to reporters after the Fever's season-ending 87-81 loss to the Sun. She was asked what she thought was important to her team in the locker room after the loss. The Fever fought back from a 1-8 start to the season and secured the 6th seed in the playoffs.

“I'm just proud of the adversity that these guys have been through,” Sides said. “The expectations that were put on us at the beginning of this season and what people thought of us and just the outside noise that these guys have had to endure from Game 1 to now.”

“There's a lot of hurtful, hateful language out there, and that's unacceptable. If it gets personal to me, there's no reason for it. These people need to listen and watch – social media is their life. That's just what they do. And they need to read and see these things all the time, and all the stories that are made up of what people see or think they see. It's just not acceptable when it gets personal.”

In response to these two passionate statements, the WNBA released a statement on social media.

“The WNBA is a competitive league with some of the best athletes in the world,” it said. “While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA does not tolerate racist, derogatory or threatening comments about players, teams and anyone associated with the league. League security actively monitors threat-related activity and will work directly with teams and stadiums to take appropriate action, including involving law enforcement when necessary.”

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— WNBA (@WNBA) 26 September 2024

During the first quarter of Wednesday's game, Fever guard Caitlin Clark got into an altercation with a fan sitting in the second row near the halfway line, which got the referees involved. The referees alerted security, who removed the fan from the court. After a few moments, the fan was allowed to return. It's not clear what the fan said.

Sides made her comments unsolicited.

Responding to Thomas' statement, Sun coach Stephanie White added, “We have to improve.”

“We have experienced a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia across our country. Sport is no exception and that is unacceptable. What frustrates me most is that we – I say we because I also work in television – in the media need to do more than allow trolls and social media to become the story. I feel like we have allowed trolls on social media to dictate the narrative of the story. We need to do better. I applaud our team for maintaining their professionalism.”