Dave Portnoy goes scorched earth after Caitlin Clark scuffle

Dave Portnoy was incensed at Marina Mabrey and the WNBA after the Sun guard got into a tussle with Caitlin Clark during Tuesday’s game between Connecticut and the Fever. 

“Imagine not kicking Marina Mabrey out after she assaults the face of the league?” Portnoy posted on X, along with a clip of the play. “Sick league @WNBA. Also shouldn’t have been a tech on Caitlin since that girl got in her face after gouging her eyes.”

A few moments earlier, the Barstool Sports founder posted: “Kick Marina Mabrey outta the league.”

The dust-up began when Sun guard Jacy Sheldon poked Clark in the eye in the third quarter of the eventual 88-71 Fever win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Clark responded by bumping into Sheldon, before Mabrey stepped in and knocked the Indiana superstar to the ground.

After a lengthy review, the officials upgraded a common foul on Sheldon to a flagrant 1, and assessed technical fouls to Clark, Mabrey and Sun center Tina Charles, who was also involved. 

The Fever crowd was outraged at the referees’ decision, but it would have been difficult to find someone more upset than Portnoy, who has been a superfan of Clark ever since the electrifying guard entered the league from Iowa.

After the game, crew chief Ashley Gloss told a pool report that Sheldon was issued a flagrant because the initial foul was “unnecessary” and that “the contact to the face carried a potential for injury.

However, Gloss said Mabrey’s foul did not warrant a flagrant.

“The contact made by Mabrey did not rise to the level of an ejection,” Gloss said. “Additionally, [it] did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two.”

With under a minute left in the fourth quarter, with the win in hand for Indiana, Sheldon had a fast break before Fever guard Sophie Cunningham yanked her to the ground, presumably in retaliation for the third-quarter scuffle. 

Sheldon and Cunningham got into a shoving match from there, and both players, plus Sun guard Lindsay Allen, got ejected. 

Tuesday night marked Clark’s second game back from the left quad strain injury that caused her to miss five games. 

She returned in style on Saturday, dropping a season-high 32 points and seven 3-pointers in a 102-88 win over the previously unbeaten Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. 

Clark notched 20 points, six rebounds and one assist in the win over Connecticut as Indiana earned a berth in the Commissioner’s Cup final against the Lynx.