Stephen A. Smith weighs in on federal probe idea over Caitlin Clark treatment

Stephen A. Smith responded to a recent opinion piece by the Wall Street Journal that called for a government investigation into the WNBA for the controversial handling of physical plays against superstar Caitlin Clark. 

The Wall Street Journal piece titled “The WNBA and Caitlin Clark’s Civil Rights” drew mixed reactions this week after it argued that Clark has been subject to a hostile workplace due to how referees have called physical plays against her dating back her rookie season in 2024. The piece called for a federal probe into “potential civil rights violations.”

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Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark sits on the bench after an apparent injury during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Boston.  (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Smith suggested support for a potential investigation. 

“I’m not here saying the case will be won by the government if it gets to the points. I’m saying they have a case, they have an argument,” Smith said of the idea during an episode of his show on Tuesday. 

Smith also suggested President Donald Trump could use such an investigation to solidify support among his followers. 

“Do we doubt that at his discretion, at his disposal, if he finds this to be an issue that is politically expedient to him, that Trump won’t use this to feed his base?” Smith said. “If [Clark] is seen to be physically getting abused on the basketball court in a way that is such a clear and flagrant discrepancy compared to what happens to others, that that man is not going to say something?

“You don’t think Catilin Clark could become an issue of national, potentially international, and definitely federal proportions?”

Smith cited recent agreements by Columbia University and Harvard University with Trump’s administration to settle alleged civil rights violations against Jewish students and employees as a comparison for a potential probe into the WNBA’s treatment of Clark. 

“If the Trump administration can settle with Columbia for a $221 million settlement over what’s taken place on a campus, you think you can definitively rule out what kind of noise could be made if the WNBA continues to allow this treatment of Caitlin Clark?” Smith said. 

Clark’s teammate, Fever star Sophie Cunningham, has been one of the most vocal critics of the WNBA players and referees in the physical treatment of Clark and how it is handled. 

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Diamond DeShields of the Chicago Sky runs into and is charged with a flagrant foul against Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever at Wintrust Arena on August 30, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.   (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

Cunningam revealed how her former team, the Phoenix Mercury, planned to play Clark during the phenom’s rookie season in 2024. Cunningham played her first five seasons in Phoenix before leaving to join the Fever this past offseason. 

“You have seen players in our league try to, like, toughen up Caitlin… Even when I wasn’t on her team, I know the talks that Phoenix had in the locker room, like, ‘No, we’re going to show her what the W really is,’ and I get it to a certain extent, and every rookie coming into the league, that’s how you’re going to treat ’em, but there’s just more for her,” Cunningham said on her podcast last week. 

“And now being on her team and seeing it, I’m like, ‘What are people doing?’ Actually, it’s just too much. It’s too much. I’m over it, and if I think it’s too much, it’s probably too much.” 

Cunningham was on the other side of the situation when she started a fight to defend Clark during a game against the Connecticut Sun earlier this season. Cunningham said that after the game, Clark exclaimed “finally!” in the locker room. 

“In the locker room, she goes, I think she’s like, ‘Finally!’” Cunningham said. “But I think it kind of had our team together as a whole. Everyone was like, ‘We do have to protect eachother.’”

The scuffle went down in Connecticut on June 17, when Cunningham committed a hard foul on Sun guard Jacy Sheldon. Sheldon poked Clark in the eye earlier in the game, and then fellow Sun player Marina Mabrey shoved Clark to the ground.

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Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever reacts after a flagrant foul committed by Diamond DeShields #0 of the Chicago Sky at Wintrust Arena on August 30, 2024 in Chicago,  (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

Cunningham previously called out referees just days after the June 17 fight while speaking to reporters, for not protecting Clark, when she had to first address the fight publicly. 

“During that, it was just part of the game. I think the refs had a lot to do with that. It was a build-up for a couple years now of them just not protecting the star player of the WNBA,” Cunningham said. “At the end of the day, I’m going to protect my teammates. That’s what I do.” 

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