“The officiating crew that we had tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worth is f—— malpractice,” said Cheryl Reeve after Game 3 of the Lynx-Mercury semifinals series. Things took a sharp turn for the worse after Lynx’s Napheesa Collier twisted her left ankle when Alyssa Thomas swiped the ball from her and made incidental contact. To make matters worse, no foul was called on the play! As the never-ending officiating controversy continues to bubble, a fan-favorite WNBA analyst went out of her way to make an (for the lack of a better word) interesting analogy.
‘Courtside Club’ host Rachel A. DeMita highlighted a tweet from the ‘NBA Referees’ account. Through X, it was declared that Alyssa Thomas’ actions could not constitute a foul, since “she legally gets to the ball and knocks the ball loose before any contact. The leg-to-leg contact is incidental once the ball is clearly loose”. DeMita revealed being “floored” by this judgment. After all, she believed that Collier had nowhere else to go, causing her leg to get caught up in a tangle.
“If I’m fighting with the NBA referees on this, and they are the standard, there’s just no way. And I guarantee you, say this person dribbling is a LeBron James. You really mean to tell me that the NBA referees… switch LeBron James with Napheesa Collier. You mean to tell me that they also wouldn’t call that a foul? There’s no way. There’s no way,” DeMita said.
“Let that be a LeBron James. Let that be a Luka (Doncic). Let that be a Shai Gilgeous Alexander. Let that be a… Russell Westbrook got his leg taken out on a play like this. Let Steph Curry get hurt and fracture his ankle like Napheesa Collier did on a play like this, and you tell me that the league wouldn’t call it incidental contact,” said the W analyst, continuing her rant.
Over the years, a left-field perception has formed that the WNBA is more physical than the NBA. Former NBA player Paul Pierce agreed with this assessment, stating back in June that “the girls, if you notice over the last couple years, they’ve been a little more chippy than the men. They’ve been bringing that.” Pierce went so far as to state that he couldn’t even see that form of physicality from the players during the 2025 NBA Finals.
The reason behind this reduction in NBA physicality could be attributed to increased foul enforcement, particularly for flagrant fouls. Additionally, rule changes, like the ban on hand-checking, may have also reduced constant physical contact and intimidation tactics. We move back to the WNBA, though…
According to The Women’s Hoop Show Jordan Robinson, “Physicality has always been a WNBA thing. It’s a sports thing! It’s been a women’s basketball thing since the beginning”. However, Cathy Engelbert and Co. are yet to mould player physicality in a way that’s more sustained and enjoyable. It’s too erratic.
Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports
Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports
There’ve been so many incidents like the one with Napheesa Collier, with players walking away without facing any consequences. And it’s happened to the best of names in the W. The Napheesa Collier incident was certainly a wake-up call. Is Cheryl Reeve alone in this tussle with the officiating? Definitely not.
Cathy Engelbert continues getting called out over her officiating stance… (will this end?)
Rachel DeMita, a fan-favorite analyst, was not in the mood to make empty arguments. She played a clip from one of Cathy Engelbert’s recent interviews. The WNBA commissioner was asked about the steps they’re taking to ensure fair calls during the playoff games. She responded by saying that this issue comes up every year, and “in every sport”. To her, ‘this’ means that people care. To provide some assurance, Engelbert added, “So, as our game evolves, we’ll continue to work hard on officiating.” Was this the main person in the W generalizing every fan and player’s frustration?
“We have seen far too many contact injuries this season. And I also tweeted this last night, and I’m also going to stand by this. I said Cathy needs to say something publicly after this. She cannot keep hiding behind meaningless fines and ignoring the chaos happening daily in her league,” DeMita continued.
“I can’t get past that every time it comes up about officiating, she’s like, ‘Well, every sport complains about officiating.’ It’s something that’s so glaring in the WNBA. And a lot of new fans who came into the WNBA are shocked by what goes on in these games. The level of physicality, the mantra of, oh, it’s just a physical league,” DeMita reasoned.
Phee isn’t the only victim of the WNBA’s hardcore physicality. In June, Kelsey Plum highlighted how, during a loss to the Valkyries, she got scratches on her face, body, and the guards on the other team got, as she said, “these ticky-tack fouls, and I’m sick of it. I get fouled like that on every possession”.
The level of physicality this season has brought out complaints from all levels. From Angel Reese to Sophie Cunningham, everyone has spoken up.
Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon recently said, “The physicality is out of control, that’s for sure. You can bump and grab a wide receiver in the NFL for those first five yards, but you can do it in the W for the whole half court. You put two hands on somebody, that should be an automatic foul.”
In the end, imposing stricter restrictions on physicality through fouls falls under the jurisdiction of the WNBA commissioner. If even the recent incidents are not enough to persuade Cathy Engelbert, then it’s hard to know what will.