Rachel Nichols isn't entirely convinced Caitlin Clark needs her own enforcer. Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.

Caitlin Clark got leveled — twice — by Connecticut Sun players on Tuesday night, as the WNBA’s crown jewel continues to take hits from opponents eager to test her. That part isn’t surprising anymore. What’s drawing fresh scrutiny is what didn’t happen next. Outside of Sophie Cunningham, none of Clark’s teammates looked remotely interested in answering the call.

And so, the discourse wheel turns once more.

That saw Chris Mannix wonder aloud if the WNBA has its own version of Charles Oakley or the Davis twins, players who ensured opponents paid a price for taking liberties. Rachel Nichols, for her part, wasn’t so sure that kind of enforcer could still exist in today’s game, but she agreed that Clark might need someone in her corner.

“Can we get Caitlin Clark a little protection out there?” Mannix asked. “Like, that’s your [Michael] Jordan; that’s your Steph Curry. That’s your LeBron [James]. That’s your Kobe [Bryant]. That’s your face of the league. You gotta protect the face of the league, ladies.”

Nichols pushed back slightly, noting that a Charles Oakley-type wouldn’t last in today’s NBA — let alone the WNBA — with the current rules, restrictions, and hair-trigger reactions to anything resembling a fight.

“I don’t think the WNBA is going to be any more lenient than the NBA,” said Nichols. “Look, we’ve seen Steph Curry, that you mentioned, be beat up like this for years. I mean, that is basically the game plan against Steph Curry is just try to out-physical him and beat him up a little bit because, of course, you can’t match the skill level. I think the W is sort of taking a page from that. But, so far, she’s been able to handle everything that’s been thrown at her. I don’t really worry about her toughness. She might be her own enforcer.”

Steph Curry has Draymond Green. Does Caitlin Clark need her own Draymond?

“That’s the cost of doing business, protecting your guy,” Mannix said. “That’s the franchise. Draymond gets it. He protects Steph Curry. I just think the last couple of years, we’ve seen Caitlin Clark get laid out a few times. Look, some of that comes with the territory when you’re a flashy rookie. You’re gonna take some shots. We’re in Year 2 now with Caitlin Clark. I think people on her team, the women on her team, if somebody takes a shot at her… Somebody took a pretty good shot. Caitlin went to the floor. You gotta level that girl, right?”

Nichols added, “The league itself can take care of this if they want to.”

The hits aren’t new. Neither is the strategy. This is what happens when you’re the headline act in a league still figuring out how to handle that kind of spotlight. But what’s setting people off again isn’t just Clark getting knocked down; it’s that no one seems all that interested in doing anything about it. If she really is the face of the league, as everyone keeps saying, who’s stepping up? Because the opponents sure aren’t backing off.

And that’s seemingly why Mannix is asking for an Oakley, and Nichols is asking if the league has the stomach to step in.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.