UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Connecticut Suns forward Alyssa Thomas and Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides both urged an end to the offensive comments toward WNBA players during their post-Game 2 press conferences on Wednesday night.

Thomas even went so far as to ask the union to intervene and do something about the behavior.

“In my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced racist comments from the Indiana Fever fan base. It’s unacceptable, honestly,” Thomas said. “There’s no place for that. We’ve been professional the whole time, but I’ve never been called anything like that on social media.

“Basketball is going in a great direction, but we don’t want fans to belittle us and call us racist names. I mean, we see what’s going on in the world and what we’re dealing with in that regard. And we come to play basketball for a living and it’s fun, but we don’t want to come to work every day and have social media blow up about this stuff. That’s not appropriate. Something has to be done, whether they’re controlling their fans or this league, there’s no time for that anymore.”

Sides first spoke to reporters after the Fever’s 87-81 season-ending loss to the Sun. She was asked what she felt was important to say to her team in the locker room after the loss. The Fever overcame a 1-8 start to the season to earn a 6th seed in the playoffs.

“Just proud of the adversity that these guys have endured,” Sides said. “The expectations that were insane to start this season, and what people thought we had to do, and just the outside noise that these guys had to endure from Game 1 until now.

“There’s a lot of hurtful, hateful language that’s being said out there, and it’s unacceptable. When it gets personal to me, there’s no reason for it to be that way. These guys have to listen and watch — social media is their life. That’s just what they do. And they have to read and see this stuff all the time, and just all these stories that are made up of what people see or think they see. It’s just not acceptable when it gets personal.”

Following both passionate statements, the WNBA released a statement on its social media.

“The WNBA is a competitive league featuring some of the most elite athletes in the world,” the magazine said. “While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA will not tolerate racist, derogatory or threatening comments about players, teams or anyone affiliated with the league. League security actively monitors activity related to threats and will work directly with teams and arenas to take appropriate action, including involving law enforcement as necessary.”

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— WNBA (@WNBA) September 26, 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 center field, which got game officials involved. The officials called security, who removed the fan from the field. After a few moments, the fan was allowed to return. It’s unclear what the fan said.

Sides made her statements unsolicited.

Sun coach Stephanie White responded to what Thomas said: “We have to do better.

“We’ve seen a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia in our country. Sports is no exception and that’s unacceptable. What frustrates me the most is that we — I say we because I work in television as well — what we need to do better in the media is to prevent trolls and social media from becoming the narrative. I feel like we’ve allowed trolls in social media to dictate the narrative. We need to do better. I commend our team for maintaining their professionalism.”