WNBA legend Lisa Leslie weighed in on the situation surrounding the incident between Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas and Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, which resulted in the league assessing a Flagrant 2 foul and a retroactive suspension for Thomas.

Leslie, a three-time WNBA MVP and two-time WNBA Finals MVP, addressed the topic on CBS Sports’ women’s sports show We Need To Talk on Saturday, and she explained that the “league’s got to do better” and the “officials have got to do better.”

“The League HAS to do better!”@LisaLeslie on the inconsistency with the WNBA’s officiating pic.twitter.com/OrF2AO89qt

— We Need To Talk (@WeNeedToTalk) June 27, 2026

“Well, officiating is tough,” Leslie began. “I don’t know if anybody’s ever even tried to officiate. It’s not the easiest game. It’s one of the most thankless jobs you can do. But in this particular situation, I thought that the last official should have been able to catch that. I was actually watching this game, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow! That was a bit much.’ So, in that moment, I thought that the official missed the call. I’m not surprised that the league went back and fined Alyssa Thomas. But I think at the same time, it’s tough to think that an official would have missed that, that they didn’t have a replay on it. That was tough to me.”

“And I think overall, the league’s got to do better,” Leslie continued. “The officials have got to do better.”

Leslie also said that the players “have to clean it up” too.

“But also players,” Leslie explained. “Players have to clean it up. We used to play in a way that you protected one another. Yeah, I want  to play physical; I want to play hard. But I’m not out here trying to hurt you. If I was out there for a loose ball, and it was [CBS Sports analyst Renee Montgomery] down there, yeah, I’m going for the ball. But if I accidentally punched Renee or hit her in some kind of way, maybe the play goes on, but I help her up. I help her up.

“So, I think that part is important too. The reaction. Maybe if Alyssa Thomas would have even turned, like, ‘Dang, my bad; I didn’t mean to hit you like that,’ it’s a different thing. But that’s not what happened. So, I think that the league got it right.”

Clark sounded off after Monday night’s Fever-Mercury game about “ridiculous” officiating, and Fever head coach Stephanie White also blasted the referees for “absolutely unacceptable” officiating after Clark took “cheap shots” in Wednesday night’s rematch that ultimately resulted in the Thomas suspension.

And on the other side, Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts went off about the WNBA’s suspension process for Thomas, saying that the league didn’t have a “thorough investigation.”

“I’d like to hit on my disappointment in the suspension process by our league and our leaders in the W,” Tibbetts explained. “This was not a thorough investigation, in my opinion. The people involved were not questioned at all. It’s extremely disappointing. No one from the league called AT, our security team or myself about what we felt like happened in this situation. There is a protocol to be followed; just coming from the NBA, there’s been many investigations that I’ve heard about that there was calls on both sides, and that was not done in this situation, and that’s disappointing.

“I agree with everyone’s stance. Let’s continue to clean up our game. I’m a part of our referee task force, the same that Stephanie White is, and Cheryl Reeve and Becky Hammon. The goal is to clean up our game, but I do think it’s important not to rely on social media screenshots. This is a slippery slope. Let’s watch the whole play, the whole game. We’ve got more people on our eyes; it’s a great league.

“I hope that we can all agree that consistency is the main thing in how we call these games. React to situations like this with consistency. Let’s not base it on generational talent, fan base involvement, All-Star-level players, or role players. Let’s don’t base it off veterans or young players, or White players or Black players, or international players. If this is the standard, make this the standard, even if the roles were reversed in this situation. Make the storyline the storyline, and the suspension the same. And let’s just be consistent.

Leslie explained that she thinks Tibbetts is correct with his overall point.

“But I think overall, Coach Tibbetts is correct,” Leslie said. “Everything, consistency is important. It needs to be cleaned up for all players, regardless of what their accolades are. None of that part matters. It matters about protecting these players, no matter which team, which position, when they sub in, the start of the game to the end of the game, every player deserves the same type of protection.”

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