Lip reader reveals Caitlin Clark plea to referee before Paige Bueckers' retort

Matthew NeschisFri, August 21, 2026 at 5:16 PM UTC

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Caitlin Clark speaks to the referee -Credit:Prime Video

A lip reader decoded what Caitlin Clark told Paige Bueckers during their tense foul exchange on Thursday.

With less than 10 seconds remaining in the first half of the Wings’ 91-85 win over the Fever, Bueckers grabbed Clark’s arm with a foul to give. Yet officials didn’t blow the whistle, even after the Indiana star guard appeared to exaggerate the contact by dramatically recoiling.

Bueckers tried to wrap Clark up a second time, finally drawing a foul call from the referees on hand. Clark did not take kindly to the gesture, promptly pushing Bueckers off of her before furiously tossing the ball to teammate Makayla Timpson.

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Once the whistle finally sounded, Clark appeared to shout, “Get off, quit grabbing,” according to Professional LipReader Nicola Hickling. Upon whizzing the ball past Bueckers’ head, she turned to the referee and allegedly exclaimed, “She grabbed my wrist!”

Bueckers seemingly didn’t understand why Clark was getting so worked up over the foul, as the 24-year-old held her hand out before appearing to tell her opponent to “calm down.”

Yet there seems to be no lingering bad blood between Bueckers and Clark, who heaped praise on the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year while speaking to reporters following Thursday’s game.

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"Obviously, she's an incredible player. [She] makes it really hard on us defensively… Paige is a tremendous player," Clark said.

"She takes what the defense gives her; she doesn't force anything; she's smooth; she finds the open teammate. So she's just a really tough guard."

Clark, to her credit, managed to limit Bueckers to her lowest scoring output in the Wings’ last seven games. Over 35 minutes, the UConn product recorded just 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds on 5-of-16 shooting from the field.

This is hardly the first time that Clark and Bueckers’ rivalry has taken center stage, despite both players repeatedly asserting that they are on good terms.

While making an appearance on the ‘Not Gonna Lie’ podcast back in January, Bueckers argued that the supposed feud between her and Clark was crafted by the media. “Me and Caitlin even played together on the Junior Olympic level when we were younger, we were in high school and it was always a fun time,” she said at the time.

Paige Bueckers downplayed her heated rivalry with Caitlin Clark -Credit:Getty Images

“It’s crazy because everyone’s pitting me and Caitlin against each other for the longest time. And we’re cool, we’re friends.

“But again, it’s respect to the competition, so we understand that. We understand how [the] media works and how they want to pit two people against each other, and they’re supposed to hate each other, and blah blah blah. So we all understand that, and it’s all in the love of the game.”

Clark expressed a similar sentiment last July, saying: “We’ve always been friends. I wouldn’t say we’re best friends and talk all the time. It’s hard when you end up going your separate ways and are at different colleges.”

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Source: “AOL Sports”