The first public WNBA officiating complaint of the season is from the first overall pick.
Following the Dallas Wings’ preseason victory over the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday, rookie Azzi Fudd was asked how she is adjusting to the physicality of the WNBA. In answering, the UConn product took a backhanded swipe at the officiating.
“Honestly, I’m more confused,” Fudd said. “I thought you could be physical in the W and anytime you touch someone, it’s a foul. So I’m not really sure whether to be physical, whether to—I don’t know. I’m still figuring that out.”
Fudd’s teammate, Jessica Shepard, joked that Fudd was still figuring out press conferences, too, because she “may get hit” with a fine. A source, however, tells Front Office Sports that the league won’t be fining Fudd for her comments.
Officiating has been a contentious topic in the WNBA in recent years. Ahead of the 2025 WNBA Finals, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that she would establish a “multi-stakeholder” task force to evaluate officiating in the offseason.
It’s still unclear who was involved in the task force. Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White said late last month that there were “lots of committees” that met in the offseason to address officiating concerns and is hoping to see changes this season.
“Talking about it and making changes are two different things,” White said at Fever media day. “Do I hope that there’s improvement? Of course. But just like athletes and just like coaches, it takes time and it takes experience and it takes commitment to being consistent with it.”
White said that the changes may be an increase in calls, which would align with Fudd’s preseason callout.
“I hope that we’re going to see a lot of whistles early and that that’s going to continue because players will adjust,” White said. “We just need it to be consistent.”
Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko said Monday that he was part of meetings with senior officials and was informed that calls were going to be “tight” during the preseason.
“I think there’s been a lot of fouls called in the preseason so far,” Smesko Marsh responded to a question from FOS. “If they continue with that, our players are going to have to adjust to the way the game is called.”
Chicago Sky head coach Tyler Marsh was asked about his expectations for this season’s officiating at the team’s media day last week. Marsh, however, declined to provide a detailed answer.
“It’s just all about accountability,” he responded to a question from FOS. “We don’t expect the referees to get it right 100% of the time. … I do believe that the players and the coaches have a level of accountability that we have to answer to regularly and we just want that transparency from both sides. And we’ll leave it at that.”
Yanyan Li contributed to this story.
