INDIANAPOLIS, July 4 -- Alyssa Thomas learned of her suspension with ten minutes' notice. She had not known, she would later say, that the play which triggered it had happened while it was happening.

What came after was something the one-game ban did not prepare her for. Death threats. Racial slurs. Messages involving her children. The Phoenix Mercury forward, describing the fallout Thursday, drew a distinction between the kind of hostility professional athletes have long absorbed and what she and her teammates have experienced since a June 24 scramble for a loose ball left Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark with a bruised throat.

"A lot of us, myself included, didn't even know the play took place until after the game," Thomas told repor...