Are WNBA Players Really Being ‘Petty’ About Caitlin Clark?

In April, fresh off two record-breaking games and decked out in a Prada skirt suit, Caitlin Clark was drafted to the Indiana Fever. The NCAA superstar has been hailed as a game changer for women’s professional basketball, but her first month in the WNBA has been a little rocky. So far, the Fever hasn’t won many games she’s played with the team, and it seems like she’s going through some growing pains. Things were looking particularly bleak this weekend, when she scored a season low of three points in a game against the New York Liberty.

A flagrant foul from the Chicago Sky’s Chennedy Carter on Saturday night has only fueled long-simmering rumors that Clark isn’t getting a warm welcome from her new colleagues. Some say older WNBA players are jealous of how much credit she’s being given for the league’s newfound attention. Others think this is typical treatment for a rookie with a big reputation, and Clark has been compared to a number of NBA players, including Michael Jordan and LeBron James, whose hyped-up entries into the league were swiftly checked by their fellow players. The official line from most has been that the WNBA is happy to have Clark onboard and a rising tide lifts all boats. So are any of these rumors true? Here’s what we know.

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A handful of WNBA greats seems to have a chilly attitude toward Clark.

Even before she went pro, a few more senior WNBA players — including some who are no longer in the league — made public comments that were interpreted as being antagonistic toward Clark. In early April, after Clark broke two NCAA scoring records, New York Liberty power forward Breanna Stewart told a reporter she didn’t think the then–Iowa star could be considered one of women’s college basketball’s greats because she hadn’t won her team a championship. Around the same time, college-basketball legend Lynette Woodard suggested during a coaches’ convention that Clark hadn’t broken her scoring record because they weren’t playing under the same rules. Another former player, Sheryl Swoopes, attempted to undercut one of Clark’s accomplishments, incorrectly claiming that her scoring record wasn’t valid because she had been playing for more than four years.

Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi made a comment seen as shade when she was asked about the up-and-coming crop of college superstars (which included both Clark and Angel Reese) during an ESPN interview ahead of the 2024 draft. “Reality is coming,” Taurasi said of her future colleagues’ entry into the big leagues. “You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.” She referred to a “transition period” in which, she said, “you’re just going to have to give yourself grace as a rookie.” Later, responding to the controversy her statement stirred up, Taurasi called fans “really sensitive.”

And then there’s A’ja Wilson, the Las Vegas Aces star who was accused of being jealous of Clark after tweeting, “Psalm 37:7,” referencing a biblical verse about being patient while others succeed, amid news that Clark was about to sign a record-breaking sneaker deal with Nike. Wilson, who is also signed to Nike — and ended up releasing her own sneaker less than a month later — responded to the rumors with another tweet. “No one is jealous bookie!” she said. “Our league is hard as hell so to thrive and to stay in it consistently is huge!”

Wilson has also acknowledged what a lot of fans have speculated is the source of some animosity toward Clark: that she’s a white woman who has found unprecedented success in a predominantly Black league. Wilson recently told AP News that she felt Clark’s whiteness was a “huge” factor in her popularity. “You can be top-notch at what you are as a Black woman,” she said, but “they don’t see it as marketable, so it doesn’t matter how hard I work.” She added, “It boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is.”

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Other players seem to be gunning for Clark during games.

A lot of Clark’s on-court success has been hindered by what seems to be the relentless defense against her, which sports commentators have argued is pretty typical for such a major talent with a ton of attention who’s stepping into the league for the first time. (The words target and Everyone’s coming for her have been thrown around a lot.) The New York Post called a particularly painful-looking screen from Stewart the rookie’s “latest welcome-to-WNBA moment,” suggesting the rough-and-tumble treatment Clark is getting is par for the course. Opposing teams seem so fixated on keeping her at bay that one player recently bolted over to guard her, not realizing she had a second free throw to take before they could even resume.

For her part, Clark has mostly shied away from throwing accusations. After a recent game against the Sparks, she told reporters, “I think everybody’s physical with me. They get away with things, you know, probably other people don’t.” But, she added, “It’s a very physical game. That’s just professional basketball.”

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LeBron James and Charles Barkley have gone out of their way to defend Clark.

NBA star LeBron James, who tweeted in April that “if you don’t rock with Caitlin Clark game you’re just a FLAT OUT HATER!!!!!” dedicated a few minutes on a recent episode of his podcast, Mind the Game, to Clark’s dynamic in the WNBA. His co-host, former NBA player JJ Redick, claimed there was “definitely a dislike or vitriol coming her way” from “older players,” adding, “We all experienced that to some degree when we first got in the NBA.” James, who was himself a buzzy first-draft pick when he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers straight out of high school in 2003 — and who also landed an eye-watering Nike endorsement before even playing a game — said he’s “rooting for Caitlin because I’ve been in that seat before.” Referencing the league’s recent push to give all its teams private travel instead of having them fly commercial — a newly expanded program that was first launched in 2023 — he said, “Don’t get it twisted. Caitlin Clark is the reason why a lot of great things are gonna happen for the WNBA.”

James and Redick aren’t the only NBA players rushing to Clark’s defense. During a TNT segment, Charles Barkley ran with James’s comments, particularly the one about how WNBA players fly. “You women out there,” he said — a promising start to any sentence — “y’all petty, man.” Presumably addressing other WNBA players, he went on, “Y’all should be thanking that girl for getting y’all ass private charters, all the money and visibility she’s bringing to the WNBA.” He told Clark’s colleagues to “stop being petty like dudes” and to thank her for “bringing all that money and shine to the WNBA.” (If you listen closely, you can hear Draymond Green correctly muttering in the background, “They gonna hate you even more.”)

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WNBA players have pushed back on the idea that they dislike Clark.

Even if there is tension toward Clark in the WNBA, the players definitely did not take kindly to hearing they’re being petty. Barkley’s 60-second diatribe rubbed a lot of players and coaches the wrong way. L.A. Sparks player Dearica Hamby retweeted Barkley’s rant with a dismissive “Seriously…. Wtf are you talking about…” Former L.A. Sparks team member Chiney Ogwumike wrote, “Every WNBA player I know supports this rookie class and are grateful for the spotlight & money that Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and co. are bringing to the W!” She also claimed the league had started to use chartered planes last year because of safety concerns and increased revenue. One New York Liberty player, Jonquel Jones, said she was “interested to know who are all the woman that are hating on” Clark.

Clark’s fellow rookie Angel Reese also referenced Barkley’s diatribe while celebrating the Chicago Sky’s win against the Liberty. “And that’s on getting a WIN in a packed arena, not just ’cause of one player on our charter flight,” she wrote on Twitter. She quickly deleted the post, which was widely interpreted as a slight toward Clark, though Reese’s mother — who also played college basketball — later clarified that the post was “directed towards the media.”

Before facing off against Clark in a Fever-Aces game, A’ja Wilson and her coach, Becky Hammon, took another opportunity to shut down the rumors. “This narrative of everybody hating on Caitlin Clark, and even the black-and-white thing, it’s not there,” Hammon said in a mid-practice interview. Adding that Clark is “a 22-year-old woman with a lot of pressure,” she succinctly told commenters to “back off.” Wilson nodded along next to her, adding that she is “exhausted of the conversation” and that Clark is “learning and growing just like everyone else.” Hammon said she “doesn’t really care” who’s responsible for the league getting private jets: “What I care about is they see how great women’s basketball is.” Wilson’s only addition? “Period.”

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The situation heated up after a flagrant foul from the Sky’s Chennedy Carter.

Tensions heightened Saturday night, when the Fever played the Chicago Sky, a team that includes Reese, Clark’s fellow star rookie. During the game, which was the Fever’s first home win, the Sky’s Chennedy Carter hip-checked Clark during an inbound play, prompting outrage from fans who saw it as a cheap shot. (Some reports claim Carter called Clark a “bitch” just before checking her, while others insisted Clark actually elbowed Carter earlier in the game.) Even Clark let on that she was frustrated, admitting in a postgame interview that Carter’s check was “not a basketball play” but “that’s what basketball is about at this level.” Carter declined to answer questions about Clark in a postgame presser, but on Threads, she wrote of the rookie, “beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man” with a laugh-crying emoji. She also reposted a fan video accusing Clark of “flopping,” or deliberately falling to make the incident look more dramatic than it was.

Fever coach Christie Sides told reporters after Saturday’s game that she’s been sending plays in which she believes Clark has been treated unfairly to the WNBA for review. “It’s tough to keep getting hammered the way she does and to not get rewarded with free throws or foul calls,” she said. She followed up by tagging the WNBA on Twitter, where she wrote, “This is unacceptable. When will the consistent complaints be heard?!?” The Fever’s general manager, Lin Dunn, piled on, asking the league to “cleanup the crap” on Twitter. On Sunday, seemingly responding to Sides’s flag, the league upgraded Carter’s foul to a flagrant-1 violation but did not fine or suspend her.

Meanwhile, the incident with Carter has become a flashpoint for heated debate around Clark’s treatment in the WNBA thus far — among other things. Several analysts, including former NBA player Matt Barnes, criticized Clark’s teammates for not having her back while she’s getting roughed up on the court. On “All the Smoke,” Barnes said he’s “seen a couple of girls smirk when she’s got knocked down, half-ass to pick her up,” adding, “You wonder why you sit at the bottom of the league right now … Got to do better, ladies.” ESPN’s First Take devoted most of Monday morning to hashing out what went down with Monica McNutt arguing against “blanket statements” about how the league feels toward Clark. In a good indicator of how strongly people are feeling about all this, the segment devolved into a tense referendum on First Take’s coverage of women’s sports in which McNutt told Stephen A. Smith he “could have been doing this three years ago if you wanted to.” Another ESPN host, Pat McAfee, decided now would be a good time to tell his watchers that “what the WNBA currently has is what we like to describe as a cash cow … just call it for what it is. There is one white bitch for the Indiana team who is a superstar.” A few hours later, he apologized for the wording he used to describe Clark.

During another presser on Monday, Reese also pushed back on the narrative that Clark is singlehandedly bringing new fans to the sport. “The reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person,” she said. “It’s because of me, too. I want y’all to realize that.”

This post has been updated.