WNBA players do not hate the wildly popular Caitlin Clark, nor do they wish her any harm, according to columnist and former ESPN host Jemele Hill.
Speaking to The Awful Announcing Podcast this week, Hill addressed the widespread belief that Clark has been targeted by rivals over alleged animosity linked to issues of race and sexuality.
Sports personalities like Jason Whitlock and Barstool’s Dave Portnoy, to name a few, have accused WNBA players of harboring a jealous grudge against Clark, which they blame for a series of hard fouls she’s received since entering the league in 2024. Whitlock, specifically, has accused Clark’s WNBA rivals of hating her for being ‘white’ and ‘straight.’
‘This narrative that the media keeps drilling that the players don’t like her, that they’re jealous of her, that they want to hurt her,’ Hill told Awful Announcing, ‘that is not the dominant perspective or feeling in the league.
‘They’re just competing, and the fact that you’re villainizing people for just competing with her, it is something that will prove to be historically embarrassing by the way it has been discussed.’
Clark has absorbed hard fouls for years while starring for the Indiana Fever, but it was the punch to the throat she received from Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas last month that reignited the debate. Thomas wasn’t initially called for a foul but was later suspended one game for the punch, which the Mercury star has claimed was inadvertent.
Clark takes a fist to the throat from Thomas, who was later suspended for the incident
Caitlin Clark has absorbed hard fouls for years while starring for the Indiana Fever
WNBA players do not hate the wildly popular Caitlin Clark , nor do they wish her any harm, according to columnist and former ESPN host Jemele Hill (pictured)
Over the ensuing weeks, the WNBA has faced calls from fans and conservatives to protect the league’s most recognizable star.
And as Hill noted, that conversation has unfairly cast Clark’s career in a political light.
‘I feel a lot of empathy for her, just because there’s so much of this she did not ask for,’ Hill said. ‘She didn’t ask to be some kind of bat signal for a culture war. She certainly didn’t ask for the group of fans — which I believe are not the majority — the group of fans that have decided that she’s going to be their vessel to get off as much racism as they possibly can.
‘Anything that happens with Caitlin Clark, it gives Fox [News] programming for six hours,’ she added.
Critics of Hill and the WNBA hit back on social media, including right-wing commentator Clay Travis, who blamed the website for even interviewing the award-winning Hill.
‘Awful Announcing has been one of the foremost far left wing sports sites on the Internet for over a decade,’ the former Outkick and current Fox News pundit wrote on X. ‘Attacked me and @Outkick for that entire time frame. Look at the mentions when they post stories like these. Just utter evisceration.’
Travis’ post was aimed at calling attention to criticism of Hill and Awful Announcing.
‘History will not look too kindly on WNBA,’ read one post on X. ‘If the ladies don’t change they’re (sic) attitudes it’s only gonna get worse.’
‘Jemele is History and clearly finds delusional things to share when looking to recapture a minute of fame,’ another critic said of the Atlantic Columnist.
One person actually thanked commenters for their cruelty: ‘Wow these comments are full of non stop hate for Jemele Hill. Thank you. Yall [didn’t disappoint].’
