Media coverage around Indiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark has been unlike anything the league has experienced since she entered the league as the numer once overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Clark has proved to be a lightning rod that goes well beyond sports to wade into culture wars. NBA commissioner Adam Silver even went as far as to say that the sharpshooter has been unfairly made into a “political football.”
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On Wednesday, the next arc in the insane saga of Clark’s coverage occurred. USA Today columnist Nancy Armour wrote a column titled “Caitlin Clark’s flopping isn’t just annoying — it’s becoming dangerous.”
Armour sets the tone from the very beginning.
“Indiana Fever All-Star Caitlin Clark and her enablers must take the rest of us for idiots,” she opens with.
However, it’s not until later in the column that Armour writes perhaps the granddaddy of all Caitlin Clark takes, linking Clark selling contact to draw fouls to linking Caitlin Clark embellishing contact during a WNBA game to the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till.
It shouldn’t need reminding this country has an awful history of Black people being harmed, even killed, in the name of “defending” white women. The WNBA’s All-Star Game this weekend is in Chicago, Emmett Till’s hometown, and a local art gallery is currently hosting an exhibit imagining his life if he hadn’t been lynched. While it’s incumbent on the WNBA to do more to protect its players, there also should be an expectation on Clark to recognize the wider consequences of her actions.
It didn’t take long for the column to make waves on social media, drawing outrage that Armour would draw any sort of comparison between such a horrible tragedy and trying to draw calls in a basketball game.
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On Thursday, Armour issued an apology.
In my recent column, I made an inartful comparison with the murder of Emett Till. I intended to connect the issues the WNBA is currently facing with its All-Star Game being hosted in Till’s hometown of Chicago.
I obviously did not provide enough context for that.
However, this point stands: There is a history in this country of perceived threats to white women being weaponized against African-Americans, and the danger that poses to Black players in the league.
Players have been abused online and have reported receiving death threats. That has to be taken more seriously.
I sincerely regret that my lack of appropriate context is overshadowing that important conversation and the action that needs to be taken by the WNBA to address it directly – for the benefit of ALL players.
However, for many fans, Armour’s apology missed the mark.
“Like many on this app who try to participate in conversations they don’t understand, this lady is doubling down on her ignorance. Emmett Till isn’t some tool for you to pick out of a box. It has nothing to do with the bs story you wrote. It disgusts me,” one fan posted on X.
“This statement sucks. Stop letting the worst aspects of the comment section frame the conversation and turning entertaining basketball into a deranged sociological thesis,” someone else added.
“A (USA Today) columnist tied Caitlin Clark criticizing referees for not calling fouls committed against her to the *lynching of Emmett Till* and instead of apologizing, doubles down. Genuinely dangerous insanity,” one person wrote.
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It’s far past time that everyone gains some perspective and realizes that this is an athlete playing a sport she loves. She doesn’t need to be involved in any culture wars or political agendas.
The post ‘Genuinely dangerous insanity’: USA Today columnist sparks outrage for ‘doubling down’ on tying Emmett Till to Caitlin Clark flopping appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
