Are the Indiana Fever actively shopping superstar Caitlin Clark? Have they already decided on where they're going to send her? The answer to both questions is probably no, but that won't stop some from putting the idea out there.
On Friday, longtime sports commentator Jason Whitlock decided to take a crack at breaking some news, declaring that the Fever are "planning to ship Caitlin Clark to the Los Angeles Sparks." He also predicts that the Spark bring in UCLA head coach Cori Close as their new head coach to replace embattled head coach Lynn Roberts.
"The Indiana Fever are planning to ship Caitlin Clark to the Los Angeles Sparks. I expect UCLA coach Cori Close to be the head coach of the Sparks," Whitlock wrote on X.
Reaction
As interesting as that all sounds, Whitlock has made it very clear through the years that he has no love for the WNBA or anyone in it except for Caitlin Clark. The notion that he has sources in the organization that would feed him real information seems a little farfetch'd.
Other basketball insiders quickly picked up on that and dismissed Whitlock's statement outright.
"Jason Whitlock trying to break news for the first time in his life. This should age well..." longtime basketball insider Jeff Goodman said dismissively.
"How do I short this stock? And by stock I mean completely made up 'report?'” asked Yahoo's Kendall Baker.
"I'd be stunned if they trade her mainly on the basis of ticket sales. But that would be crazy if it happens," Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports wrote.
Others that didn't accuse Whitlock of flat-out lying pointed to some of the obvious reasons that the report is so unreasonable, such as the total lack of mention of any Sparks players that might be sent over in a trade or the fact that Close only recently signed a multi-year contract extension with the Bruins after leading them to an NCAA championship.
"Wrong as always. Literally just clickbait for comments so I’m lowkey mad I’m engaging But Cori Close signed a 4 year contract extension w/ UCLA like a month ago & the Sparks brass know that CC doesn’t quite fit LA culture. She will be in Indy until free agency at the minimum," one remarked.
"That would be franchise suicide and the Fever executives know that. Unless CC is demanding a trade, she's not going anywhere until her deal is up," another said.
"CC has said time and time before that she's a midwest girl and Indiana was the perfect place to be drafted to. She's not going anywhere," wrote a third.
"Almost believed it until I saw who actually tweeted this smh."
© Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images.
Nevertheless, there's clearly a ton of people that want to believe that Clark would get traded out of the smaller market Indiana Fever and into one of the largest cities in America.
We've certainly seen enough mind-blowing trades in recent years to firmly say that nothing is impossible. If the Dallas Mavericks can trade Luka Doncic, the Indiana Fever can trade Caitlin Clark.
But we collectively need a lot more evidence that the random posts of someone who is very unlikely to have even a single person in the WNBA that talks to him.
