The Caitlin Clark-WNBA saga continues. Sports analyst Colin Cowherd has called out the league for their treatment of the Indiana Fever star.
It has been a recurring issue on how the WNBA handles its two-time All-Star. Everything from excess physicality to little-to-no calls has been observed by fans and analysts alike.
A recent example was the Fever’s loss against the Phoenix Mercury, where Alyssa Thomas drove her fist into Clark’s neck. No foul was called during that sequence, and both teams continued playing.
The WNBA investigated the incident and decided to issue a Flagrant 2 foul on Thomas, along with a one-game suspension.
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However, Cowherd called out the WNBA for something else entirely. Since the league is celebrating its 30th anniversary, it has released a commemorative poster. The poster highlights the WNBA’s past and current stars.
One glaring omission is that Clark is not included on the poster. This sparked an animated rant from Cowherd.
“[The WNBA] just keeps driving into a wall at full speed with Caitlin Clark.” said the sports analyst.
“They now have a commemorative poster of 30 years of the WNBA Caitlin Clark's not on it. And it's not just like an ode to the veterans that started the league. Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese are on it, and Caitlin Clark's not.”
The host of “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” then talked about Clark’s impact on the league.
“When she broke into the league,” said Cowherd, “you moved her road games to bigger arenas to accommodate the fans. ... And she's not on the 30-year poster?”
“... Recently, there were TV games, and hers got double the rating of A'ja Wilson, the best player in the league, the three-time champ and the four-time MVP. “
During his rant, he also called the WNBA a “paranoid, weird, insular league.”
However, despite the backlash on the commemorative poster, an X user provided an explanation for Clark’s absence.
The user said that Clark is the reason why she’s not included in the poster. He explained that Clark only allows Nike to use her likeness. For other materials, she supposedly only allows the use of her jersey number and name.
While this explanation is unconfirmed, this might be a reasonable explanation why the WNBA decided to omit Clark from the 30th anniversary poster.
