No matter what she does, Caitlin Clark can’t win
How crazy does Caitlin Clark make people?
So crazy that USA Today columnist Nancy Armour alleged Wednesday that Clark’s demands for better officiating is putting gay black WNBA colleagues in grave danger of being lynched like Emmett Till was in 1955.
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That’s the brief summary of Armour’s unhinged column from earlier this week.
One has to wonder how she was able to type so many words while wrapped in a straitjacket.
After it was foolishly published, eyebrows were raised across social media and Armour locked her X account. Then she issued a statement charitably calling her Till reference “inartful” but also doubling down on the sentiment.
Inartful or just plain insane, it was also disrespectful to the memory of Till, who, at age 14, was abducted and brutally murdered after a white woman claimed he whistled at her.
“It shouldn’t need a reminder this country has an awful history of black people being harmed even killed in the name of ‘defending’ white women,” Armour wrote.
“When Clark claims fouls that don’t exist, when she goes on profanity-laced tirades at referees, those racists see her as a white woman in need of saving and take matters into their own hands,” wrote the columnist, pointing to a “faction” of “white nationalists” in the Indiana Fever guard’s fanbase.
In Armour’s hysterical mind, Clark, with every alleged flop, is directing an army of bloodthirsty racists to lynch WNBA players in the street as revenge for the no-call.
I imagine all these devoted zombie fans of the lady hooper from Iowa have skillfully embroidered her #22 on the backs of their white robes.
We can joke the column was the ramblings of a conspiracy-obsessed, mentally ill woman. However, this slop was written and published because Armour’s assertions about Clark’s flops killing people underscore attitudes around the league — ones that believe intersectionality trumps merit.
And race and victimhood are always on tap.
The columnist’s proof? Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas, who was suspended after landing a fist in Clark’s throat, and the Aces’ Chelsea Gray, who tangled with Clark, have shared racists message and threats they received after the incidents.
Do folks not realize that Clark probably receives 10 times more nasty, racialized comments and threats than anyone else in the league?
But she doesn’t wallow in it or whine about it to the media. It’s the sad state of 2026 that anyone with a public profile will be the recipient of unpleasant messages. Most choose to not acknowledge the demented losers who crave the recognition. However, the league also gives these messages far too much oxygen.
It’s futile.
In a strange twist, just days after Clark was unmasked as the grand wizard of the hardwood, our first black president, Barack Obama, met Clark on Friday. He seemed both starstruck and protective of her.
“You’re great. You’re fantastic,” he declared. “Don’t let all this nonsense get you down.”
The nonsense is nonstop. In fact, former NFL player and podcaster Emmanuel Acho said Clark was too much of a distraction and the league “doesn’t necessarily need her anymore.”
Imagine that being said about Michael Jordan or Serena Williams.
Clark is a fiery player who like many other athletes chirps at the refs. Plus, in the WNBA there’s a consensus thatthe level of officiating is poor (or worse).
But, according to Armour — who swore twice in the column that she doesn’t hate Clark — the athlete should “recognize the wider consequence of her actions.”
Clark will never please her detractors —not in WNBA offices, on the court or in the media. Just before she was drafted, she went on “Saturday Night Live” and thanked league legends of the past, all black women. In Time Magazine, she foolishly acknowledged her white privilege, thinking it would stop the badgering.
People stuck in 2020 hate her because she doesn’t spend her days reading “White Fragility” aloud to her fans.
She simply wants to hoop and, to their grave disappointment, she does it very well. Just last week, Clark set a league record, scoring 45 points and dishing out 10 assists. But let’s talk about her fatal flopping.
Haters don’t see her as the generational talent who brought eyeballs, team charter flights and sold-out games in much larger venues than before.
People like Armour want Clark to dim her light in deference to the women they deem fit to be the faces of the league.
This doesn’t benefit anyone in the WNBA, let alone black women. It just makes a fool like Armour believe she’s a good person.
