In the world of sports, is there a name that garners the kind of reaction that Caitlin Clark does? Love her or hate her, her cultural impact cannot be overstated. In recent years, the Indiana Fever guard has been heralded as the “face of the WNBA,” earned dozens of accolades, and drawn endless praise from sports media.
But lately, Clark has garnered a different kind of attention: criticism.
Clark was once sports media’s darling, but even her most fervent supporters are now seeing an unsavory side to her. In a recent column, Nancy Armour described Clark as “electric and exhausting,” and described her flopping and beefing with refs as petulant. Cari Champion similarly critiqued the favoritism she sees refs show Clark, citing a technical foul called on Paige Bueckers for clapping, while Clark got away with telling a ref to “open your eyes” right to their face last season. While Champion acknowledged Clark’s star power, she also noted that her behavior is turning people off.
“The more we get to catch these glimpses of Caitlin Clark, I’m like, ‘I don’t like you,’” Champion said. “I don’t like the way you behave on the court.”
Fans are feeling it too. After Raven Johnson was drafted by Indiana in May, social media lit up with replays and commentary from the 2023 Final Four when Clark waved off Johnson, essentially dismissing her as an offensive threat, when she lined up for a three. More recently, during a series against the Golden State Valkyries, Clark got chippy with veteran guard Tiffany Hayes. Fans took note and subsequently booed Clark every time she touched the ball. In a recent matchup against the Atlanta Dream, Clark got in the face of a ref to the extent that she had to be dragged away — and to Champion’s point, Clark did not receive a tech for it, while other players, like Paige Bueckers, have gotten techs for far, far less.
Not only that, but fans are noticing the shadow side of her stats. For instance, Clark might lead the league in assists, but she’s also the league’s leader in turnovers, an issue that has plagued her since her rookie year. There were also her curt responses to reasonable questions about her injury status, which became a flashpoint for the Fever, as it appears they skirted league rules on injury reporting and then banned Fever beat reporter Scott Agness shortly after he reported on it. And while Clark has had some electric late-game shooting performances lately, her shooting efficiency has come into question, as has her poor defense and lack of consistency.
So, is everyone turning on Clark? Not exactly, though it might feel that way for her diehard fans. Clark entered the league on the highest of high notes — although she didn’t secure a title at Iowa, she broke the NCAA’s scoring record, was drafted first overall, made an iconic appearance on Saturday Night Live, and secured partnerships with the likes of Nike, Gatorade, and State Farm. She then won the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year award and helped Indiana to its first playoff appearance since 2016. For a while, it seemed everything Clark touched turned to gold.
It makes sense, then, that her criticism seems to be coming out of left field. However, in actuality, we’re witnessing an extremely normal sports media cycle — it’s just not normal for Caitlin Clark.
When a sports star becomes mainstream, they follow a fairly predictable path: exposure, praise, criticism, and normalization. Clark’s discovery, exposure, and praise phase came during college and her rookie year. Because of Clark’s positioning in a growing league, on the back of breaking the NCAA scoring record and gaining NIL exposure, she enjoyed a uniquely long period of being unilaterally praised by sports media. This created the perception that critiquing Clark was off-limits and that she was beyond reproach.
But praise doesn’t last forever because athletes are human, and the internet loves controversy. Now that Clark has been established as a stronghold in the sports media cycle, she’s facing warranted criticism not only of her game but also of her antics–just like any of her peers.
Take Clark’s inverse, Angel Reese. Whereas Clark enjoyed years of praise from sports media, Reese spent years in the criticism phase. Reese was discovered when she transferred from Maryland to LSU in 2023 and began averaging double-doubles on a regular basis, including in LSU’s championship run, where she averaged 21 points and 15 rebounds per game, just shy of her season average of 23 points and 15 rebounds. Reese’s championship performance earned her the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award, and she was officially on the map as one of the best players at the college level and a top WNBA Draft prospect.
However, when Reese flashed the “You can’t see me” gesture at Clark, then mimed a ring on her finger during the 2023 national championship game between Iowa and LSU, sports media exploded with criticism and manufactured a rivalry between the two stars. Dave Portnoy called Reese a “classless piece of sh*t.” Keith Olbermann called her a “f*cking idiot” for the taunt. And of course, social media had endless critiques of Reese, never mind that Clark regularly flashed John Cena’s gesture throughout the tournament and engaged in plenty of taunting of her own.
Reese, however, embraced her villain era, and it worked out well for her. Although she didn’t win another ring in college, she still ended her college career among the greats of the game, averaging 18 points and 13 rebounds per game with a 49% field goal percentage, and finishing as the overall double-double leader at the D-I level with a career total of 235. After declaring for the draft in a Vogue feature, she was drafted 7th overall and had a stellar rookie year, averaging 13 points and 13 rebounds per game and breaking Candace Parker’s record for consecutive double-doubles. Her stock value continued to rise as she trademarked “Mebounds” as a clapback at her haters who criticized her field goal percentage in the league (a business move that even Portnoy reluctantly called “brilliant”). And last year, as Reese began to feel unappreciated by the Chicago Sky, she sought a roster spot elsewhere and has since become a stronghold for a rising Atlanta Dream squad.
Embracing an antagonistic role is an option for Clark, and perhaps one she is trying to exercise now. It certainly worked well for others like Diana Taurasi, who was the league’s antagonist for most of her illustrious career, even as the league tried to mold her into a “cookie-cutter” image that reigned in her style and swagger. She maintained her antagonism throughout her career, including before the 2024 Draft, when she said “reality is coming” for college superstars like Clark.
However, in embracing the villain role, Taurasi eventually became one of the most beloved figures of the league because of, not in spite of, her antics, retiring as the league’s leader in not only points, but in (often extremely memorable) technical fouls. Taurasi’s on-the-court demeanor made for some of the most iconic moments in the game, and she shaped the WNBA through her attitude just as much as through her legendary career as a player. In fact, Paige Bueckers even thanked Taurasi for embracing the antagonist persona during the 2025 ESPYs, stating that because of Taurasi, “I can be an asshole and be proud of it.”
Unlike Taurasi, Bueckers, and Reese, Clark’s brand of assholery often comes off as more entitled than entertaining, and sports media’s history of favorable coverage towards Clark is partly to blame for deepening the juxtaposition we’re seeing now. Given that backdrop, her current attitude clearly isn’t winning over her fans or the media. But regardless of how we got here, for better or worse, criticism is the price of sports stardom. And given Clark’s level of notoriety, how she responds to it may well define the rest of her career and her legacy overall.