Why does the WNBA seem to hate Caitlin Clark?
To put things simply, Caitlin Clark is women’s basketball. She completely and single-handedly elevated the game, and brought more eyes to women’s sports than any other female athlete… ever. Clark is now in her third season with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, and she continues to be a star at the pro level, but many will always remember her as an Iowa Hawkeye.
That is until she’s able to further supplant herself as one of the WNBA’s all-time greats. And I think that will happen sooner rather than later. Her game seamlessly translated to the pro level, and she’s continued to enforce her talent and deep-range shooting in the WNBA. Fans love watching the talented guard do her thing, and she’s brought unprecedented attention not only to women’s basketball, but women’s sports as a whole.
So it’s very surprising to see the WNBA continue to not lean all the way in on the draw of Caitlin Clark. She’s the league’s biggest and most recognizable star, yet the league keeps moving in ways that are downright disrespectful to the Indiana Fever guard.
Just yesterday, Caitlin Clark got punched in the throat during a game and there was no foul assessed to the other team:
That’s just ridiculous.
Whether it’s on the court or off the court, the WNBA isn’t doing much to protect and promote their all-star. That was confirmed once again when the W rolled out a commemorative poster for their 30th anniversary… and Caitlin Clark was absent from it:
How do you leave Caitlin Clark out of a poster that celebrates 30 years of the WNBA?
The league had a couple of other embarrassing omissions. Sue Bird wasn’t included, and Diana Taurasi – who impressively played 20 of those 30 years of the WNBA’s existence – also didn’t make the cut. So at least Clark has some all-time company that didn’t make the poster either.
But not having the Fever guard on the graphic got a lot of WNBA Caitlin Clark fans outraged:
No Caitlin Clark? I’ve never seen a league so despise its own best and most popular player. Truly bizarre.
— Dave Wischnowsky (@wischlist) June 25, 2026
It’s amazing how hard you work to remove the star of the show.
— Bourbon Fixes it (@tarheelinswva) June 25, 2026
Unbelievable.. The player who’s done more for the league’s visibility, ticket sales, TV ratings, and overall relevance in two years than most of the previous 28 combined. Get it together
— G (@Red414G) June 25, 2026
Super smart move to NOT include the most popular player in women’s basketball while trying to promote women’s basketball.
— Galadrial_Galadriel 🇺🇸 (@Galadrial_Glade) June 24, 2026
Fixed it for you! pic.twitter.com/T7Gn4v9GHA
— sqhkemery (@sqhkemery) June 25, 2026
That’d be the perfect poster celebrating 30 years of the WNBA.
All this to say that the league continues to be unaccepting of the star that quite literally changed professional women’s basketball – and women’s sports in general – for the better. Without Caitlin Clark, the WNBA would still be struggling to bring in revenue and put up respectable TV numbers. Hell, Clark could start her own league and sports fans would follow her to that over the WNBA. She could put the league out of business if she really wanted to.
And after being disrespected time and time again – and not being protected by the league itself – maybe she should.
