One of sport’s most notable, bad-take-spewing talking heads – Emmanuel Acho – may have just delivered the world’s worst opinion on Caitlin Clark and the WNBA.
There’s been a lot of talk about the professional women’s basketball league in recent weeks, and it stems from two different things that kind of happened at the same time. First, the WNBA rolled out a commemorative poster for it’s 30th anniversary, and Caitlin Clark wasn’t on it.
Not ideal, right? But compared to the other thing that happened on the same day, not a big deal.
During a game between the Indiana Fever and the Phoenix Mercury, Clark was down on the court and got punched in the throat by forward Alyssa Thomas. Wildly enough, the Mercury player wasn’t given a foul during the game. It was only after review the next day that she was assessed a one-game suspension.
Here’s the video in case you missed it:
Just absurd that the refs didn’t call anything on that play during the game.
Since that happened, there’s been a lot of discourse about whether or not the WNBA needs to step in and protect their star player. On the flip side, some people like Emmanuel Acho have taken the road less traveled (and not in a good way) and are arguing that less needs to be done for Clark.
In fact, Ocho thinks that the WNBA would be better off without her:
“The WNBA at this junction in time would be better without Caitlin Clark because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive. Caitlin Clark has gotten the WNBA over the necessary threshold they needed. Now people are watching. Now we realize there’s talent in the W.
Talent that’s actually better than Caitlin Clark… Caitlin got the necessary eyes there, but now that they eyes are there, we don’t necessarily need her anymore. Caitlin did what only Caitlin could do, and we don’t necessarily need her to do anymore.”
And the eyes aren’t still there because of Caitlin? Just food for thought.
Acho furthered his abysmal take by saying that the WNBA coddles the Indiana Fever guard (I suppose by letting her get punched in the neck), and that the league would be better off if she wasn’t a part of it:
“Now you are saying that the WNBA needs to be cognizant of where they put her on posters. The WNBA and the officials need to alter the rules for Caitlin Clark. The WNBA and opposing players need to treat Caitlin Clark more gently. Caitlin Clark’s coach needs to be cognizant of how she talks to her in public cause it’s gonna look like there’s an issue.
Unless we can take off our gloves for Caitlin Clark and stop trying to act like she’s a messiah, the WNBA could and would be better off without Caitlin Clark. At least without this version of everybody coddling and caressing and catering to Caitlin Clark.”
Messiah,? She literally SAVED the league!? As far as women’s basketball goes, she IS the WNBA messiah.
That has to be the worst take of all time.
Nearly every measurable metric supports the exact opposite of that take from Acho. Caitlin Clark isn’t a part of the league, she’s the entire league. Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus, found that of the $200 million in revenue that the WNBA brought in in 2024, Caitlin Clark was single handedly responsible for 26.5% of that revenue. In other words, Caitlin Clark’s success helps cash the checks of others across the WNBA.
Before Clark got to the league, WNBA teams were flying commercial.
All in all, it’s just really strange 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. Then we could really see if the fans are watching the WNBA… or if they are watching Caitlin Clark.
