When Caitlin Clark entered the WNBA, she was not alone. The ‘Iowa sensation‘ brought a large group of fans from the NCAA that had helped record 18.9 million viewers in the 2023-24 Championship title game between the Hawkeyes and the Gamecocks. However, as was the case, they stood with the point guard at every step, sometimes to the limit that they were allegedly toxic to other players. But if an analyst is to be believed, then instead of Clark’s fans, it is balling icons like A’ja Wilson and Dawn Staley, who have done things with a negative intention toward Clark fans.

Jason Whitlock on his podcast’s Wednesday episode shed light on Wilson and Staley’s “hostile” moves. “League has been hostile to Caitlin Clark. It’s been hostile to Caitlin Clark fans, calling them the biggest problem. And everybody, when these teams are getting eliminated from the playoffs, regular season-ending, everybody’s got to make a statement.”

In August, a lot of organizations reported that Staley, the Hall of Famer coach of the University of South Carolina, blocked a Caitlin Clark fan account. The social media user had posted clips from the Iowa Hawkeyes win against the South Carolina Gamecocks from the 2023 NCAA Final Four. And apparently, that had hurt Staley, who blocked the account. Therefore, Whitlock’s statements stand true for the generational talent’s fans.

While talking about the negativity, he also gave a solution to Clark’s fans. “They brought this toxicity to the WNBA, no? The league is toxic. Many of the players are toxic. The culture is toxic. Their leader Dawn Staley is toxic. We need a league of our own we need a league built around Caitlin Clark,” he enunciated. Apparently, this entire thing started when the likes of Angel Reese, DiJonai Carrington, and Alyssa Thomas called out Clark fans.

The incident happened after the Sun beat Caitlin Clark and the Fever 87-81 in game two of the WNBA postseason series to advance and send the Indiana rookie home. Thomas accused Fever fans, read Caitlin Clark fans, of engaging in racism.

“I think in my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced the racial comments from the Indiana Fever fan base. We had [Dijonai Carrington’s] face on a serious matter that happened in this world, and It’s unacceptable, honestly. There’s no place for it. We’ve been professional throughout the whole entire thing, but I’ve never been called the things that I’ve been called on social media. There’s no place for it. Basketball is headed in a great direction, but we don’t want fans that are going to degrade us and call us racial names,” Thomas had said.

One of them was A’ja Wilson as well. The 2024 WNBA MVP mentioned her visit to Indiana for the third and fourth matchup in one of her interviews with ESPN. She said, “I dreaded being in Indiana. It was just like, I just don’t want no sh*t to pop off. It’s like that feeling of constantly having to have that guard up. Living like that sucks.” Angel’s experience with Clark’s fans is one step up. She had opened up about it last month in her podcast ‘Unapologetically Angel.’

Angel specifically spoke about being the target of racism and death threats from fans of the Indiana Fever rookie. “I think it’s really just the fans, her fans, the Iowa fans, now the Indiana fans, that are like, they ride for her. And I respect that, respectfully, but sometimes it’s very disrespectful. I think there’s a lot of racism when it comes to it, and I don’t believe she stands on any of that. … But when it comes to death threats, like I’m talking about people come down to my address, follow me home, it’s come down to that,” she had said.

At the same time, Dawn Staley chose Angel Reese for her ROTY selection back in July over the first-overall pick Caitlin Clark. Then, she mentioned, “They both are having great years, don’t get me wrong. If I had to pick a Rookie of the Year at this time. It’s Angel [Reese]. Not a doubt.”

However, it is important to note that she also warned the entire league about Caitlin Clark, saying, “She’s coming.” Interestingly, when Clark was left out of the Olympic team, Staley had said that had the team selection been done some days later after Clark started playing in the WNBA, the rookie would have been a serious contender.

Indeed, the WNBA has risen to new heights riding on the Caitlin Clark wave. Starting to attendance in the games to television viewership to ticket sales, records have been broken in every direction. Understandably, Whitlock is in favor of using this opportunity to build the league around the WNBA’s cover girl Caitlin Clark. However, contrary to popular expectation,s Clark herself has called out some trolls.

Caitlin Clark doesn’t like her fans turning toxic

In her exit interview with the Indiana Fever, Clark took a question regarding the hate some of the players are facing because of her fans. Notably, fans had shown no mercy to the Sun’s DiJonai Carrington, after she mistakenly poked the Fever rookie in the eye during Game 1. But as per Clark, it wasn’t done intentionally and wasn’t the reason for her poor performance. But some of the fans failed to accept this. Hence, the 22-year-old gave her take on it.

“It’s definitely upsetting. Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of… hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats. Those aren’t fans, those are trolls, and it’s a real disservice to the people in our league, the organization, the WNBA,” Clark said. However, before moving on to the next question she acknowledged that there “are a lot of really good fans.” And the best thing that can be done is “uplift this league in a very positive light.” This is not the first time Clark has taken a stand against the hateful incidents.

“People should not be using my name to push those agendas. It’s disappointing. It’s not acceptable. Treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect, I think, it’s just a basic human thing that everybody should do,” Clark had said in June. Earlier that month, she had also defended Chennedy Carter who had faced criticism for fouling Clark in a game. However, Clark has been criticised for actively taking a stance to address the incidents.

“Dawg. How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionalities of them all is nuts. We all see the sh*t. We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury,” Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington had lashed out at Clark when the latter said that social media was not something that she could control. Meanwhile, the WNBA has also been caught in this.

When WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert was asked last month about the racial issues in the league, she instead of addressing it, stated that sport are all about rivalry. Comparing Clark-Reese rivalry to the Magic-Bird from 1979, Engelbert stated, “They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.” However, after some scathing criticism, she was compelled to apologize. Indeed, rivalry makes the sports. But the racial undertone in that in the WNBA presents the danger of breaking it from inside.