“Get It Right”: WNBA’s Apparent Cold Shoulder to Caitlin Clark Sparks a Stern Warning From Rachel DeMita

Caitlin Clark’s months of hard work finally came to fruition on the golf field. Taking lessons from the LPGA legend Martha Foyer Faulconer, Wednesday’s LPGA Pro-Am had fans hooked when the No. 22 took the to green in pink Nikes. While the golfing community welcomed Clark with both arms, it was rather the WNBA’s reception of the ‘generational talent’ that disappointed her fans, and Rachel DeMita pointed out the same.

On Thursday’s drop of her podcast, Rachel DeMita discussed the cold behavior displayed by the WNBA and how that would have impacted the emerging stars.

“WNBA posted nothing: zero. Posted zero about Caitlin Clark golfing in this Pro-Am event. If you look at the LPGA Twitter (now X) account, it is filled with Caitlin Clark things. Photos of her, a whole video of the fans cheering, her signing things, taking photos, their players hanging out with Caitlin, and obviously they’re showing their golfers as well,” DeMita stated.

While the LPGA social handles were surely filled with a lot of posts about the first-overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, the league’s accounts did not really seem enthusiastic about promoting the face of the WNBA. Still, they did post quite a few videos and photos from Clark’s outing at the Pelican which the Indiana Fever’s social media handles also shared.

DeMita furthermore added that had it been an NBA player, the media coverage would have been strong. Adding to her statements, she expounded that “this was the perfect time for the WNBA to also be posting about this.” Unfortunately, as the W account did not do much on social media, DeMita felt as if Clark hadn’t been given what she deserved.

To end her “rant” as she called it, DeMita also warned the W “I hope that they get it right next season. You have great players in this league. You have Paige coming in. You have Juju. Do not fumble it with those girls either. Stop fumbling the moment because you’re not only fumbling it for the current players in the league, you are fumbling it for every girl who wants to play professional basketball,” further citing examples of JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers who are the two top stars in the NCAA women basketball this season and can bring in a lot of years to the tournament.

Clark proved her golfing mettle during her short outing. She hit a putt at the fifth and celebrated in her own way by doing a fist pump. The 22-year-old mistakenly miscued a ball to the right which just missed hitting a fan. To which the Des Moines-born responded by humorously offering her shoes, in case any of her admirers got hit.

During one such moment, she also gave a signed ball to a fan, who escaped being hit by Clark on the ninth par 3. Some of the spectators, also joked about getting struck by one of her shots, so that they could get either a shoe or an autographed ball in return. Overall, the event was fun for people to watch and for the Fever star to participate in.

“Caitlin Clark effect that we talk about viewership money, all of those things, all of the people who were shouting this for the entire WNBA season, this is an instance where we are proved correct. You see her at this event, you see the kind of noise that this is making, you see that this is trending on social media…,” DeMita remarked.

Talking about how Clark was trending and the viewership she had brought in the W, DeMita was visibly annoyed that the W didn’t ” say anything.” She further supported those fans who were “saying that the WNBA seems to be trying to quiet the noise of Caitlin Clark. Not letting her shine to her full ability. And in turn not helping your own players in the league.”

Notably, news agencies covered a lot of what Clark did during the event. The tickets for the event could be purchased at the official Annika website to watch the WNBA star live. While no channel broadcasted it, the highlights could be seen on GOLF Channel’s Golf Today from 11 a.m. ET onwards. Other than that one could also catch the expanded tournament, reports, and look-ins. Overall on Wednesday, the ROTY stormed the GOLF Channel, NBC Sports, LPGA Tour, and The ANNIKA social media handles for a considerable time.

Meanwhile, DeMita applauded the LPGA because they “did literally everything correct. They capitalized on the moment they found a way to put it on television. They allowed people to be there. Caitlin was signing autographs. They put their best golfer in the tour league… whatever.”

Adding to that, DeMita predicted that the LPGA “knew that she would get more eyeballs doing that they propped up all of their golfers in one event and you would be crazy to think that they’re not going to have another event.” As for the WNBA, she was critical, expressing “I just don’t understand why the WNBA…. I mean I will never understand I feel like they fumbled so many things this season they weren’t ready for the moment and this just proves that you can be ready for the moment there is things that you can do.”

The LPGA most probably taking note of her popularity in the W, got her to play alongside two of the best women golfers- Nelly Korda and Anikka Sorenstam. While Clark hit the first nine with Korda, during the back 9, she competed with Sorenstam. Unfortunately, what disappointed DeMita was that during this time, the league did not post anything regarding her participation. And somewhat gave a cold shoulder to her popularity.

Rachel DeMita suggests setting a strong example for emerging talents

The former NBA2k Girl had previously shared a video, revealing that she started playing basketball in her junior year in high school. While she really loved the sport, DeMita didn’t think of playing long enough. Instead, her goal was to get a D1 scholarship.

In her own words, “It was never to play professionally. I never had dream of being in the WNBA. I had dreams of kind of doing what I am doing now in front of the camera.” Though she got a lot of offers according to her statements, and verbally committed to play for the Old Monarchs, she got reality checks during her senior year as her team couldn’t perform well.

“A part of me was unsure about it,” DeMita expressed. While on Thursday DeMita did not share her complete story, she did enunciate “now girls can see a future in it. Now girls can see that they can make a lot of money playing. Now girls see that they can be on the biggest stage, and that college isn’t the biggest stage anymore. It can possibly be the WNBA. Do not fumble it for all of those girls.”

Hopefully, the W will take lessons from it and make sure that they post about Clark’s golfing achievements whenever she takes partin any event.