Monica McNutt makes race-baiting Caitlin Clark popularity comment on BBC, invites flak from WNBA fans

Monica McNutt has been widely critiqued for attributing the popularity of Caitlin Clark to her Midwest white demographic and origins.

Monica McNutt makes race-baiting Caitlin Clark popularity comment on BBC, invites flak from WNBA fans

Monica McNutt, Caitlin Clark (Images via Instagram)

If there’s one word to describe how Caitlin Clark could possibly be feeling with all the ways her name and fame are being manipulated by WNBA media and people around the ecosystem, it’s got to be ‘exhausting’. Too many people have taken to various platforms to pick bones with what they think she should be doing. And too few people have expressed unbridled admiration for what she’s done – changed the game of women’s basketball.

Monica McNutt, a Knicks play-by-play announcer and an ESPN talking head, is one of those culprits. The former Georgetown Hoyas hooper has carved a successful niche for herself in women’s sports. McNutt has been associated with some memorable Knicks calls in the recent past from the booth.

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She has also shown up the likes of Stephen A. Smith for their lack of interest in basketball affairs on the court on First Take. But McNutt has been wrong on many occasions with her analysis of Caitlin Clark and her impact.

After being invited as an expert on women’s basketball by BBC, McNutt opted to do some more damage to race relations between white and black hoopers with her latest take, fanning the flames of interracial divides and hatred instead of playing it fair. The 35-year-old alleged that a large part of Caitlin Clark’s fandom comes from white people. According to her, the unprecedented following she has is because of her color.

I think Caitlin represented – and I think some of it is probably not fair to her because it was not anything that she said or what was truly based on her personality – but she was a white girl from the middle of America! And so she represented a whole lot to a lot of people, whether that is truly what she prescribed to or not. We can all say she is a dynamic basketball player and a force both on the court and the marketing sense, but I do think (that is true).

Monica McNutt on why Caitlin Clark gained a huge following

It is categorically unfair to characterize Clark’s relatability with middle America as the reason for her unforeseen success. The likes of Kelsey Plum and Sabrina Ionescu have been dynamic women’s college players in just the past decade.

All three of them are white and have a laundry list of achievements during their college tenures. Yet, why is only Caitlin Clark the beneficiary of such a huge following? The reasons are obvious – the brand of basketball she plays is more fan-friendly, and her achievements are bigger.

WNBA Twitter piles on Monica McNutt for race-baiting Caitlin Clark take

This is not the first time McNutt has slyly found a way to downplay what Caitlin Clark has done. Midway through the 2024 WNBA season, McNutt assessed Angel Reese to be the Rookie of the Year based on the one extra win the Chicago Sky had at that point, notwithstanding Clark’s historic averages for a rookie.

Given her established disregard for facts regarding Clark, WNBA Twitter minced no words in piling it on McNutt.

This race-baiting from McNutt aside, it is clear that a huge section of WNBA media has no idea how to deal with the league’s recent explosion in popularity. They possibly believe telling the truth about Clark’s impact could fracture their standing and relations with players on other teams. A lot of WNBA media close to the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces’ stars has been hesitant to praise her.

They could take the lead from legends like Maya Moore, Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Miller, who have all pointed out that the adulation for Clark comes because of her skill level, her winning personality and her ability to entertain fans with a vibrant style of play.