FS1 host decries 'racist' Caitlin Clark fans

The racial strife undergirding this WNBA season hit a fever pitch on Wednesday night in Connecticut, when multiple incidents marred a close-fought game in which the Connecticut Sun eliminated Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever from the postseason.

Clark asked security to remove a fan from the stands while Sun players spoke out against hateful fans of Clark and the Fever . The lingering viral image from the game was of a fan with a “Ban Nails” shirt and cartoonish fake nails on her hands, clearly referencing Dijonai Carrington, the WNBA’s Most Improved Player this year and the player primarily tasked with defending Clark in the series .

In a monologue on his What’s Wright podcast on Thursday morning, FS1 host Nick Wright ripped Indiana and the league for not stopping this type of fan rhetoric sooner and implored Clark to speak up more vocally against people who spew racism in her name.

“You’ve got this boatload of new fans because Caitlin Clark is box office,” Wright said. “But unfortunately, an inevitably, and the league should have seen this train coming down the tracks, on that bandwagon were folks that weren’t fans of basketball, that weren’t even actual fans of Caitlin Clark. They were fans of what they thought Caitlin Clark could represent, which was the humbling of Black women. And you’ve got this cavalcade of open, unabashed racists who tried to put a hood of Caitlin Clark fandom on and on social internet and last night in-person, tried their best to terrorize her opposition.”

Wright compared racial tensions in the U.S. to a rubber band, explaining how when one side bends, the other side becomes tense. Wright believes the conflict between Clark and some other players, as well as rival fanbases and media factions, is no different from the broader strife over race in the country.

Wright then gestured toward conflict between certain corners of the longstanding WNBA media and newcomers in national media, best illustrated by the ongoing feud between Stephen A. Smith and Sheryl Swoopes over Clark’s status in the league:

“What happens when it gets as bad as it has gotten and the other side gets tenser, then all of a sudden you have folks who are seeing this happen, seeing this big tent now has a corner of the tent occupied by figurative torch-wielding racists, and they almost as a defense mechanism start to minimize the actual on-court impact of Caitlin Clark, as like a protectionism.

“And then the folks that weren’t the torch-wielding racist and were just enjoying the basketball, they see, well hold on there’s a lot of women who cover this league, majority of which (are) Black women seem to be downplaying or hating on or dismissing Caitlin, and then they get upset. And now everyone on the rubber band, their hair is up, they’re defensive, they’re not actually able to give at all times their full, honest opinion on what they’re seeing on the basketball court. Because the goddamn racists ruined it for all of us.”

Still, Wright lauded Clark for never encouraging the hate when asked about it . He also called on Clark to do more than give the right answers. To push back on people like the woman at Mohegan Sun Arena on Wednesday night, Wright believes Clark needs to go out of her way to decry the racism her fans have used to try to “see Black women humbled.”

“We have now reached a point where, and I apologize because she didn’t ask for this, but it is incumbent upon Caitlin herself to be more vocal in shouting this down,” Wright said. “She didn’t ask for any of this. She’s a kid thrust into superstardom by her own athletic brilliance. And she is not accountable for the actions of her fans.

“However, this is a massive moment for her sport and her league, and you need people other than the people being victimized by these trash human beings to put up a wall against it. So I think Caitlin needs to be more proactive against it; I know (WNBA commissioner) Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA do.”

Earlier this month, Engelbert created tensions herself when she gave a reductive answer to CNBC when asked about the racism and homophobia her players have faced due to an influx of new fans.

Chicago Sky players Dana Evans and Isabelle Harrison used their end-of-season press conference to open up about threats and hate they have received this year, even from fans of their own team.

Wright believes the presence of the emboldened “Ban Nails” lady should be an inflection point for the league to fix the problem.

“That s*** that woman did, that she felt comfortable doing … was the visual representation of what these women in the league have been saying ‘we’ve been dealing with all year,'” Wright said. “It’s not actual Indiana Fever fans. It’s not actual Caitlin Clark fans. It’s people that want to see Black women humbled, that are using Caitlin as an avatar for their own perverse hopes and desires. And at this point, there needs to be a full-fronted assault against it. Because this rubber band, man, can only be stretched so damn far.”

After again expressing empathy for people like Swoopes or other active WNBA athletes who are rubbed the wrong way by the hoopla around Clark, Wright called everyone up to nix the nonsense and ensure the league is in a better place next year.

“We haven’t even been able to have a truly honest basketball discussion most of the year, and it’s because the wrong people stumbled upon the party,” Wright said. “And now it’s up to everyone, even folks who didn’t invite them and didn’t want them there, to help kick them out.”

[ What’s Wright with Nick Wright on YouTube ]

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