There are two things that ESPN’s Monica McNutt, and the former ESPN personality are good for: Bad takes and race-baiting. They did just that on a recent episode of Ryan Clark’s podcast “The Pivot.”
McNutt, who has thrown shade at Caitlin Clark and her fans for years now, saying asinine things like: Clark needs “accountability” & “self awareness,” insinuating Clark is an immature 24-year-old who needs to embrace the WNBA “sisterhood.”
McNutt also told the BBC that little girls became fans of and are drawn to Caitlin Clark because she’s white. No, it couldn’t be because Clark was College Basketball’s all-time leading scorer, hits logo threes, drops dimes at a historic pace, is wildly competitive, and may be one of the most approachable superstars in sports. It can’t be that, according to McNutt.
McNutt, in response to Caitlin Clark’s flagrant foul on Angel Reese and the online discourse in 2025 following the incident, race-baited again. “If this was the other way around, oh Lord, you can imagine how the conversation would’ve gone,” McNutt stated. She also scolded fans saying they need to “respect the humanity of these women,” while crying about Angel Reese allegedly receiving “racist comments” and how Clark is always the one labeled as the “victim.”
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And in one of the most hypocritical moves, McNutt made this statement during Caitlin Clark’s historic rookie season:
“My rookie of the year is going to go based on the standings… And the Sky right now are in the playoffs. So, you’d have to give the nod in my mind to Angel Reese.”
It was one of the worst takes of the season as Clark was a -550 favorite to win at that point compared to Reese’s +350. But what made it so hypocritical was when the Fever made it into playoff contention, she didn’t make that same argument. She went silent. I wish I could say I was shocked, but this is the pattern we’ve seen from McNutt since Clark entered the league.
This is why I’ve referred to her as the “female Ryan Clark.”
While sitting down with Ryan Clark, McNutt answered a question regarding the “positivity” and “negativity” the Indiana Fever star has brought to the league.
Clark asked, “How do you balance the positive effect that Caitlin Clark has had on the coverage of the league and the negativity that it has also brought to the WNBA?”
“I think you can certainly celebrate the basketball and the growth, and then you just kind of gotta be honest about the rest of it,” McNutt said in response.
“I think the exit interviews when Indiana wrapped up [the season] left some folks scratching their heads,” McNutt went on to say.
For context, here’s what Caitlin Clark had to say in her exit interview in response to her teammate Kelsey Mitchell saying she’s been the victim of hate, while once again denouncing racism:
“Obviously I saw Kelsey’s comments and I think as her teammate, it makes you upset because you care about your teammates so much and you don’t want any of them to go through something like that,” Clark said. “I think, as far as people that have used me to demonstrate racist rhetoric or hate or discrimination, that’s not something I stand for.
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“That’s never been something I’ve stood for. For those of you that know me, you know that’s not what I’m about. It’s not how I was raised, so that’s really disappointing when people do that,” Clark stated. “Anytime I see something like that, it makes me upset, makes me sad, makes me really disappointed because that’s not who I am. It’s not what I’m about.”
McNutt went on to make an unfounded claim to Ryan Clark saying, “To Caitlin Clark’s credit, she did call out the things that she does not support, which I have not heard vocally from her many a time.”
Clark has denounced racism many times since her rookie season. She did it in her exit interview after her historic rookie season. She’s denounced racism in every single season. Honestly, it seems Clark has had to speak on it at least a dozen times a season. It is always in response to allegations from opponents and the media.
Caitlin Clark has made her stance clear and many in media have made her fans out to be the worst of the worst in sports fandom. A claim that is not substantiated, in my opinion.
So maybe the problem is the fact that McNutt and other WNBA media aren’t listening. I would go as far as saying that maybe the problem is that people like McNutt can’t stand that Clark wants to strictly focus on basketball and take a “Republicans buy sneakers too” Michael Jordan approach. Maybe she can’t stomach the idea that Clark, clearly the biggest and brightest star the WNBA has ever had, is not some in-your-face left-wing political activist like so many players in the league. I’m not sure, though. I can only guess based on McNutt’s previous comments regarding Clark and her massive fanbase.
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You have to remember that this is how McNutt operates. She won’t take accountability for her comments and hold her co-hosts and fellow WNBA media members accountable for their divisive, uncharitable rhetoric and comments. Instead, she constantly shames the one white player, who has been vilified by media, beaten up by her opponents, and been mistreated, misrepresented, and misunderstood since she first stepped on a WNBA court, though she has made the WNBA relevant and potentially profitable for the first time in the league’s history.
McNutt shames Clark for not doing enough to combat McNutt’s perceived racism from her fans. All, while ignoring years of divisive statements, crying wolf like “monkey noises” directed at Angel Reese, and political inflammatory activism that has made conservatives and independents who have flocked to the WNBA because of Clark, out to be the problem. It’s willful ignorance, in my opinion.
McNutt then laughably claimed on the podcast that Clark was ignorant to racism because of where she grew up saying, “I can hold a little bit of grace for [a girl from the] Midwest.” She stated further pretending to speak for Clark, “Those issues are not as pressing to me.”
McNutt finished her diatribe saying, “It’s going to take you a minute to find your voice on topics that can be deemed ‘complicated’ if you are not steeped in them, right?”
To me, a statement like that is insulting to Clark and every American from the Midwest. It also seems to prove my point that it’s not the fact that Clark has denounced racism over and over for three years now, it’s that McNutt has a standard that Clark and all Midwesterners aren’t living up to, in her opinion, so she doesn’t believe Clark is doing enough.
After speaking for a minute on racism, McNutt briefly mentioned the positive effects Caitlin Clark has had on the WNBA, saying the “eyeballs are fantastic” and “the energy is great,” while acknowledging that Clark is an “incredible athlete,” she then shamed Clark again for seemingly allowing fans to use her name in racist ways.
“But I think for me, there is no way that someone would use my likeness to support causes that I am against.”
Notably, in 2024, during her rookie season, Clark spoke to claims that people have used her name for racism, misogyny, and more. “Yeah, I think it’s disappointing… People should not be using my name to push those agendas,” Clark said.
It’s clear that it will never be enough for McNutt. She doesn’t care to talk about the record attendance, record viewership numbers, charter flights for every team, record salaries, and how Clark is the only reason the WNBA has some sort of cultural footprint after being irrelevant to the general public for thirty years.
I could share dozens of statements from Clark over the years. Racism has been addressed, denounced and, unfortunately, I believe it will have to continue to be addressed throughout Clark’s entire career. It will not stop unless she puts a stop to the narrative and broad-brush accusations that her fans are some sort of white supremacist group, in my opinion.
It won’t ever be enough, so I suggest Caitlin Clark should say, “I’ve made my stance clear for years. Next question.”
In the meantime, the WNBA media and players will most likely continue to bite the hands that feed them, and they won’t learn a thing.