Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark didn’t like what she heard from a fan late in the first quarter of Wednesday’s playoff loss at Connecticut and motioned for officials to remove the man from his second-row seat. In the relative blink of an eye, security tapped the person on the shoulder and escorted him to a less visible area, where a discussion took place.
Ultimately, the person was allowed to return to his seat. And although the incident lasted only a few minutes, the optics figure to linger within the WNBA community because they raised the question of whether the league has a double standard when dealing with harassment complaints. More starkly, the swift resolution of a complaint from a White athlete stood out against the months of silence Black players received from the league office as they were targets of race-fueled hate on social media and in arenas.
Security had a conversation with a fan after Caitlin Clark pointed them out to the ref. pic.twitter.com/N6RCnAv1qz
— ESPN (@espn) September 26, 2024
The influx of attention to the WNBA that followed Clark and fellow rookie Angel Reese into the league has threatened the reputation it has worked hard to cultivate, for inclusivity, empathy and tolerance. It also has called into question the leadership of commissioner…
