The knives have been out for WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark ever since she joined the ranks of professional hoops a few years back. Her undeniable talent on the court, not to mention her ability to connect with fans, has catapulted her into a career most athletes can only dream of – and she seems to have taken the responsibilities that go with that very seriously.
Her sterling reputation has earned her lucrative sponsorships with top-tier brands like Nike, State Farm, and Xfinity, but she certainly comes with a lot of controversy swirling around her. And that controversy comes courtesy her WNBA opponents, who seem hellbent on putting her in her place for being so successful.
Even the most casual WNBA observer – and, hey, that's probably most of us – know that the league is crippling its own meager reputation by allowing dirty play against Collins, who plays for the Indiana Fever, to go unchallenged. RedState's Sister Toldjah wrote recently about an incident in which Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas appeared to push her fist into Clark's throat after Clark had tumbled down to the court.
Although Thomas was later given a one-game suspension, Fever coach Stephanie White was irate that her star player was being treated differently than others. "She is not called the same way everybody else is called," White said after the game.
Because she is so clearly being treated differently than others – and WNBA refs and officials seem determined to look the other way – Clark has taken to gesticulating wildly on the court to bring attention to the fouls against her that are often ignored.
And it's Clark's attempts at self-preservation that have earned her the ire of USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour, who has bizarrely and rather dangerously compared the possible repercussions of Clark's "flopping" to the lynching of black teenager Emmett Till in 1950s Mississippi.
Yes, really.
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Armour, who repeatedly denies being a Caitlin Clark "hater," began her Wednesday column with the premise that Clark's on-court "histrionics" (aka, wanting fouls committed against her to be called by the refs) were unwarranted and were putting the league's black players at risk.
Clark is, of course, white. As is Nancy Armour.
After breezily dismissing the on-court beatdowns Clark endures on a regular basis, often at the hands of black players like Alyssa Thomas, Armour finally arrives at her chief grievance: Clark and her fans have a decidedly "white nationalist element" about them. And when Clark fans see her protesting the behavior of a black player, "those racists see her as a white woman in need of saving and take matters into their own hands."
And this, according to Armour, is when Clark fans start behaving just like the two men who were accused of lynching 14-year-old Emmett Till back in 1955.
It shouldn’t need reminding this country has an awful history of Black people being harmed, even killed, in the name of “defending” white women. The WNBA's All-Star Game this weekend is in Chicago, Emmett Till's hometown, and a local art gallery is currently hosting an exhibit imagining his life if he hadn't been lynched. While it’s incumbent on the WNBA to do more to protect its players, there also should be an expectation on Clark to recognize the wider consequences of her actions.
DEFINITELY was not expecting this paragraph in the story based on this tweet about Caitlin Clark and foul/non-foul calls. https://t.co/O4JiMH5NdR pic.twitter.com/dYax9fHYXg
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) July 23, 2026
Now, Armour the "journalist" doesn't offer a shred of evidence that anyone related to Clark, fan or otherwise, is racist or has anything to do with mean messages supposedly being sent to black players (and, really, that's just something men and women in the public eye have to deal with, sadly, no matter their skin color or political beliefs).
But, hey, why offer evidence when casting poisonous aspersions is so much fun?
Armour also throws in something weird about the WNBA All-Star Game being played this weekend in Emmett Till's hometown of Chicago, IL, somehow proving her point, but that makes sense only in her own deranged mind and leaves the rest of us scrambling to find her a straight jacket.
This is a classic case of projection, something the Left specializes in. Armour is running cover for black players who treat Clark abominably on the court (and they're not so nice off the court, either), giving them license to keep the beatdowns going on the white girl. This somehow assuages Armour's raging case of white guilt, and makes her feel like she's the real winner here because she's allowed her white savior complex to go into overdrive, consequences be damned.
As if there wasn't enough faux racial dissent being ginned up by the WNBA already, now we have a national sports columnist pouring gasoline on the fire and pretending Caitlin Clark's desire not to be mugged on a basketball court somehow echoes of one of the most infamous racist murders in American history.
Sometimes, apparently, evil wears a press credential.
Update: Ms. Armour has responded to the backlash:
Sports “journalism” is broken. @nrarmour says she made an “inartful comparison” between Caitlin Clark complaining about fouls and the murder of Emmett Till. Bigger issue here is sports writing is so woke @USATODAY published it. pic.twitter.com/Hcp1uM8d9T
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 23, 2026
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