Injury Sidelines Caitlin Clark Amid WNBA’s Racism Drama

One week into Caitlin Clark’s second WNBA season, she seemingly has been the center of more controversy than President Trump in his first 100 days back in the White House.It continued on Monday when the Indiana Fever announced that Ms. Clark, who played in all 40 regular-season games last season, will miss a minimum of two weeks with a left quadriceps strain. She apparently suffered the injury during the Fever’s 90-88 loss to the defending champion New York Liberty on Saturday.The nationally televised WNBA showdown was part of a huge sports weekend in Indianapolis that went from festive to disappointing for the locals. In the Indianapolis 500, the hometown favorite, Team Penske, was caught cheating during qualifying, and its three cars were no factor in the race won by Alex Palou.In addition to the Fever losing to the Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the New York Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Now, Ms. Clark is out at least two weeks, a four-game stretch that includes a rematch with Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on June 7 in Chicago.Will social media survive her absence?Any notion of Ms. Clark being less of a lightning rod this year has already been dispelled. Since the first game of the season, when she was charged with a flagrant foul for slapping the ball away from Ms. Reese, Mr. Clark has been at the center of ongoing controversy, with social media talkers offering their constant opinions.A conservative political activist and former competitive swimmer, Riley Gaines, posted a video of Atlanta Dream center Brittney Griner saying something after fouling out of the Dream’s game against the Fever last Thursday.Ms. Gaines wrote: “Brittney Griner appeared to call Caitlin Clark ‘trash’ and a ‘f—ing white girl.'”Ms. Gaines’s post continued, “Just a reminder: this is who we traded for the Russian Merchant of Death,” referring to Ms. Griner’s release by Russia in December 2022 in exchange for Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer.“Imagine if Clark had said the inverse,” Ms. Gaines wrote. The post began a long thread debating racism, gender, and double standards.The video has no audio, and while other conservatives were critical of Ms. Griner and the WNBA for not taking action, a former ESPN commentator, Jemele Hill, posted that Ms. Griner’s reaction had nothing to do with Ms. Clark and instead was about the official’s call. “She clearly says, ‘trash’ and ‘f—ing WACK CALL,’” Ms. Hill posted.Could this lead to another investigation? The WNBA already announced it was investigating crowd behavior at Fever games after reports of “racial comments” aimed primarily at Ms. Reese during the Sky’s game in Indianapolis on May 17. Is there going to be another investigation into what Ms. Griner may or may not have said?While the social media spin cycle continues, the Fever must adjust to life without Ms. Clark. She is averaging 19 points and 9.3 assists. The revamped Fever are 2-2, trailing the Liberty (3-0) and Dream (3-2) in the Eastern Conference.The Fever coach, Stephanie White, called out the officiating after losing to the Liberty, saying, “I think it’s pretty egregious what’s been happening to us the last few games.”She points to a minus-31 in free-throw discrepancy over the last three games, where opponents have attempted 87 free throws to the Fever’s 56. “The level of disrespect right now for our team has been pretty unbelievable,” she said. “It’s disappointing that it hasn’t gone both ways.”“It is what it is and we have to play through it,” Ms. White said. “But at the same time, I feel it’s really disrespectful.”Ms. Clark didn’t mention her injury during her post-game comments following the loss to the Liberty. She said her team, which added several key players, is still looking for consistency. “Every game we’ve only put two good quarters together,” she said. “We’re kind of waiting for four quarters of really good basketball. It’s going to be a learning curve because this group is new.”The learning curve will be delayed for at least two weeks.

Injury Sidelines Caitlin Clark Amid WNBA’s Racism Drama

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