Remember when Caitlin Clark basically pulled up shots from the parking lot, three times in a row, against the Liberty? She then said, “It’s always good to see the ball go through the hoop… then I came down and shot another one, then I came down and shot another one… and that gives you a lot of confidence.” That was her grand return from a quad strain on June 2. After missing five straight games, she came back and barely missed a beat while ending the night with a career-high seven 3-pointers.

That’s exactly what Indiana fans were hoping to see again when she returned from a groin injury against the Valkyries on Wednesday. But unfortunately for them, the scene was anything but that. In fact, the night came with a triple sting for Indiana. The Fever lost 61-80, while shooting just 30.9% from the field. They converted 21 of 68 attempts, and that’s their worst offensive outing since 2019. However, that’s not the only stat earning its place in the league’s hall of shame.

Wednesday marked the day when Caitlin Clark went a combined 3-for-28 from three over her last four games. And according to ESPN, that 10.7% marks the worst 3-point field goal percentage over a four-game span in WNBA history, with a minimum of 25 attempts. She is clearly in a slump, and here’s what she said about it: “It felt good to be out there. It’s going to take me a second to get my wind back.” And most fans are standing by their star, but are all willing to wait it out? Let’s take a look…

Support Remains Strong for Caitlin Clark (Mostly)

Most fans were quick to rally behind Caitlin Clark. They showed empathy, especially after she addressed her lingering recovery from the groin injury. “Tagging on a hurt player so funny lmao, y’all look for anything to tear her down,” said one netizen. And it’s really the bare minimum to be considerate towards a person who’s battling through one of the worst phases of their life. “It’s challenged me mentally. Really hard to stop and go, stop and go, stop and go, especially when you’re not feeling your best. Just trying to get my body as healthy as I can be and remain confident in myself,” Caitlin Clark said before her return against the Valks.

Another person echoed the same empathetic sentiments while blaming the ones analyzing the stats. They said, “Nonsense. Y’all dig deep to disparage one player who did nothing to you and coming off an 1.5 month injury.” That might have been an indirect dig at ESPN. However, not all fans picked the implicit route; some straight up called out the organization. They wrote “@espn thinks if they trash CC , their ratings will go up cuz those who hate CC & the those love CC will both watch. It’s time CC fans boycott @espn.” 

That’s a serious one considering the amount of backlash ESPN has already been receiving after Carolyn Peck said, “the Indiana Fever are more dangerous without Caitlin Clark.” She is labelled to be a Caitlin Clark hater as Peck, along with fellow ESPN analyst Monica McNutt, once rallied behind Angel Reese for WNBA Rookie of the Year. They did it because Angel was putting up “grown woman numbers,” implying that Clark was not. Apart from these two, ESPN’s Elle Duncan has also had some unfavorable opinions about CC’s popularity and fan base. Duncan has even claimed that before CC rose to popularity, “there was talk of what was actually happening on the court.” 

You might be wondering how ESPN got dragged into all this. As the post started gaining attention, people began asking the original poster where the image came from. Their response? Just a casual, “ESPN earlier today.” So, the fans have started to pick up on the pattern of coverage, and they’re not holding back. Another person called them out with some humor, “ESPN doing this oh wow.😭😭😂.” However, some people felt the complete opposite as well. They are demanding more coverage of this stat line.

It showed when one person wrote, “I want to see the memes, reels, videos, and bets for her! Keep that same energy for “the face of the league!” 9th best guard sounds too high if you ask me🤣.” According to the W players’ All-Star votes, Caitlin Clark fell to 9th overall position as a guard, even below her teammate Kelsey Mitchell. Now, some people think she doesn’t deserve that spot either. Pretty ironic if you ask us, considering that fans’ votes made her rank #1 overall by a margin of 1,17,506 votes.

Yet, some people called out those very fan voters, writing, “But yet she’s an all star starter and captain while only playing what 9-10 games… really people.” There have been conversations floating around about how Paige Bueckers deserved to rank higher than CC, especially considering the WNBA players ranked her higher at fourth. The CC vs. Paige narrative has been gaining a lot of traction lately. Especially, ever since a contestant on Jeopardy! mistakenly guessed Paige Bueckers to be Caitlin Clark. Seems like she is the latest replacement for Angel Reese as a rival. 

Coming to Reese, because no comment section under Caitlin Clark’s posts that can miss a mention of her. It got proven as one person wrote, “Imagine if Angel Reese did that.” They highlighted the fact that most of the viewers and media would have made a big fuss about it. However, lucky for Reese, she has lately been making history both on and off the court. She recently became the sixth WNBA player to appear on the cover of NBA2K, the NBA2K26 WNBA edition. After that, she wrote, “COVERGIRL. THANK YOU,” on X as fans hyped her up to the max.

You see the pattern here? How quickly does the perspective shift depending on the moment? If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that nothing stays certain for long.