For those of you who felt a fleeting satisfaction three months ago, when the whispers grew loud enough that we thought Caitlin Clark had finally risen against the multiplatform giant. The one whose commentators had been nipping at her heels since the day she stepped into this league. For those who believed, even if for a heartbeat, that Clark had filed her own case against ESPN, only to discover it was nothing but a rumor.

We stand here today, not in courts of law, but in the court of public memory, assembling our own case file. Exhibit after exhibit, proof upon proof. And as with every story worth telling, we begin with Public Enemy Number One in the eyes of Clark’s faithful: Monica McNutt.

All the Times When Monica McNutt Tried to Dim Caitlin Clark’s Spotlight

In 2024, Monica McNutt took her seat across from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, the conversation inevitably circling back to that viral flashpoint from last season. Chennedy Carter’s shove on Caitlin Clark late in the third quarter of Fever vs. Sky. What followed wasn’t just analysis, but a manifesto.

“My larger point in the conversation,” McNutt began, “was the tenor and the prevailing narrative that has been created around this season’s WNBA play is that it’s the league versus Caitlin Clark. And that is just absolutely false. It is unfair to the women that have been there building this league to this moment so that Caitlin Clark’s popularity could take it to the next level.” She doubled down with a final word of clarity: “Caitlin is fantastic, and I think she’s gonna have an incredible career in the WNBA. There are women that were worthy of coverage before her arriving. And I just will not be silenced when it comes to that.”

And yet, for Clark’s supporters, this “setting the record straight” felt like the opposite. Since Clark’s first steps onto a WNBA hardwood, numbers have testified to her gravity: attendance skyrocketing 156% compared to the year before, more than half of all league games sold out, and arenas roaring at 94% capacity. In a way, McNutt was brushing aside the tectonic shift Clark had already authored.

The next strike came not as a nod to history, but as a comparison – straight to Clark’s fellow 2024 draftee, Angel Reese. On ESPN’s Get Up, McNutt declared her Rookie of the Year vote: “My rookie of the year is going to go based off the standings because I think that is how you have to measure impact. And the Sky right now are in the playoffs, so you have to give the nod, in my mind, to Angel Reese.”

She pointed to Reese’s blistering double-double streak and emphasized her lack of All-Star company. “When Reese was selected, there were no All-Stars on that roster,” she said, as a reminder of how heavy Reese’s lift had been. Indiana, by contrast, McNutt argued, had its pillars in place: Aliyah Boston, reigning Rookie of the Year, and Kelsey Mitchell, a near 20-points-per-game scorer.

Then came Clark’s sophomore year, when McNutt peeled back another layer, this time speaking to the forces fueling Clark’s resonance. “The one thing that I cannot deny is the amount of little girls that were showing up to follow her. Same thing for Angel Reese, when I had a chance to cover their games. But I think Caitlin represented, and again, some of this to me probably is not fair to her, because it was not anything that she said or was truly based on her personality, but she was a white girl from the middle of America. And so she represented a whole lot to a lot of people, whether that is truly what she prescribed to or not.”

It was an analysis laced with an uncomfortable truth, but to Caitlin Clark, it stung. Because what they saw as her unprecedented brilliance was being dissected as sociology. Then, finally, May of 2025 came, bringing rivalry, fouls, and fury. In another Fever-Sky collision, the refs whistled Caitlin Clark for a flagrant after slapping at Reese’s rebound. This is when social media erupted with the headlines screaming of lawsuits – rumors that Caitlin Clark was suing Monica McNutt.

It all stemmed from McNutt’s televised breakdown, where she sharpened the lens once more: “One is automatically put as a victim… one is someone who needs to be saved.” A comment rooted in the racial dynamics of media framing, but one that ignited wildfire. To critics, it was another stone in the wall of diminishing Clark. To others, it was truth-telling too raw to swallow. What is certain is this: every time Clark’s story swelled, Monica McNutt seemed to be there, always weighing Caitlin Clark’s impact against the women beside her. However, hold your seats if you thought it all ended with Monica McNutt’s commentary.

ESPN vs. Caitlin Clark

The receipts we’re carrying today stretch far beyond just McNutt, because the truth is – ESPN’s whole house seems to have something with Caitlin Clark, and it’s not good. To trace it back, you don’t even have to start with her pro days. No, this trail begins in her NCAA years.

That’s when ESPN dropped a YouTube video titled “Is Caitlin Clark The Greatest Of All Time In College Basketball?” Now, with a headline like that, you’d assume she’d be seated on the throne. Or at least somewhere near the top spot. Instead, the 10-minute segment ended with her being iced out of the top five entirely. Engagement farming at its finest: use Clark’s name, face, and record-shattering career for clicks, then snub her when it counts. It was ESPN analysts Sam Ravech, Ari Chambers, and Alexa Philippou making the case, just weeks after she had become the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer across her four seasons with Iowa.

Her move to the pros didn’t shorten that list of ESPN doubters either; it only lengthened it. Carolyn Peck and Elle Duncan soon joined the chorus. And while Clark’s logo threes, needle-threading passes, and sheer buzz brought new eyes to a league starving for them, not everyone was celebrating. ESPN’s Elle Duncan went as far as saying, “The worst part of all this is the new fans are sucking the life out of the WNBA right now. It’s just the truth.” She doubled down: “You’re right… there has never been more viewership because of Caitlin Clark. There’s never been more attention. You’re right. But you know what there was in the WNBA last year and the years prior? There were other storylines, there was joy, there was talk of competition. There was talk of what was actually happening on the court.”

And when injuries hit Clark (first the quad muscle, then the groin), the takes sharpened. Carolyn Peck offered one that sent Fever fans spiraling: “The Indiana Fever are more dangerous without Caitlin Clark.” Imagine that: your franchise player is sidelined, and the narrative flips to say her absence makes the team better.

But for every jab, there’s a shield. Because while ESPN analysts lined up, the internet stood taller, and so did Shannon Sharpe. The Hall of Famer called it out plain as day: “There’s a lot of women that was on ESPN that had a lot to say earlier about it,” Sharpe said of Clark’s rookie season. “They’ve gone quiet now… Y’all quiet now. Now I want somebody to send that to you, because you know who I’m talking about. I ain’t gonna call your name, but you know who you are.”

So whether it’s ten or a hundred analysts blasting Caitlin Clark, the math works in her favor. There will always be more standing with her than against her. And those little girls? They’ll keep showing up, wide-eyed and waiting for the day she steps back onto the hardwood (hopefully in 2026) to remind everyone why her name pulls the world in, whether ESPN likes it or not.