Caitlin Clark’s star power is hardly something the WNBA needs to be reminded of. The Indiana Fever superstar keeps drawing enormous viewership wherever she plays. So ex-ESPN host Linda Cohn found it puzzling that ION Sports, while promoting a prime-time matchup between the Indiana Fever and Dallas Wings, chose to leave Clark out of its promotional graphic entirely, opting instead to feature Lexie Hull and Raven Johnson on the Fever side.
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“It’s like we can’t have the philosophy like, ‘Oh, you know what? We’re doing a lot of Caitlin Clark, and she’s in every commercial… There are a few people that are like, ‘What else do you want them to do, Linda? She’s in every commercial. She’s everywhere you look.’ Why punish her for that? What? And she’s selling out,” Cohn said on Yahoo Sports Daily.
Cohn, however, finds that reasoning deeply unconvincing. She believes the WNBA should not be treating Clark’s overwhelming popularity as a problem to be managed rather than an asset to be maximized.
The promotional graphic in question featured Lexie Hull and rookie Raven Johnson on the Fever side, while the Dallas Wings were represented by their headline stars Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale. For a significant number of fans, media analysts, and reporters, the asymmetry was impossible to ignore. The Wings were promoted through their biggest names. The Fever were not. And the backlash that followed was swift and pointed.
This comes barely three weeks after WNBA on ION left out Caitlin Clark in their 2026 MVP projection, featuring A’Ja Wilson, Paige Bueckers, Olivia Miles, Breanna Stewart, and even Clark’s teammate Kelsey Mitchell.
And for Cohn, the issue is not about Lexie Hull or Raven Johnson, as both are legitimate players worth featuring. The problem is one of objective. If the goal is to promote a Fever-Wings game to the widest possible audience, Caitlin Clark is the most obvious and most effective headline attraction available. Not using her is an active choice to leave the single most marketable asset in women’s basketball off the poster.
However, this isn’t the first time this season that something like this has happened. In June 2026, the WNBA celebrated its 30th Anniversary with a commemorative poster. The poster features stars like A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, and even Sophie Cunningham, but not Caitlin Clark.
The decision didn’t just catch the WNBA community by surprise, but many outside it also frowned on the league’s decision, and US Congressman Brendan Boyle was one of them.
“Admittedly I’m not a big WNBA fan and won’t be until Philly gets a team. But it’s just bizarre to me that they don’t market the one player they have who attracts so many fans, and that’s Caitlin Clark. It’s so strange. I remember the way the NBA marketed Jordan to the hilt,” Congressman Boyle wrote on his X page.
Caitlin Clark continues to help to pull record-breaking viewership numbers. In fact, the Fever-Dream game became the most-watched WNBA game in ESPN’s history with 2.6 million viewers, peaking at 4 million. So it’s not surprising that personalities like Linda Cohn feel puzzled when she’s left out.