Angel McCoughtry wants everyone to know she never called anyone “ugly.” She only laughed it off and moved on. But fans took that laugh as an insult to Caitlin Clark, and the criticism came fast. So McCoughtry hit back on Threads on Sunday. “So when people lie and say you said something you didn’t or paint a lying picture. Isn’t that a defamation lawsuit?” she asked.

Now Linda Cohn, one of the best-known voices in sports media, has weighed in.

“I agree you did not you did not call Caitlin Clark ugly, but you laughed and it was an awkward uncomfortable laugh. And you can’t blame people on social media to assume that you don’t think she’s pretty,” Cohn spoke about it on her show after reading McCoughtry’s post.

“And why are we even talking about it? You are a woman. You were a great basketball player for the WNBA. And I know I know when you played, I’m sure you weren’t a fan of people talking about your looks or people’s looks. It just it just this whole thing went went nuts. I just couldn’t believe it,” Cohn added.

McCoughtry’s legal question came after one viral podcast moment. 

She was a guest on the Get to the Point podcast with hosts Terrell Owens and Chris Spencer. She said looks and visibility matter more in the WNBA than in the NFL or NBA. To back it up, she told a story about a conference where everyone loved Indiana and Clark, but nobody raised a hand when she asked who knew Kelsey Mitchell. In her view, Mitchell is the best player on that team. 

Then came the question. Owens asked if she thought Clark was pretty. McCoughtry laughed and did not answer. She went on to talk about Clark’s teammate Sophie Cunningham, who has an Adidas shoe deal even though she scores in single digits, and she asked whether the women’s game is really about talent or “how pretty you are.”

Owens pushed back, saying beauty may get a player in the door but can’t make her stay. McCoughtry replied that she wanted the league’s best players to get more attention.

The clip passed a million views, and one social media post claimed she had called Clark ugly. She never said that in the clip.

So, Cohn’s point is simple. When someone laughs instead of answering, people fill in the blank on their own.

From there, more people joined in. Rachel DeMita, a former Old Dominion player, said on her Courtside Club podcast that the conversation had “completely lost the plot.” She called out laughing about how Clark looks as “flat-out mean.” She also questioned the idea itself. 

Brands market players like Clark, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson because of their play and star power, she said. Stewart has deals with Puma and Kalshi, and Wilson works with Nike, Panini and Lego. Deals outside basketball, DeMita added, often come down to a player’s agents and publicists.

Others saw it differently. Analyst Robin Lundberg said McCoughtry is free to have her own opinion on who the best player is. He added that people knew Mitchell far less before than they do now, mostly because of the attention Clark brought to Indiana.

Analysts on Fox News also criticized the comments. One host said players who knock the people bringing in new fans end up hurting the league’s own growth. A panelist said Cunningham’s spotlight came from standing up for Clark and from her personality, not only her looks. 

Sports Illustrated’s Grant Young added that McCoughtry could have made her point without naming any Fever players, and he noted that she never explained what the conference was.

All of that came from one laugh and a few sentences. McCoughtry says she never said the word and is asking whether people can put words in her mouth. Cohn says fans’ reaction was not hard to understand, and she wondered why the topic exists at all. 

A week ago, most people were talking about the WNBA Finals. Now they are arguing over a laugh, and as Cohn put it, “this whole thing went nuts.”