Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts to a foul in the first quarter during game one of the first round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs at Mohegan Sun Arena. Credit: Mark Smith-Imagn Images
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The media coverage around Caitlin Clark’s WNBA rookie season has been so strange and so charged that even the legacy newspapers covering her games can’t stop making themselves part of the drama.

Sunday, the Connecticut Sun opened their playoff series against the Indiana Fever with a 93-69 shellacking. Just a little over a minute into that game, the WNBA rookie of the year was poked in her right eye by Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington while passing the ball. Clark fell to the floor clutching her face but no foul was called. While she never left the game over the injury, she ended up shooting just 23.5 percent from the field and scoring 11 points in the loss.

“Obviously, she got me pretty good in the eye,” Clark told reporters after the game. “I don’t think it affected me. I got good shots, they didn’t go down. It’s a tough time for that to happen. Had three wide open in first half that I usually make. It didn’t feel good when it happened but I don’t think it affected me.”

While the contact appeared accidental, speculation ran wild almost immediately that Carrington had intentionally poked Clark in the eye. That speculation was fueled by an incident in a June Sun-Fever game in which Carrington appeared to mock Clark. That was soon followed by the Sun player’s comments that appeared to be a dig at the Indiana rookie over her response to a question about her name being weaponized to push racial and bigoted narratives.

Speaking of, there has also been a season-long discourse about the way Clark has been treated on and off the court by many WNBA players, often specifically citing Black players who are perceived to be overly aggressive or negative toward her, resulting in racist or misogynistic commentary.

Indeed, the eye poke continued that trend on social media, with many X users and media members alleging the contact was intentional. Few, if any, took note of the fact that Clark also accidentally hit Carrington in the head during the game, knocking out her contact.

All of that leads us to Monday’s Los Angeles Times writeup of the game and its fallout. The article from Chuck Schilken recapped the events noted above, providing all the aforementioned context between Carrington and Clark. The article also includes the line “The contact appeared to be accidental.” The article did not mention Clark’s accidental hit on Carrington’s head.

The initial headline for the article read “Caitlin Clark suffers black eye. It was caused by player who mocked and called her out in June.” It should be noted that writers are often not in charge of headlines for their articles at media organizations such as the LA Times, so it’s unclear who wrote it. Regardless, many people in the WNBA and sports media world took it to be a suggestion that Carrington deliberately poked Clark in the eye, or at the very least seemed to be implying intent.

At 5:37 p.m. PT, the headline was changed to “Caitlin Clark suffers black eye. She says it was no excuse for her rough playoff debut.”

As of Monday evening, the original headline was still showing up in some outlets where the article had been syndicated, such as Hastings Tribune and Skagit Valley Herald.

For many, the headline echoed an incident in August when Chicago Sun-Times reporter Annie Costabile publically pushed back on a headline and image choice for an article she wrote about a Chicago Sky-Indiana Fever game. In that game, Sky guard Diamond DeShields committed a hard foul on Clark, sending her to the floor. DeShields was harshly criticized and shared an image of hate comments she received on social media afterward. Costabile seemed to feel that the Sun-Times headline and image fed into that narrative as well.

Before that, the Chicago Tribune likened Chennedy Carter’s foul on Clark to an “assault,” which sparked tons of backlash.

[Los Angeles Times]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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