Caitlin Clark is still at the point in her fame where she can’t say much of anything without it being picked apart and dissected. But political commentator Megyn Kelly ratcheted that cycle up to max speed this week when she called Clark’s praise of Black WNBA legends in a profile in TIME magazine “fake.”
Rather than engaging with Clark’s comments directly, Kelly tried to wipe them out of existence. The former Fox News host accused Clark of lying and “apologizing for being white and getting attention.” As with much of the lazy, symbolic discussion of Clark across the media, Kelly didn’t bother to specify who exactly Clark was apologizing to or why she, as the most famous player in the league, would need to apologize at all.
So the TIME Athlete of the Year kept that same energy in a response to Kelly on Wednesday during the magazine’s “A Year In Time” event, dismissing Kelly’s criticism while doubling down on her perspective about the league she has helped launch into the mainstream.
“I feel like I always have had really good perspective on everything that’s happened in my life, whether that’s been good, whether that’s been bad. And then obviously coming to the WNBA, like I’ve said, I feel like I’ve earned every single thing that’s happened to me over the course of my career,” Clark explained.
“But also, I grew up a fan of this league from a very young age. My favorite player was Maya Moore, like I know what this league was about. And like I said, it’s only been around 25-plus years, so I know there’s been so many amazing Black women that have been in this league, and continuing to lift them up I think is very important, and that’s something I’m very aware of.”
A four-time WNBA champion, Moore was also a leading voice in the Minnesota Lynx’s protest of Minneapolis police presence at their home games in 2016, following the killing of Philando Castile in the Twin Cities. In 2019, Moore left the WNBA to work toward freeing a wrongfully incarcerated man named Jonathan Irons, whom she eventually married and started a family with.
Clark also emphasized her ability to focus on her career and inner circle as opposed to outside voices like Kelly. That skill has likely served her well during a season in which, far before Kelly weighed in this week, talking heads in the media turned her into a talking point and fans online turned her into a political avatar.
“I feel like one of my best skills is just blocking things out. The only opinions that I really care about are the people I love, my teammates, my coaches, the people inside of our locker room, the people that I see every single day that I know have my best interests at heart,” Clark told NBC’s Maria Taylor, who hosted the Q&A. “With the way things are going, you want that attention and you embrace it, and that’s what makes this so fun.”
Clark is taking the winter off from competitive basketball after making her second straight NCAA championship game in April, then leading her Indiana Fever to a playoff berth in her first pro season as the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
Since Indiana was eliminated from the postseason, Clark has kept a low profile. The TIME Athlete of the Year story was the first time she has had a chance to publicly take stock of her life and career big-picture since a long article with ESPN’s Wright Thompson in the spring.
Of course, Clark had to know backlash from prominent media voices like Kelly would come. But she was ready for it, as she often has been since her fame exploded in early 2023.
