Caitlin Clark became one of the biggest WNBA stars in the past year, after having a record-breaking rookie season with Indiana Fever. However, her popularity has been also linked with an increase in online abuse and racism from fans, with players such as Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington and Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese denouncing it. Now, New York Liberty star Jonquel Jones has given her opinion on the matter.
“I think a lot of the fans, the Caitlin Clark fans, I think they wanted to latch on to Caitlin Clark and then use her as… this fuel to be able to be the way that they wanted to be,“ Jones said on “The Pivot Podcast” with Ryan Clark.
She also said that she thinks that was the reason for the “backlash” Clark faced when she liked Taylor Swift’s post endorsing Kamala Harris, as they “want her to be the representation of their racism and their view on the world, and she’s not like that,” she explained.
“And I think you have to be careful when you say the Fever fans because I don’t think it’s the Fever fans,” Jones continued. “I think it’s people that wanted Caitlin Clark to be a certain type of way, and they thought that she was, and so they became Caitlin Clark fans assuming that. And now they realized ‘Oh no, she’s actually not racist.‘ And so now they have to backtrack, and try to find somebody else that can kind of embody the things that they feel,” she concluded.
Clark has publicly condemned racism. In September, she joined other players in calling out those who spread hate, saying no one in the WNBA deserves verbal abuse. “It’s definitely upsetting,” she said in September in a video shared by James Boyd of the Athletic. “Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats,” she added.
Jonquel Jones’ opinion echoes Sue Bird’s comments on the matter
Back in October, Seattle Storm legend Sue Bird also shared a similar sentiment in the podcast she hosts with Megan Rapinoe, “A Touch More.” The guard said that Clark didn’t bring the racism to the WNBA, but she was being used as “pawn.”
“In that way, I do think Caitlin is being used as a pawn. Caitlin didn’t bring racism to the WNBA. This has been happening. And that I think it has been such a shock for all of us, that other people are surprised by this” she said.