The WNBA’s biggest misstep isn’t their treatment of Caitlin Clark, it’s their inability to avoid giving critics fuel to accuse them of mistreating Caitlin Clark.
WNBA critics are in attack mode after images of Clark taking a hit to the throat went viral before she eventually left Wednesday night’s game against the Phoenix Mercury with an injury. Clark’s head coach, Stephanie White, went off on the officiating in her postgame press conference. WFAN radio host and former NFL MVP Boomer Esiason even suggested she leave the WNBA to find another league overseas. But according to Colin Cowherd, the WNBA’s biggest recent misstep was omitting Clark from its 30th-anniversary poster.
“The WNBA, they just keep driving into a wall at full speed with Caitlin Clark…this is a paranoid, weird, insular league” – Colin Cowherd pic.twitter.com/R124wJulLi
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 25, 2026
“The WNBA, they just keep driving into a wall at full speed with Caitlin Clark,” Cowherd ranted. “They now have a commemorative poster of 30 years of the WNBA. Caitlin Clark’s not on it. And it’s not just an ode to the veterans that started the league. Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese are on it! And Caitlin Clark’s not.
“When she broke into the league, you moved her road games to bigger arenas to accommodate fans. You were flying the last six rows of Southwest Airlines until she made such an impact, you transitioned to private jets. And she’s not on the 30-year poster, but Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese are.”
Clark isn’t the only egregious omission, with Diana Taurasi being curiously left off the poster as well. But considering critics’ readiness to accuse the WNBA of slighting Clark in recent years, the league should have had the foresight to anticipate the conversation that would ensue from leaving her off the poster.
Bring a piece of WNBA history home.
Celebrate 30 years of the W with this commemorative anniversary poster. WinCraft’s poster is available now!
Tap the link to shop:https://t.co/LQklJBTHgM#WNBALegacyTrailpic.twitter.com/KqUysMf6gk
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 24, 2026
Cowherd noted Clark continues to be a ratings draw for the WNBA this season, recently averaging 1 million viewers for a game on USA Network between the Indiana Fever and Toronto Tempo. It more than doubled the viewership for a broadcast featuring A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces on the same network earlier in the week.
“This is a paranoid, weird, insular league,” Cowherd ranted. “Cathy Engelbert, what are you doing? I mean, you’re not heavily promoting her for the Olympics. You should have been totally outraged for the game. You can’t put her on the 30-year poster. The officiating is awful.”
For all the fabricated controversies forced on Clark in recent years, this seems like it would have been the easiest to avoid. Everyone who looked at the poster before it was promoted should have recognized that Clark’s omission was going to cause unnecessary outrage.
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