Former Fox Sports host Emmanuel Acho has a scorching take on the Caitlin Clark firestorm that has consumed sports media this week: the WNBA would be flat-out better off without her.
He’s hardly alone in having one. The past week has devolved into a full-blown circus around Clark, touched off Wednesday night when the Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas drove her fist into Clark’s throat while she was on the floor — officials did not call a foul in real time — and Clark later left the game with a back injury after a separate closeout that was also not upgraded.
The league, despite later suspending Thomas for one game, said nothing, as it characteristically does. Dan Patrick revealed on his show Friday that his producers spent most of Thursday working to reach a WNBA representative for comment and came up empty.
“Yesterday, we were one of the few outlets that called looking for a quote. We couldn’t even get a quote out of anybody,” Patrick said. “You have to answer tough questions sometimes. And this is a time when you have to answer a tough question. But have somebody available. That’s all. Have somebody available for comment. Everybody was traveling; nobody was available yesterday. And then it spirals out of control, and it gets even worse. And then everybody’s got an opinion about this. Even people who probably didn’t see the game.”
Into that vacuum stepped Acho, who made the case on his Speakeasy show that Clark has become more trouble for the WNBA than she’s worth.
“The W, at this junction in time, would be better without Caitlin Clark, because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive,” he said. “Caitlin Clark has gotten the WNBA over the necessary threshold they needed. Now people are watching. Now we realize, oh, there’s talent in the W — talent that’s actually even greater than Caitlin Clark… Caitlin got the necessary eyes there. But now that the eyes are there, we don’t necessarily need her anymore.”
“The WNBA would be better without Caitlin Clark, because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive”
– @EmmanuelAcho FULL SENDS Caitlin Clark criticism over all of the coddling and catering she receives from fans and media
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— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) June 29, 2026
To make the point, Acho reached for the Old Testament. Clark is Moses, he argued. She led the league out of its pre-2024 wilderness, delivered the chartered planes, the new CBA, and the max contracts, and now the promised land is populated with stars — Olivia Miles, JuJu Watkins, Paige Bueckers, A’ja Wilson, Angel Reese — who don’t require the same level of “coddling.”
“Respectfully, Caitlin did what only Caitlin could do, and we don’t necessarily need her to do anymore,” Acho said. “Thank you, Caitlin. We can take it from here.”
What Acho took issue with wasn’t Clark herself so much as the circus that has formed around her — the officials he sees as treating her differently, the media that rallies to her defense after every hard foul, and a league front office that keeps bending over backward to accommodate her at every turn.
“Now you’re saying the WNBA needs to be cognizant of where they put Caitlin Clark on posters. The WNBA and the officials need to alter the rules for Caitlin Clark. The WNBA and opposing players need to treat Caitlin Clark more gently,” Acho said. “You’re getting general managers fired, head coaches fired, commissioners fired, social media teams fired, all because we have to cradle this woman.”
It’s a sentiment that has found plenty of company this week. Whether it be Boomer Esiason calling for Clark to leave the WNBA altogether and play overseas as a “straight white basketball player” not receiving the respect she deserves, Colin Cowherd labeling the league “a paranoid, weird, insular league,” or Rob Parker calling out Esiason as “the worst of the worst” for injecting race and sexuality into the conversation, the Clark discourse has become so sprawling and so unhinged that the actual basketball — and the actual player at the center of it — has gotten completely lost.
“Unless we can take off our gloves for Caitlin Clark and stop trying to act like she’s a messiah, the WNBA could and would be better off without Caitlin Clark,” Acho added, “at least without this version of everybody coddling and caressing and catering to Caitlin Clark.”
For all the hot takes and sweeping declarations, the WNBA settled this debate before the season even started. The league put together a record 216-game national broadcast schedule, specifically designed to air every Indiana Fever game. Moses may have led the Israelites out of Egypt, but the WNBA isn’t ready to cross the Red Sea without her just yet.
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