Dave Portnoy, lashed out at the WNBA social media staff for what appeared to be a slight to Indiana Fever player Caitlin Clark in order to promote a doubleheader on Sunday.
A graphic showing Sunday’s games between the Fever and the Seattle Storm and the Las Vegas Aces and Atlanta Dream was tweeted by the official league account.
The faces of recently acquired Dream star Angel Reese and Las Vegas superstar A’ja Wilson were displayed in the Aces-Dream game on the left side of the image.
However, Portnoy objected to the graphic’s right side, which featured Zia Cooke of the Storm and Raven Johnson, a rookie for the Fever, two former South Carolina teammates.
Portnoy criticized the league for what he saw as a slight to Clark.
Portnoy posted on Twitter:
‘If this is real and I think it is this is the most idiotic promo I’ve ever seen in sports,’
‘I like Raven Johnson. But to not put Caitlin Clark on every graphic for every Fever game is literally the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.
‘Like would you ever promote a Lakers game without LeBron? Spurs without Wemby? OKC without SGA? It’s so intentional I can’t wrap my brain around it. How can this league be so god damn stupid?’
He later shared a similar perspective in a video that he posted:
‘Now, I like Raven Johnson. You can go back when the Fever drafted her and everyone was complaining. I’m like, I actually think she brings tough toughness, good D. I’m happy with the pick. She was a bear at South Carolina.
‘She also averages 1 point a game, doesn’t get a ton of burn, doesn’t get a ton of minutes. Caitlin Clark, by the way, just put up 30, had the whole sports world talking about her.
‘Caitlin Clark is the face of your league and she’s not on the [graphic] from the WNBA account. You have Raven Johnson and not Caitlin on that.’
‘To go with Raven Johnson, a rookie who averages 1 point a game and does nothing, that is so intentional by whoever did that on the WNBA, who’s running their account. You have to fire them.
‘You are openly saying we hate Caitlin Clark, we hate her fans, we don’t want you… you got us all this millions, Caitlin, and the private jets and all that stuff, but we f***ing hate you. Who did that? Fire em, WNBA.’
Johnson would go on to play a career-high 17 minutes off the bench after the game began. She only attempted one shot, which she missed, and finished the game with three rebounds, a block, an assist, and no points.
In contrast, Clark led the Fever in scoring (21), rebounds (7), assists (10), and blocks (2) as Indiana defeated the Storm 89-78.
