LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke calls Caitlin Clark ‘oafish’ and ‘spoiled’ in lengthy takedown column

The media contains no shortage of Caitlin Clark haters, but it added another one Sunday.

Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke posted a lengthy article expressing his disdain for Clark, describing her with words like “oafish,” “entitled,” “spoiled” and “coddled.”

The column is titled, “Whiny Caitlin Clark’s tired antics needs to end.”

Let’s dive in, piece-by-piece, shall we?

“As a diehard WNBA fan and season ticket-holder, it is with great reluctance that I have come to the following painful conclusion. I’m sick of Caitlin Clark.”

Oh, boy, we’re off to a great start! Also, c’mon, Bill. Diehard WNBA fan? Since when? I did a Google search for Plaschke articles about the WNBA prior to Clark’s arrival in 2024. Unsurprisingly, the search turned up very few results.

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He wrote two articles about Brittney Griner’s Russian captivity in 2022. It appears that he mentions the Los Angeles Sparks once every few years. He wrote about Lisa Leslie in 2006, Nneka Ogwumike in 2016, and Candace Parker in 2021. For a “diehard fan” who also is paid handsomely to write about sports, he didn’t spend a ton of time writing about his beloved WNBA.

Now, there’s an obvious counterargument: maybe Plaschke has always loved the WNBA but he couldn’t write about it because his bosses wouldn’t let him. After all, most sports fans couldn’t have cared less about the league prior to Clark’s arrival.

If that’s the case, it makes his column even more absurd. He’s attacking the woman for making the league he loves so dearly popular enough that he can finally write about it. By the way, I found five Plaschke columns about the WNBA prior to Clark’s arrival in 2024. I found seven since Clark entered the league.

I swear, some of these people just don’t take the time to listen to themselves.

“As the purchaser of an Iowa jersey and consumer of all things Indiana Fever — covered their games, witnessed them as a fan, caught them on television — it is with great angst that I make the following brutal admission. I wish Caitlin Clark would just stop whining and play.”

This is the equivalent to making the argument, “I can’t be racist, I have black friends!” He starts by letting everyone know that he actually loves Caitlin Clark. Or, he did. So this condescending takedown is actually coming from a place of love. Right.

Except, Clark hasn’t changed. She’s always been the type of competitor to trash talk opponents, complain to referees and challenge her coaches. These are things she did at Iowa and continues to do in Indiana. So, Plaschke was fine with her before, but now he has a problem?

By the way, none of these behaviors are unique to Clark.

LeBron James is one of the biggest complainers in NBA history. Stars expect star treatment and when they don’t get it, they get upset. Patrick Mahomes constantly begs referees for penalty flags. I couldn’t find any Plaschke columns admonishing either of them for “whining.” This isn’t to pick on James or Mahomes, either. I’m just pointing out a clear double-standard at play here by Plaschke.

I was actually able to find another recent example of Plaschke criticizing an athlete for complaining too much to referees. That player? Lakers guard Austin Reaves. Reaves and Clark both happen to be white athletes, but perhaps that’s just a coincidence.

“The logo-shooting, circus-passing, shape-shifting revelation who was once arguably the most famous basketball player in the world has become rude, entitled and, frankly, not all that fun.

“In her third season in the WNBA, the once-shining superstar is acting like a spoiled brat. The league’s most popular player has become its biggest lout. Her stats are decent, but her attitude stinks.”

Calling Clark entitled is hilariously ironic. There is arguably no bigger group of entitled athletes on the planet than the women of the WNBA. If anything, Clark is the only one who hasn’t been “entitled” to anything.

“I once openly cheered as Clark raced down the court, dribbled behind her back, skated past a helpless defender, and drained a three-pointer.

“Now I cringe as she bricks the trey and immediately complains to the officials, spreading her arms, shaking her head, screaming in their face.

“She cries foul on seemingly every play in which she is bumped, or nudged, or experiences any of the contact that is completely normal in the most physical basketball league on the planet.”

I like that Plaschke has to keep reminding us that he used to like Caitlin Clark. It’s like a stepdad who starts a sentence with, “I love my stepdaughter, but I just hate everything she says and does.” You know what? Maybe you don’t love her as much as you think.

“Clark not only disrespects officials, she is unafraid to show up her coach Stephanie White, as witnessed by their recent viral exchange on the bench during a loss to the Portland Fire.

“Clark, who made one basket during the game, had an animated discussion with White during a timeout before being yanked out of the lineup. At that point Clark left her seat to stand next to White and shake her head. There were reports that the discussion was about defense, which makes sense, because that is the weakest part of Clark’s game, opponents frequently and successfully isolating and attacking her.”

Clark haters love to point to her defense. Did you know Clark ranks 22nd in the WNBA in defensive rating? Yeah, she’s not nearly as bad as some would like you to believe. Calling defense the weakest part of her game is like saying the weakest part of Scottie Scheffler’s game is putting. Maybe, but he’s the best player in the world and still better than the vast majority of golfers at putting.

He yelled at his caddie this week, too. Where’s the lengthy column on that exchange, Bill? Don’t you want to admonish him for his bad attitude?

Plaschke then used a pair of Clark quotes to claim that she “blamed the media” and “leveled a shot at fans.”

Both quotes basically said the same thing: “There’s a lot of people out there in the media or on TV that they think they know a lot of things, but they’re just blatantly wrong about a lot of things.”

And, on fans: “They think they know everything, and in reality, they don’t have a clue.”

What a jerk! How dare she imply that she has more information about her relationship with her coaches and teammates than the media or fans. How could she possibly know more than we do? Doesn’t she know we have X? As everyone knows, if it’s said on X, it’s definitely true.

“At the same time Clark was damaging her image, her Fever bosses came under fire for trying to protect that image by revoking the credential of veteran Fever and Pacers beat reporter Scott Agness.”

I don’t agree with the team banning Agness, but the public record is murkier than Plaschke suggests. Agness said the Fever cited his report as inaccurate and unsubstantiated, and separate reports noted prior access issues with Pacers staff. Whether or not he deserved the punishment is irrelevant. The point is that Plaschke is basically asserting that Agness was banned to protect Clark, and he has not shown that to be true.

“The reporter’s ban was an absurd overreaction by a team that is apparently being run by a kid. If every NBA beat writer who reported that their team utilized load management was banned, there would be no more NBA beat writers.

“The WNBA wants to be celebrated as a major American sports league, yet continues to act like the media should treat it as a charity. How dare you ask a tough question! How dare you level a fair criticism!”

In fairness to Plaschke, I wholeheartedly agree with this portion of his column. The WNBA expects its media to cheerlead and act as PR arms of the league, not as journalists, and I’ve written about that (and experienced it) many times. But using that argument right after making the Clark claim undercuts Plaschke’s point.

You see, all WNBA teams act this way. So, this wasn’t the Fever giving Clark special or preferential treatment. It was exactly how they act with every player and every media member. If anything, it was a rare example of a team actually extending Clark the same benefit it provides to everyone else.

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“Even though she ranks in the top 10 in free throws attempted, the officials are never right. Even though she is publicly coddled, the media is never right. Even though she has been given control of the team, her coaches are never right. Judging from some of her body language, her teammates are also never right, and that’s a shame, because she has some great ones.”

His first point is factually inaccurate. Clark ranks 17th in free throws attempted per game in the WNBA (and 19th in total attempts), despite being third in usage rate.

His second point is also inaccurate. What media has coddled Caitlin Clark? There’s an entire cottage industry that revolves around tearing Clark down and calling her fans racist. That industry, by the way, appears to be one that Plaschke is interested in joining.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but… his third point is wrong. The Fever have given Clark control of the team? If anything, they hired a coach that is not suited to Clark’s style of play and offense and they are trying to force her to play a different game than the one she prefers to play. The game she prefers to play, by the way, is the one that’s fun, exciting and brought millions of new fans to women’s basketball.

“I love the explosiveness of Kelsey Mitchell, the power of Aliyah Boston, and the fresh new force that is Raven Johnson. While Clark still wonderfully directs them around the court as the league’s assist leader, this show comes with a price.”

This is my favorite new argument that keeps coming up. The Fever are actually great without Clark and her teammates deserve more shine. After all, they made a run without her in last year’s WNBA playoffs. That’s true. However, Kelsey Mitchell has been with the Fever since 2018. She didn’t make the playoffs once until Clark arrived.

The team was so bad in 2022 (5-31), they got the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft. They selected Aliyah Boston. The 2023 Fever, led by Boston and Mitchell, once again finished near the bottom of the league (13-27) and drafted Clark.

This was not a team of playoff-proven stars that is now being held back by Clark. That argument is perhaps the most egregious in a column filled with egregious arguments.

“Some readers will wonder, as some wonder about every piece of WNBA journalism, whether I would have written this same column about a man. Please. I have. Many times. This space has been littered with criticism of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and other local legends who occasionally acted like idiots.”

This is mostly true, but not entirely complete. I read some of the pieces Plaschke wrote about James and Bryant, and they aren’t like this one. This one sounds more personal. Additionally, read what he said again.

“Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and other local legends.”

Plaschke has worked for the Los Angeles Times for decades and has been a sports columnist there since 1996. He mostly sticks to L.A. sports figures. The columns about James are about his time with the Lakers. Bryant is a Lakers legend. Plaschke then lumps in “other local legends.”

So why is Caitlin Clark, a woman born in Iowa, who went to college at the University of Iowa and now plays for the Indiana Fever, getting a full column from Plaschke? He even admits that his criticism is usually reserved for L.A. sports figures. So, why Clark? Again, that’s why this feels so much more personal than his previous examples.

“It’s not too late for Clark to clean up her act and once again become the WNBA’s most marketable and popular superstar — a spot currently held by the poised and professional A’ja Wilson, who has led the Las Vegas Aces to three titles.”

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This is genuinely hilarious. The idea that any player in the WNBA is more “marketable” or “popular” than Clark is laughable. If you didn’t already lose all respect for Plaschke earlier in the piece, this should have cemented it. Wilson has been in the WNBA since 2018. The vast majority of sports fans probably had no clue who Wilson was until Clark entered the league.

“But until then, this former teen idol needs to grow up. Once upon a time, I couldn’t stop watching her. Anymore, I’ve seen enough.”

I’m sure Caitlin Clark is crying herself to sleep right now knowing that Bill Plaschke doesn’t want to watch her play anymore. I guess she’ll just have to settle for the other millions of fans she brought to the WNBA.