Caitlin Clark’s decision to decline the invite to take part in the 2025 NBA-WNBA 3-point contest has not gone down too well with Fox Sports’ Rob Parker. On his radio show, Parker ripped Clark for having the audacity to say no to the NBA and claimed she had ruined All-Star weekend for him with that decision.
“Caitlin Clark has ruined NBA All-Star Weekend,” Parker said. “They invited her to be involved in the shooting contest with Steph, right? And they were gonna make this nice thing go, and give people something to watch. She is television ratings gold, right? Everything she’s in, people are watching.
“That would have been the only reason to watch any of the festivities this weekend,” Parker stated. “They got a no-name Slam Dunk Contest. They got four All-Star teams with people who aren’t even All-Stars playing. The younger people, the people they picked up off the street, the old veterans, the international players.
“So they have all these things, all these freaking gimmicks that the NBA has turned into,” Parker continued. “And she had the gall, the audacity, to say ‘no’? How can she say no when the WNBA wouldn’t even be around if it wasn’t for the NBA? They have subsidized that league forever.
“Ratings this year, right? Guess how much money the WNBA lost this past year — $50 million,” Parker added. “Even with Caitlin Clark and her number. So the least she could have done was done a solid for her brothers in the NBA. They aren’t earning their keep. Let’s just be honest. I’m being honest.
“The least she could have done was take part in that. And she has ruined NBA All-Star Weekend for me. I’m not watching one minute. Because of Caitlin Clark,” Parker concluded.
The NBA has certainly done a lot for the WNBA over the years, but that does not mean Clark had an obligation of any kind to accept the invite. As for why she declined the invite, her management team stated it was because she wanted her first three-point contest to be at the WNBA All-Star weekend at Gainbridge Fieldhouse later this year.
“Caitlin will not be at NBA All-Star,” her representatives at Excel Sports Management said in a statement. “She wants her first three-point contest to be at WNBA All-Star in Indianapolis this summer.”
Clark starred for the Indiana Fever as a rookie last year and it’s fair if she wants her first contest to be in Indianapolis. It’s certainly a big blow for the NBA.
Following Clark’s decision to decline, the NBA announced there would be no shootout between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu during this All-Star Weekend. NBA Executive Vice President Mike Bass stated they failed to come up with a plan that would raise the bar from last year’s event where Curry beat Ionescu 29-26.
It has been reported that the plan was for Clark and Klay Thompson to team up with Ionescu and Curry respectively. That could well have been the most interesting event during All-Star weekend and hopefully, we’ll get it next year. For this year, we’ll have to make do with the new format for the All-Star Game.
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