Caitlin Clark has spent the past month fielding questions that have nothing to do with basketball.
Clark was asked about teammate Sophie Cunningham’s stance on transgender athletes in women’s sports, a topic that has followed the Fever through three straight road trips. Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly didn’t like that, and she said so in one word on X. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy intervened in Clark’s defense.
“Coward,” Kelly wrote, reacting to a clip of Clark’s answer.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy saw the post and went after Kelly hard. He has been one of Clark’s most vocal defenders since she entered the league, and he wasn’t about to let this one slide.
“Absolute moron/idiot to call Caitlin a coward for this answer,” Portnoy wrote. “1st of all you don’t even know how she feels on this issue and more importantly she doesn’t owe it to you or anybody else to be your political talking point. She just wants to play ball. Total coward cheap shot to call her a coward for not being your puppet.”
Additionally, he also slammed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for her ‘Face of the League’ take on Clark.
Clark’s actual answer was calm and measured, nothing close to the reaction it drew. Asked how the team is handling questions about Cunningham’s comments, she pointed away from the locker room entirely.
“I think for us, it’s not really a discussion we really have in our locker room,” Clark said. “I think it’s for leagues and the governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions, but our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins, and obviously we didn’t do that tonight. So we need to find an area to improve in that way.”
Kelly wasn’t finished after her one-word post. She went further on her podcast the next day, arguing that Clark had a responsibility to speak up given her platform.
“Caitlin Clark was directly asked to speak on it, and she was cowardly,” Kelly said. “It is one thing to inject politics into your sport where they don’t belong. It’s quite another when little girls are getting hurt in their sport.”
Kelly wasn’t alone in wanting more from Clark. OutKick’s Jon Root criticized her for not standing with Cunningham directly, writing that it “wasn’t hard” to take a clear position. That kind of pressure is exactly what Portnoy says Clark shouldn’t have to deal with in the first place.
Dave Portnoy Has Been Fighting For The Fever All Weekend
This wasn’t Portnoy’s only fight involving the Fever this weekend. During Sunday’s loss to the Lynx, Cunningham took an elbow to the face from Minnesota’s Nia Coffey, and officials still called the foul on her after a review. Portnoy ripped the call in a video posted to X, joking that Cunningham “got her jaw broke” and calling the WNBA a “sick league” for how the play was officiated. Before the game, Cunningham also had a conversation about her controversial take with the Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeves.
Both moments point to the same frustration from Portnoy. He sees a league putting outsized scrutiny on its two most talked-about players, whether it’s a referee’s whistle or a one-word insult from a cable news host, and he isn’t interested in staying quiet about either one.
Portnoy has made defending Clark something of a personal mission since she entered the league, jumping into arguments about her officiating, her endorsements, and now the political fights swirling around her teammate. Whether Clark wants the backup or not, Portnoy has made clear he’s not going anywhere.
Clark, for her part, doesn’t seem interested in engaging with any of it. Her focus stays on the scoreboard, and the Fever need the win column more than another headline right now. Indiana sits at 19-11 and tied for fifth in the standings, chasing a deep playoff run after Sunday’s loss snapped a five-game win streak.
The trans athlete debate isn’t going away before Indiana returns to the court Thursday against Las Vegas. Neither, it seems, is Portnoy’s willingness to fight Clark’s battles for her.
