The definition of insanity’: Elle Duncan calls out Caitlin Clark for blaming the media and not saying ‘stop it

Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports, Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Longtime sports anchor Elle Duncan has over a decade of experience in sports broadcasting and brought that experience to the table when discussing Indiana Fever phenom Caitlin Clark.

Duncan, who is the lead host for WNBA coverage on USA Network, appeared on The Sports Gossip Show podcast and touched on the perpetual narratives surrounding the Fever’s young sharpshooter.

“We’ve been circling this drain for a while,” Duncan said of the exhausting coverage of Clark having jumped the shark at this point.

“It was last year, I think, that I came to the realization that this is not going anywhere. I truly believed that at some point this would just die out; that people would start appreciating the idea that a rising tide just lifts all boats…

“It’s getting worse. We’ve got congressional hearings. It’s so absurd on so many levels.”

“I do not think it’s on Caitlin.”

Duncan went on to discuss the issue she has with people saying things like, “Caitlin Clark is a superstar, so (the referees) need to do a better job of protecting her.” The anchor said that she feels that everyone on a WNBA roster deserves to be protected, regardless of their role on the team, and lamented that there is no media outcry when other players are getting played physically.

“It has made the WNBA not particularly fun to cover,” Duncan said of the circumstances surrounding Clark’s coverage.

“What you’re going is you’re paralyzing people. They want to avoid it altogether, or they want to sort of play both sides, because they’re just afraid of the backlash they’re gonna get.”

“I don’t give a sh*t,” she said of any blowback she might get for her words on the podcast.

“I do not think it’s on Caitlin,” she continued. “These bad faith characters have used her, have used her name, image, and likeness to be misogynistic, or racist, a bigot.”

However, Duncan called out Clark and her camp for not “calling these people out by name” and saying, “Stay out of this, Congress, with all due respect, I do not need you sticking up for me. I do not need you infantilizing me. I do not need any of those things. I want you to stop using my name. I do not believe any of those things. I have nothing but respect for these people. Stop it.”

She acknowledged that although Clark has made statements, they have not been concrete or definitive enough and clearly aren’t working, saying that the “definition of insanity” is to continue doing the same thing that isn’t working.

Duncan feels that, to this point, all Clark has done is say that “the media makes up these narratives” and “the media makes up this discourse.”

Duncan admitted that while she doesn’t believe there’s an easy solution to this, what’s going on right now clearly isn’t working, and Clark is going to have to find a way to make it so that the coverage of her is about basketball and basketball only.

“I don’t know how that happens, but it needs to.”

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