The rise of Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark to the top of the sports world has done more than shine the brightest light we've ever seen on the WNBA. She's become a lightning rod for attention, and more specifically, she's the lightning, and anyone deemed to be on the wrong side of her prowess is the rod.
That's what happened back in May when Atlanta Dream star Brittney Griner was seen yelling something on the bench after a play involving Clark that turned everyone on the internet into the world's foremost lip-reading experts.
In the closing minutes of a game on May 22nd, with the score close and the Dream within reach of beating the Fever, Griner fouled out on a call that even announcers on television thought was a bit dodgy. Needless to say, given the circumstances, Griner objected and was seen ranting on the bench, which is something we've seen happen a million times in a million games.
This time, however, bad actors clipped the moment and spread it across social media, claiming that Griner was calling Clark "trash" and a "f***ing white girl." Unsurprisingly, it became a dog whistle for all the usual suspects, once again using the awesomeness of women's basketball as a MacGuffin for discourse.
I get that your whole personality is caught up in stuff like this, so you don’t care about spreading misinformation.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) May 24, 2025
1) the foul call made on her had nothing to do with Caitlin Clark. It was because she fouled Natasha Howard.
2) She clearly says “trash” and “fucking WACK CALL”… https://t.co/l46QuNgv8j
The Atlantic's Jemele Hill and OutKick's Riley Gaines ended up saying more than either Griner or Clark did about what ended up being more of a bad-faith controversy than anything else. Despite this happening a month ago, Griner was recently asked about it and given a chance to finally put the whole thing to rest.
Atlanta Dream's Brittney Griner sets the record straight about viral video attached to Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark
Unsatisfied with the initial onslaught of discourse, conservative sports outlet OutKick recently made it a mission to squeeze the truth out of Griner about what she really said.
In what might have seemed like a 'gotcha' moment, Griner was recently asked by OutKick's Dan Zaksheske whether she said anything derogatory about Clark during that game in May, and she set the record straight.
"No, I would never say that. There's no place for that in our league, I wouldn't say that. I was mad about a call."
There you have it, that should settle things and put an end to any arguing on the internet. Right?
For what it's worth, Griner was asked about this after the Dream and Fever had already played again since the initial incident occurred. Indiana lost that game by double-digit points, and they trailed behind Atlanta in the WNBA standings by multiple games as of Tuesday, June 17th.
Both teams play each other one more time this season in a matchup set for July 11th. Hopefully, by then, the story will be less about whatever was or wasn't said and more about how Atlanta and Indiana could be fighting for the same playoff seed when they meet.