JUST NOW: WNBA Game Caitlin Clark Joke Draws Criticism for Iowa Sports Writer

A writer from Iowa is facing backlash for making a joke about Caitlin Clark following her WNBA debut. He is justifying the joke by tweeting that he was being ironic.

In a posted Indiana Fever video, David Eickholt of CBS Sports and 247 Sports tweeted, “Her shot mechanics suck.” Clark is shown in the video as she “shakes off the defender and buries her fourth three of the half 😮‍💨.”

With 1.4 million views as of the morning of May 6, Eickholt’s tweet provoked criticism before X users realized he was joking and, in fact, using sarcasm to defend Clark.

The Spun claims that Eickholt’s comment was a jab at Doug Gottlieb of Fox Sports Radio, who had identified Clark’s “mechanical flaw” in a tweet on April 30. Former college and professional basketball player Gottlieb had tweeted, “The amount of work it takes to be consistent through her mechanical flaw is really impressive.” “@HoopConsultants, if you were giving her advice, would you fix it in the off-season?”

Eickholt made an effort to convey the irony in his post. “Wow, it seems like people are genuinely considering this seriously,” he responded to the original tweet.

“Homey missed the joke,” one person posted sticking up for Eickholt.

“Lot of them did 😂” Eickholt responded.

Here’s what you need to know:

In the replies, some people took the joke seriously and were critical. “*breaks every D-1 scoring record* but hey her shot form sucks huh?” wrote one.

The closest I’ve come to a WNBA game is when I strolled through a casino in Las Vegas while on vacation with my spouse. The detractors are adamant about making the WNBA irrelevant. Another said, “Here you have all these new people staring at you, and still you spew.”

Another fan said, “Don’t think it’s smart to comment something like that when she made the basket 😂🤣 just a thought.”

Eickholt has shared some of the negative tweets he received in response, including, “She’s hoopin, and your wastin your energy trying to bring her down. Mannn, who hurt you? Empowering goes so much further than negativity.”