ESPN host Pat McAfee apologized Monday for dropping the b-word in his off-color reward of WNBA star Caitlin Clark.
McAfee was pushing again on the notion that the current surge in WNBA recognition will be traced to not solely Clark’s emergence, however the play and personalities of fellow rookies like Angel Reese and Cameron Brink.
“What the WNBA at present has is what we like to explain as a money cow. There’s a celebrity,” McAfee stated on “The Pat McAfee Present.”
“I would love the media those that proceed to say, ‘This rookie class, this rookie class, this rookie class.’ Nah, simply name it for what it’s — there’s one white b— for the Indiana staff who’s a celebrity.”
Inside hours of that ranting reward of the Indiana Fever guard, McAfee took to social media to retract.
“I shouldn’t have used ‘white b—-‘ as a descriptor of Caitlin Clark,” McAfee wrote.
McAfee stated no ” matter the context,” he was incorrect to make use of that language to explain a participant he has “method an excessive amount of respect for.”
“My intentions when saying it had been complimentary identical to your entire section, however a number of people are saying that it definitely wasn’t in any respect,” he added. “That’s 100% on me and for that I apologize.”
Clark, the NCAA’s all-time main scorer, was the No. 1 decide within the 2024 WNBA draft. She captivated faculty basketball followers with an offensive talent set that featured making pictures from simply inside half courtroom.
Clark led the Iowa Hawkeyes to back-to-back nationwide title video games (shedding each instances), the latest towards South Carolina, drawing 18.7 million viewers. That determine blew previous the lads’s nationwide championship between UConn and Purdue (14.8 million).
Since becoming a member of the WNBA, Clark’s Indiana Fever has set a report in ticket gross sales and the league itself in viewership.
She was named WNBA Rookie of the Month for Could after main all first-year gamers in scoring (17.6 factors per recreation), subject objectives made (46), 3-pointers made (24), free throws made (42), assists (6.6 per recreation) and minutes performed (33 per recreation).