Headline implies Sun player purposefully poked Caitlin Clark in eye

The media coverage around Caitlin Clark’s WNBA rookie season has been so strange and so charged that even the legacy newspapers covering her games can’t stop making themselves part of the drama.

Sunday, the Connecticut Sun opened their playoff series against the Indiana Fever with a 93-69 shellacking. Just a little over a minute into that game, the WNBA rookie of the year was poked in her right eye by Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington while passing the ball. Clark fell to the floor clutching her face but no foul was called. While she never left the game over the injury, she ended up shooting just 23.5 percent from the field and scoring 11 points in the loss.

“Obviously, she got me pretty good in the eye,” Clark told reporters after the game. “I don’t think it affected me. I got good shots, they didn’t go down. It’s a tough time for that to happen. Had three wide open in first half that I usually make. It didn’t feel good when it happened but I don’t think it affected me.”

Ryan Ruocco just called out the WNBA officiating twice this game, just the first quarter. First one was the wrong call on Aliyah Boston and now the non call after Caitlin Clark was hit in the eye. pic.twitter.com/DpEaiBrE1U

— Tanya (@ScriptedTanya) September 22, 2024

While the contact appeared accidental, speculation ran wild almost immediately that Carrington had intentionally poked Clark in the eye. That speculation was fueled by an incident in a June Sun-Fever game in which Carrington appeared to mock Clark. That was soon followed by the Sun player’s comments that appeared to be a dig at the Indiana rookie over her response to a question about her name being weaponized to push racial and bigoted narratives.

Speaking of, there has also been a season-long discourse about the way Clark has been treated on and off the court by many WNBA players, often specifically citing Black players who are perceived to be overly aggressive or negative toward her, resulting in racist or misogynistic commentary.

Indeed, the eye poke continued that trend on social media, with many X users and media members alleging the contact was intentional. Few, if any, took note of the fact that Clark also accidentally hit Carrington in the head during the game, knocking out her contact.

All of that leads us to Monday’s Los Angeles Times writeup of the game and its fallout. The article from Chuck Schilken recapped the events noted above, providing all the aforementioned context between Carrington and Clark. The article also includes the line “The contact appeared to be accidental.” The article did not mention Clark’s accidental hit on Carrington’s head.

The initial headline for the article read “Caitlin Clark suffers black eye. It was caused by player who mocked and called her out in June.” It should be noted that writers are often not in charge of headlines for their articles at media organizations such as the LA Times, so it’s unclear who wrote it. Regardless, many people in the WNBA and sports media world took it to be a suggestion that Carrington deliberately poked Clark in the eye, or at the very least seemed to be implying intent.

If I worked at the @latimes I would be calling/emailing about the people who wrote & approved this headline.

If those people aren’t willing to PUT THEIR NAMES BEHIND accusing Carrington of INTENTIONALLY poking Clark in the eye, it’s because they know this is flatout wrong. https://t.co/MPHYveRwGQ

— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) September 23, 2024

Absolutely irresponsible headline.

• Carrington also got hit in the eye during the game, lost her eye-contact, with no mention of that in here• If you even watched, both were accidental incidents, seen by this statement RIGHT IN THE ARTICLE https://t.co/b2eauhwCu0 pic.twitter.com/tgc4gc2g6p

— Damon (@DamonTweet) September 24, 2024

Being able to tell if contact that happened on a basketball court which you were not playing on was accidental or knowing the nickname of the team Dijonai Carrington plays for? Apparently you can only choose one.

Bang up job all around, LA Times. https://t.co/FcREskK8Re pic.twitter.com/YcvYcOTW0B

— Not A Basketball Fan (@drewhamm5) September 24, 2024

Hey @latimes this is the stupidest way to cover Caitlin Clark’s first playoff game and you should feel extremely silly https://t.co/Zqosey4dby

— Gal Pal Sports (@GalPalSports) September 24, 2024

At 5:37 p.m. PT, the headline was changed to “Caitlin Clark suffers black eye. She says it was no excuse for her rough playoff debut.”

The headline on this article has been changed following intense criticism. https://t.co/LgKBu2gQLd pic.twitter.com/WS4VofzmRH

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 24, 2024

As of Monday evening, the original headline was still showing up in some outlets where the article had been syndicated, such as Hastings Tribune and Skagit Valley Herald.

For many, the headline echoed an incident in August when Chicago Sun-Times reporter Annie Costabile publically pushed back on a headline and image choice for an article she wrote about a Chicago Sky-Indiana Fever game. In that game, Sky guard Diamond DeShields committed a hard foul on Clark, sending her to the floor. DeShields was harshly criticized and shared an image of hate comments she received on social media afterward. Costabile seemed to feel that the Sun-Times headline and image fed into that narrative as well.

Before that, the Chicago Tribune likened Chennedy Carter’s foul on Clark to an “assault,” which sparked tons of backlash.

[Los Angeles Times]