‘She’s becoming bigger than the program’: WNBA analyst feels Caitlin Clark must be benched due to ‘ego’

The Indiana Fever are currently on the outside looking in on the WNBA playoff picture after losing back-to-back games during a West Coast road trip. In both games, star point guard Caitlin Clark struggled, especially on the defensive end of the floor.

Clark’s frustration was apparent during a second-quarter blowup with head coach Stephanie White during Saturday’s blowout loss to the Portland Fire. On Monday, Clark downplayed the moment while speaking with media members at practice.

“First of all, two people being competitive. Two people that really want to win. And, you know, I think a lot of those things happen all the time. And I know there’s a camera on me and that’s how it’s going to be. But there’s a lot of people out there in the media or on TV that they think they know a lot of things and they’re just blatantly wrong about a lot of things.

“And I ride for Steph. I ride for these girls. Steph has my back more than anybody. So You know, nobody in that locker room, in our locker room, or Steph, or our coaching staff thought twice about it. It’s just another example of what everybody, all of you, want to blow up and make something that is just lost and not in reality.”

However, on No Offseason: The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show, podcast hosts Lena Keita, Chantel Jennings, Sabreena Merchant, Layshia Clarendon, and Annie Costabile discussed the exchange as being an example of what is becoming an ego problem for Clark.

“She has to cut her runway. She has to acknowledge where her runway ends and understand where she’s becoming bigger than the program and how that’s impacting her teammates and how it’s impacting her ability to impact her teammates,” Costabile said on the episode. “Because at what point are you, you know, does it become a question of who wants to come into this situation and know that part of their responsibility is going to be to wrangle Caitlin in, in that sense.

“Like you’re talking about Aliyah Boston, you’re talking about Kelsey Mitchell. Like, that’s where the question becomes, again, back to the hot take: she can’t allow herself to become bigger than the franchise to a point where she’s not buying into all the ways that she has to impact a franchise from a leadership standpoint, from the standpoint of improving defensively. Like, that’s where she has to, I think, take some accountability and understand that, yes, you, you make the franchise go as a franchise player, but your ego can’t become bigger than the franchise.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to be Caitlin doing it for Caitlin,” Keita added. “I think an external event has to happen. Raven Johnson starts, right?”

Clark being removed from the starting lineup is nearly an impossibility, especially considering she’s the driving force of Indiana’s offense. However, Clark will certainly have to improve the leadership aspect of her game if she wants to compete for a title this season.