ESPN’s Monica McNutt has launched her latest feud with Caitlin Clark, this time trying to take Clark’s crown away by making false claims about how the WNBA Rookie of the Year award is selected.
ESPN get upMcNutt argued that Clark doesn’t deserve to win the WNBA Rookie of the Year award, an honor he believes should go to Chicago Sky player Angel Reese.
“I’m going to base my rookie of the year award on standings,” McNutt said, “and the Sky are in the playoffs right now, so I’d have to go with Angel Reese in my opinion.”
“I’m going to base this year’s Rookie of the Year on standings. … And the Sky are in the playoffs right now, so I have no choice but to go with Angel Reese in my opinion.”
—McNutt Monica Reese and Caitlin Clark on the WNBA Lottery Battle pic.twitter.com/65CnhbObrL
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) July 5, 2024
McNutt’s argument seems to be that Clark doesn’t deserve to be an ROTY nominee because the Sky are doing better than the Fever.
But is that really the case? First, Reese’s teams have one less win (7) than Clark’s Indiana Fever (8), but the Sky have played 19 fewer games than the Fever’s 21.
And as Outkick points out, the number of games won doesn’t really matter, as neither have games won nor playoff position been factors in the ROTY award in the past. For example, last year Fever player Aaliyah Boston, who is black, won the award despite her team having the third-worst record in the league.
There is no evidence that Mr McNutt opposed the award.
The same can be said in the NBA, where Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama won the award this year despite the Spurs finishing in the bottom five.
And there’s further backlash against McNutt’s concept: Clark’s Fever have beaten Reese’s Sky in two of their three head-to-head meetings this year.
Finally, according to ESPN’s own statistics, Clark has better stats than Reese. Clark has Average While he has scored 16 points so far, Les Average Only 13.2. Clark has 7.1 assists to Reese’s 1.9. Clark’s steal numbers are also nearly the same, Clark with 1.3 to Reese’s 1.4. The only big difference is Reese’s rebounds (11.8) to Clark’s 5.7.
But Reese leads the way in this category in large part because he plays a completely different position than Clark and is much closer to the basket than Clark.
After all, one wonders why Monica McNutt is so constantly finding ways to disparage Caitlin Clark. Clark has almost singlehandedly brought more fans to the WNBA than Angel Reese or anyone else, so why does McNutt hate Clark so much?
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