The ESPN host is apologizing after receiving backlash for calling WNBA star Caitlin Clark a 'white b**ch' during Monday's segment.
ESPN host Pat McAfee is backtracking after catching flack for calling WNBA star Caitlin Clark a "white b**ch" during a Monday show segment.
McAfee took to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday to issue his apology. "I shouldn't have used 'white b**ch' as a descriptor of Caitlin Clark. No matter the context.. even if we're talking about race being a reason for some of the stuff happening. I have way too much respect for her and women to put that into the universe," he wrote.
Noting that he sent an apology directly to Clark, McAfee added, "My intentions when saying it were complimentary just like the entire segment but, a lot of folks are saying that it certainly wasn't at all. That's 100% on me and for that I apologize."
"Everything else I said… still alllllll facts," he concluded his post.
Monday's episode of the Pat McAfee Show aired on ESPN and YouTube a few hours before the host shared his post to X. During the segment, McAfee argued that Clark is the sole reason behind the WNBA's surge in popularity this year, pushing back against the rising narrative that the new Indiana Fever guard's race is part of why she's become so popular.
"What we're trying to say is, what the WNBA currently has is what we like to describe as a cash cow. There is a superstar," McAfee said. "But I would like the media people that continue to say, 'This rookie class, this rookie class.' Nah, just call it for what it is. There is one white b**ch for the Indiana team who is a superstar."
McAfee claimed Clark "carried" Iowa's basketball program and shattered NCAA scoring records.
"Is there a chance people just enjoy watching her play basketball because of how electrifying she is, what she did, what she stood for, how she went about going what she went for?" he argued. "Maybe. But instead we have to hear people say we only like her because she's white, and she's only popular because the rest of the rookie class is doing what they're doing. Well, that's a bunch of bulls**t and we think the WNBA -- more specifically their refs -- need to stop trying to screw her over at every single turn. What you have is somebody special and we're lucky she's here in Indiana."
"Referring to Caitlin Clark as 'the white b**ch for Indiana.' That's beyond being too comfortable. Just totally unacceptable," former ESPN host Jemele Hill wrote on X.
Clark made her regular WNBA season debut on May 14. The No. 1 overall in the 2024 WNBA draft rose to the top of the WNBA Rookie Rankings after the Fever's first win of the season against the Sparks by a score of 78-73.
Also quickly rising up the ranks is Chicago Sky's Angel Reese, who grabbed the No. 3 spot on the WNBA Rookie Rankings for the weekend of May 28.
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