An ESPN writer celebrated Caitlin Clark's elimination from the WNBA playoffs on Friday, posting a smiling photo of himself on X before launching a lengthy thread mocking the Indiana Fever star as overrated. David Dennis Jr. referenced his previous argument that Clark is «not a top four guard» in the WNBA and claimed the postseason proved him right.
«But let the record reflect that I was 100% right here as well. Because yes we did talk about winning and my concerns about her game translating to winning,» Dennis wrote. He then gloated over Clark losing in the first round. «A team with 3 top 10 players, according to ESPN, who was a game away from the Finals w/o their star player and then getting bounced in the first round w/ said player is a reason to ask questions. It always is.»
The Fever lost to the Las Vegas Aces, the heavy betting favorites to win their fourth championship in five years. Framing that as Clark getting «bounced in the first round» is intentionally more dismissive than descriptive. Clark also played well in the series. She became the first player in WNBA history to record 25 or more points and 15 assists in any game. She is not the reason the Fever lost to a superior team.
Those unfamiliar with Dennis might reasonably wonder why an employee of ESPN, the WNBA Finals rights holder, would celebrate the elimination of the league's biggest television draw. Imagine an NBC personality gloating over the Chiefs' or Cowboys' playoff exit in a season in which NBC broadcasts the Super Bowl.
David Dennis Jr. is the same commentator who last year called for Caitlin Clark fans — who represent a significant portion of the WNBA's audience — to stop watching the league. ESPN hired Dennis in 2021, promoting that it had «hired the son of a civil rights leader.» His addition was part of the network's post-George Floyd hiring push, during which ESPN publicly emphasized race and representation in its talent strategy.
Dennis is a DEI hire, by definition. And he tries far too hard. Last year, he posted a rant on Bluesky claiming Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle jeans advertisement «mortified» him because he believed it promoted eugenics. Dennis seems to have an issue with successful White women, whether it's Clark, Sweeney, or Sophie Cunningham. He is running the same playbook that Jemele Hill, Bomani Jones, and Ryan Clark used before him.
Clark's firing, followed by his unfounded accusations of racism against the network, will likely keep Dennis employed for a few more years. But he's drifting into the sort of territory where only Dan Le Batard would offer him a job.
Speaking of Le Batard, one of his employees, Jessica Smetana, also celebrated the Fever's loss. She compared watching Sophie Cunningham play basketball to serving a sentence at Shawshank. Like Dennis, Smetana comes across as so bitter. She is probably jealous of Cunningham, as well.
And yet, these same commentators who proudly belittle Clark and Cunningham continue to claim that Black lesbian women are the ones the sports media relentlessly targets. It's all such a lie.