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Caitlin Clark has been described in a lot of ways since she was drafted as the No . 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. There have been books, articles, podcast episodes, think pieces — just endless scrutiny of a talented young woman who, at only 24, is heralded by many as being both the face of the league and its future.
While Clark hasn’t always been on the receiving end of universally positive attention, something that she’s even brought on herself from time to time after an especially emotional outburst on the court, for example, she’s rarely been described as having a combative or negative relationship with the members of the media who regularly cover the game. I can attest that, with the exception of one game this season, Clark has always met with the media when requested (and even when she’s not), and the Fever has a standing solo pregame press conference at Gainbridge Fieldhouse just for her.
So that made her response to Fox News Digital’s sports reporter Jackson Thompson all the more surprising this weekend. Per an Outkick spokesperson, the outlet sent Thompson to Berlin for the FIBA World Cup this month. That’s a pretty big deal in and of itself.
It certainly seems Outkick has not sent reporters to similar women’s international basketball tournaments in the past. The trip had to be expensive, and in a time when sports departments are being cut from legacy media outlets seemingly left and right, the fact that Outkick deemed sending Thompson to the World Cup financially sound raises a question about how much money the outlet has made since throwing its support behind Clark’s teammate, Sophie Cunningham, this summer.
Here’s what happened: Clark, who was fresh off helping Team USA win its fifth consecutive gold medal and her first-ever, spoke to media after the game per usual. Toward the end of the question-and-answer period, Thompson asked Clark if she and teammate Angel Reese (who plays for the Atlanta Dream during the WNBA season) “are friends now.”
To understand exactly why that question could have annoyed Clark (and it was clear it did), one needs a little backstory. The relationship between Clark and Reese, who have known each other at least since they were teens and playing in the USA Basketball junior-level system, exploded in 2023 during the NCAA March Madness tournament. Reese made John Cena’s “you can’t see me” gesture toward Clark, a move that many in the media turned into a story about it wasn’t — a pretty mild on-court moment between two competitive players — instead of what it was.
The story persisted into 2024 and the first season both played in the WNBA. Things died down last season, and most respected outlets that regularly cover women’s basketball have largely left the story where it belongs: in the past. But Thompson and Outkick must have decided something about two young women playing at the senior level for their country in the second-most important international tournament in their field made their relationship relevant again.
Thompson attempted to manipulate what should have been a joyful moment of celebration for both women — and for the rest of Team USA – into a revival of one of the most tired narratives that either Clark or Reese have had to contend with. To her credit, Clark was uninterested in entertaining it.
Of Reese, Thompson asked, “Are you guys friends now?”
“We’ve always been friends,” Clark said. “Don’t try to do that. Don’t try to do that.”
It turns out that question wasn’t the only one Jackson asked that left his fellow reporters scratching their heads. Emmet Ryan, editor of BallinEurope, told Mediaite there were other disingenuous exchanges between Jackson and Paige Bueckers, as well as with head coach Kara Lawson.
Ryan, who has covered FIBA since 2013 and is based in Ireland, is the editor of BallinEurope. The site is about to celebrate its 20th birthday and has deep roots in women’s basketball. He shot video of Thompson’s question to Clark, as well as others. Thompson, he said, was “pretty jovial.”
Ryan was aware of Thompson’s presence because it’s pretty rare in general for American reporters to show up at FIBA events. “To be honest, at most of the events I’ve gone to, international ones just to be clear, anglophones are few and far between,” he said. “You get a few from the odd US website. Back in the 2014 World Cup, there was a decent haul from the US. You don’t see that many Americans reporters in general, not just Fox News, just to be clear. I can’t recall ever seeing a Fox News person at a basketball event, or a Fox reporter just period at a basketball event in Europe, or internationally, for that matter.”
A person familiar with operations at Outkick also told Mediaite sent Thompson to Berlin because attention paid to the WNBA has increased significantly since the last FIBA World Cup in 2022.
Thompson was also “eager to ask questions.” Ryan edited video of Thompson’s questioning while the pair sat next to one another in the media work room, and “he was oblivious to me doing that, which I thought was quite funny.”
The other questions Thompson posed included asking Bueckers “how her relationship with Jesus Christ has impacted her performance at the World Cup” and Lawson if “the anniversary of 9/11” had any impact on the team’s semi-finals game and “if it would help bring unity in women’s basketball if they won the World Cup.”
On BaillinEurope, Ryan also reported that “Clark subsequently pointed out the reporter she took issue with during Chelsea Gray’s media availability, and a representative of USA Basketball subsequently spent an extensive amount of time speaking with the reporter afterwards.”
The Fever and Dream declined to comment since the question occurred at a FIBA event. Mediaite has sent request for comment to USA Basketball.
There’s no denying that there’s never been more attention paid to the WNBA. With that attention, disingenuous actors will inevitably follow; the WNBA has attempted to combat this by establishing stricter accreditation rules ahead of the 2026 season. And though there’s plenty of validity in the idea that increased scrutiny just comes with the territory, what Thompson and other reporters are often doing — be it of their own volition or at the behest of their editors and outlets — when questioning athletes at games doesn’t often fall under that umbrella. It’s one thing to ask tough questions; it’s quite another to stir up an old, tired, and frankly racist conversation to get attention on social media, or to get clicks.
A scroll through Thompson’s articles for Fox News Digital and Outkick shows an outsized focus on Clark and, in recent weeks, Cunningham. He’s primarily focused on the World Cup, which began on September 4, since September 6. He’s spent plenty of time covering the controversies that have surrounded the league this season — including the discourse perpetuated by Enes Kanter Freedom, the former NBA player who has claimed he is a transgender woman and will be attempting to join the WNBA in 2027. His first article about the WNBA this season was a preseason interview with Clark’s teammate Lexie Hull, dozens of articles about Clark, and a handful about Reese.
Apart from an article Thompson appeared to source from social media posts by reporters in Indianapolis, it looks like he began covering Cunningham after she pointed at the Atlanta Dream’s DeWanna Bonner (who played for the Phoenix Mercury at the time) during a game. A reporter who covers the Fever at home in Indianapolis told Mediaite they haven’t seen Thompson at games. Credentialing is done at the discretion of WNBA teams. A male reporter from Outkick attempted to ask Aliyah Boston and Makayla Timpson about Cunningham’s stance on transgender girls and women in sports in August before they were cut off by the team. The reporter was not identified in the video Outkick shared online, though the site’s founder Clay Travis, who lives around four hours from Indianapolis in Nashville, was tagged in the post.
Perhaps the World Cup marks Outkick’s foray into the world of on-the-ground game reporting; maybe the WNBA will see tons of their reporters next season. Maybe traveling to the World Cup and asking questions about friendships, Jesus, and 9/11 was just the beginning of a beautiful arc in women’s basketball reporting. It’s even possible they’ll one day challenge their team to ask questions about the game, or at least smart questions that aren’t thinly veiled attempts at “gotcha” moments, or asked at the expense of the very real and cool level of basketball being played. Time will tell, and so will whatever Outkick does next.
As for Team USA? If their 97-79 win over France is any indication, they’ll just keep being excellent — Clark and Reese included.
The post Outkick Sends Reporter to Women’s Basketball Tournament All the Way in Germany to Ask About Everything But Women’s Basketball first appeared on Mediaite.
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