By admin 
We’ve reached the part in the discourse surrounding the WNBA where every little thing is being looked at with a magnifying glass.
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The Indiana Fever toppled the Atlanta Dream in overtime on Sunday. However, prior to tipoff, the U.S. national anthem took place. While Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham put her hand over her heart, Caitlin Clark stood with her hands behind her back.
One WNBA critic with close to 100,000 followers took to social media to accuse Clark of disrespectful national anthem behavior, while praising Cunningham.
“Sophie Cunningham stood with her hand over her heart for the entire National Anthem. Caitlin Clark didn’t. The Atlanta Dream couldn’t even be bothered to come out for it. Absolutely disrespectful. This entire league is trash at this point. Thank God for Sophie Cunningham,” Gina Milan shared on X.
Standing with your hands behind your back is not disrespectful. It’s fairly common among athletes and U.S. citizens in general. All that should be asked, really, is to stand at attention and be respectful and quiet. And Clark was obviously doing that.
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But we’re at a point in the WNBA discourse where these kind of posts are going viral. It’s toxic.
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In an interview on WHYY’s Sports In America, Elle Duncan spoke about what’s going on with the league.
“I remember how much passion, energy, and excitement there was for the attention that these women were finally getting, and the ratings, and this new crop of superstars that were going to come into the league and help elevate this game even more,” Duncan said. “And it would finally be all these women reaping everything that they had sewn all these years. And very quickly over the course of the last three years, it’s just turned into … a sticking point for sides to continue to politicize things that shouldn’t be, to be as divisive as possible.”
Criticizing Clark’s behavior during the U.S. national anthem is the latest example of how things have jumped the shark.
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This story was originally published August 18, 2026 at 6:26 AM.