Max Brando

[David Eickholt @DavidEickholt]

@DallasJonesy It doesn’t matter what she says or how she says it. Everyone already has their mind made up. Again, these people criticizing her don’t like basketball. It’s more like “Love Island” or a reality show that they want. That’s why they feed the drama and don’t talk ball.

[LeBron James @KingJames]

CAITLIN CLARK!!!!! HI HATERS

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

Welcome back, @CaitlinClark22 ! Great job. That was a crazy shot from 43 feet out! 🎯

[Jackson Thompson @JackThompsonFOX]

Dr. Nicholas DiNubile, who has a history of working with NBA players and spent 12 years with the 76ers, has spoken out against the WNBA's handling of Caitlin Clark's health and wellbeing, and warns of potential dire consequences if it continues.

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

Congrats to #StephanieWhite, #CathyEngelbert, #ESPN, #ABC for turning a matter of sports justice into a political one. Still convinced it’s just a smokescreen for the real issue: betting corruption.

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

And she keeps getting brutalized, isolated.

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

The #WNBA doesn’t run on basketball. It runs on agendas — woke, racial, homophobic, MVP, discrimination. Pick one. #CaitlinClark doesn’t fit any of them. Not even the betting agenda.

[Sports Patriot @SportsPatriotUS]

As a writer, it is becoming increasingly difficult to cover the WNBA with the distance the job requires.

That is not something I say lightly.

Any serious writer understands the responsibility of separating observation from emotion, evidence from outrage, and analysis from personal bias. But Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA are making that separation harder by the day.

The latest example is almost impossible to defend.

The commissioner released a statement that appeared far more concerned with protecting the image of Caitlin Clark’s attacker than addressing what happened to Caitlin Clark herself... a star player who was throat punched, kneed, and trampled in a sequence that had very nothing to do with basketball.

At some point, silence becomes its own statement.

At some point, selective outrage becomes evidence.

And at some point, the refusal to protect the league’s most important player stops looking like incompetence and starts looking intentional.

Caitlin Clark did not enter the WNBA asking to be a symbol. She came to play basketball. She came to compete. She came to join a league filled with players she once admired.

Instead, she has been asked to endure a level of hostility that no professional organization should tolerate.

The physical play is only part of the issue.

The larger failure is institutional.

The league has failed her. The Fever have failed her. Too many players have failed her. And now the commissioner has failed her publicly.

The next few days will be telling.

At a bare minimum, the Fever organization, its coaches, and its players should publicly support Caitlin Clark and make clear that what happened to her should never be normalized.

They do not need to attack anyone.

They do not need to escalate the controversy.

But they do need to stand beside their teammate.

Because if they do not, it becomes increasingly difficult to see a healthy path forward for Clark in a league where she is asked to absorb repeated physical punishment, public minimization, and institutional silence without visible support from the people closest to her professionally.

There is also a human element here that should not be ignored.

Clark is not just a basketball asset.

She is someone’s daughter.

Someone’s sister.

Someone’s friend.

And at some point, the people around her... family, representatives, sponsors, and trusted advisors... may need to ask whether any amount of money, fame, or professional opportunity is worth this level of physical and emotional strain.

Basketball is supposed to be demanding.

It is not supposed to be dehumanizing.

Clark has handled it with grace. That should be acknowledged.

But grace should not be required in the face of repeated mistreatment.

There comes a point when asking a young athlete to keep absorbing the blows... physical, public, and psychological... becomes indefensible.

For months, I dismissed calls for outside intervention as excessive.

I no longer feel that way.

If the WNBA cannot protect its own players fairly, then perhaps it is time for someone outside the league to ask why.

Fans, media members, former players, abuse survivors, and anyone who cares about basic fairness should speak up.

This is no longer just about basketball.

It is about workplace protection.

It is about institutional accountability.

It is about whether a professional league can allow one of its employees to be targeted, minimized, and publicly abandoned without consequence.

The WNBA does not need another statement.

It needs accountability.

And it needs it now.

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

This isn't basketball;it's a clear case of intentional,violent, dangerous behavior meant to intimidate and humiliate a player away from the ball. @CathyEngelbert needs to be careful,or she risks turning the league into the Women’s National Bullies Association.Broadcast worldwide

[PHNX Mercury @PHNX_Mercury]

"Just the whole narrative that's being painted out there... it's unfortunate that it's come to this over basketball."

Alyssa Thomas discusses what the last week has been like for her.

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

Now the #WNBA media is condoning and supporting bullying? Wow!

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

Hoodie, sweatpants and ... the gorgeous white Caitlin1. Please. 😉

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

Viewership plummeting, huh? @espnW is getting desperate, making inane arguments just for clicks and engagement. 🤡

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

Clearly this man is trying to get attention, but...25% of the total revenue, millions of new viewers, sold-out arenas, and brilliant plays... but sure, #CaitlinClark isn't 'additive' enough. 🤡
Man, brains are free, use yours! #WNBA

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

Fouling the golden goose #CaitlinClark. A global embarrassment for the #WNBA.
‘She’s the reason they fly private’: Jealous WNBA players trashed for ta... https://t.co/8IOHc8p3Np via @YouTube

[Jake Paul @jakepaul]

When in the history of sports has this happened? Caitlin Clark is 1 of 1.

[Real America's Voice (RAV) @RealAmVoice]

CAITLIN CLARK WAS A TARGET

@1greghartley argued that the play involving Caitlin Clark showed clear intent, pointing to what he described as a focused target, visible anger cues, and deliberate movement. "She's a target. Look at it, you can't miss it."

@stinchfield1776

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

@YoitsRosie @robinlundberg

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

#CaitlinClark will be back soon, stronger than ever. You can’t break a girl like her—someone who loves basketball, who has suffered and continues to suffer for the game, yet remains so determined and passionate. She will return and keep inspiring children everywhere,from anywhere

[Zach Nunn @NunnForCongress]

Caitlin Clark has done more for women’s basketball than anyone in a generation, growing the game, filling arenas, and inspiring kids across this country to pick up a ball.

What happened the other night was wrong, and the league needs to make sure it never happens again.

But none of that changes what Caitlin does next.

She’ll get back up, compete at the highest level, and keep proving why Iowa produces champions.

That Iowa grit doesn’t quit, and neither does she.

We’re proud of you, Caitlin. All of Iowa is behind you.

[Christine Brennan @cbrennansports]

Our CNN conversation on Caitlin Clark, Alyssa Thomas and the WNBA.

[Max Brando @MaxBrando64]

@coachandere6xa C'mon, these are underpaid puppets and they follow orders.