Caitlin Clark filed defamation lawsuit against ESPN’s Monica McNutt?

The rumor spread following basketball analyst Monica McNutt’s take on a controversial play during a WNBA game.

A rumor that basketball phenom Caitlin Clark filed a defamation lawsuit against sports analyst Monica McNutt circulated online in May 2025. Following a college basketball career that catapulted her to sports stardom, Clark was a first-round draft pick for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever in 2024 and went on to be named rookie of the year.

A wide variety of posts on Facebook (archived, archived, archived, archived) and on X (archived) shared the lawsuit rumor in the wake of a WNBA season opener that pitted the Fever against the Chicago Sky on May 17, 2025.

Some posts spreading the rumor read:

Just minutes ago, the sports world was shaken as Caitlin Clark made it clear—she’d had enough of being misrepresented. After months of heated debate and increasingly pointed commentary, Clark has officially filed a defamation lawsuit against ESPN’s Monica McNutt. The move—has left McNutt reportedly in tears, and the media scrambling in silence to make sense of what was hidden inside. The full story is deeper than anyone expected—isn’t what you saw on camera.

However, the rumor that Clark filed a lawsuit of any kind against McNutt was false.

No evidence of such a lawsuit appeared in Indiana court records, nor did a Google search find that any reputable outlet has reported on these claims. Given Clark’s high profile as one of the WNBA’s most recognizable players and ESPN’s status as a firmly established leader in sports coverage, such a lawsuit would be major headline news for sports media.

Further, it is unlikely that defamation would actually be a viable legal claim based on parameters outlined on the website of Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.

Snopes contacted the Indiana Fever, WNBA and ESPN for comment on this rumor and will update this article should we receive a response.

The rumor appeared to have spun out of McNutt’s commentary about the Fever-Sky season opener, in which Clark was penalized for a “flagrant foul” after making a move on opposing player Angel Reese.

The Associated Press said the play began “with Reese grabbing an offensive rebound and Clark slapping Reese’s arm hard enough to jar the ball loose and knock Reese to [the] floor.” The AP further reported:

When Reese got up, she tried to confront Clark before Indiana center Aliyah Boston stepped in between the two players. Clark’s third personal foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 while Boston and Reese each drew technical fouls following a replay review by the referees.

In postgame interviews, both competitors said it was nothing more than a typical basketball play.

For basketball fans, the rivalry between Clark and Reese has been a consistent narrative since the two began playing against each other in their college careers. By the nature of her job as a basketball analyst, McNutt has commented at length on the two players, as have many other sports broadcasters.

For example, during an interview with BBC News about the two athletes in March 2025, McNutt said:

Some of this is probably not fair to her [Caitlin Clark] because it was not anything that she said or was truly based on her personality, but she was a white girl from the middle of America. So she represented a whole lot to a lot of people whether that is truly what she prescribed to or not. We can all say she is a dynamic basketball player and a force both on the court and in a marketing sense. But I do think the same thing with folks that may have fallen in love with Angel Reese that she may or may not have agreed with everything they had to say either.

However, it was McNutt’s comments during a May 19, 2025, episode of ESPN’s “Get Up” that appear to have been the specific catalyst for the lawsuit rumor gaining traction online.

During her assessment of the play, McNutt said:

The fact that the WNBA has to put out a statement because of racist comments and unsafe conditions toward Angel Reese, I just want people to be mindful that whether you like it or not, any time something happens with the two of them, one is automatically put as a victim and one is automatically put as someone who needs to be saved. When in reality, both are excellent competitors. They both said this was a basketball play. Now let’s be honest: If this was the other way around, oh Lord, you can only imagine how the conversation would have gone.

The WNBA released the statement McNutt alluded to in the aftermath of the game in which the play occurred. On May 18, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association posted a statement on Instagram (archived) that read:

The WNBPA is aware of reports of hateful comments at yesterday’s game in Indianapolis and supports the WNBA’s current investigation into this matter. Such behavior is unacceptable in our sport. Under the WNBA’s “No Space for Hate” policy, we trust the league to thoroughly investigate and take swift, appropriate action to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all.

“No Space for Hate” is an initiative the league announced before the start of the 2025 season, describing it as “a multi-dimensional platform designed to combat hate and promote respect across all WNBA spaces — from online discourse to in-arena behavior.” Ultimately, the league was unable to “substantiate claims that racist fan behavior took place,” according to the AP.

Some fans on social media accused McNutt of furthering a narrative focused on race instead of the sport itself, while others agreed she was right for calling out how the conversation would be different if a Black player had appeared to shove a white player.

Fellow basketball analyst Stephen A. Smith noted in a discussion with McNutt on ESPN that it was Reese who appeared to have initiated the rivalry during their college days. Further, Smith claimed that a rivalry such as theirs ultimately increases the popularity of the sport as a whole, comparing it to the rivalry of NBA legends Magic Johnson and Larry Bird throughout the 1980s.

No matter where basketball fans may fall on the Clark-Reese rivalry or McNutt’s commentary, the truth is there is no evidence that Clark filed a defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster.

This is not the first rumor we’ve investigated about Clark. Previously, we looked into claims that she turned down a $1 million offer to appear on an episode of “The View” and that Team USA lost $60 million in endorsements after leaving her off the women’s national basketball team.