Dave Portnoy delivers Indiana Fever snub on Caitlin Clark injury return
Dave Portnoy has reacted to the Indiana Fever's 'disgraceful' performance on Caitlin Clark's return from injury.
Barstool Sports chief Dave Portnoy delivered a brutal snub to the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark on the WNBA superstar's return from injury against the Golden State Valkyries on Thursday. Clark, 23, has had a start-stop-start to her sophomore year in the WNBA, with a left quad strain and a left groin injury seeing her miss several games in the 2025 season.
The guard, a two-time WNBA All-Star and one of the captains for this month's game, returned for the Fever against the league's newest franchise, the Valkyries. However, it was far from a peaceful return, as the Fever fell to an 80-61 defeat in a game Fever and Clark loyalist Portnoy described as "disgraceful."
Clark scored 10 points in 25 minutes of action after her five-game injury layoff. However, the Fever's overall game was so bad that Portnoy turned it off.
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"This Fever game has been DISGUSTING. 1st fever game I've ever shut off cause it was so pathetic," Portnoy fumed on social media platform X. Clark was as equally unimpressed by the Fever's showing.
"Nobody played well today," Clark admitted. "I thought we played with energy in the first five minutes, and then when they kind of went on their first run, it deflated us a little bit, which I'm not really sure why. But the offense, I think for us, it starts on defense, and we struggled scouting report wise, we struggled personnel.
"We struggled to do what the coaches asked of us. And then overall, they just played with more energy and effort. Those are the things that just can't happen. It's every single person on our team. Nobody played well today."
Fever coach Stephanie White made some tactical tweaks to her lineup heading into the game. Instead of returning to her usual lineup, the coach kept Aari McDonald — who had been filling in at point guard for Clark — in the starting five. Her backcourt featured McDonald, Kelsey Mitchell, and Caitlin Clark, which pushed regular starting forward Lexie Hull to the bench.
"I like the ability to have two primary ball-handlers on the floor, particularly with a team that comes aggressively in the two-man game," White said.
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"Being able to play off of one another, being able to give the opponent some different looks, and quite frankly, for C specifically, not having to have her play under duress 94 feet the entire time she's on the floor.
"There were some things that we liked about it, there are some things that we don't. So we'll continue to work with that."
