The WNBA‘s remarkable streak in making asinine comments about their most marketable star, Caitlin Clark, remains unblemished. As evidenced by the latest complaint from reigning MVP, A’ja Wilson.

Wilson, who just won her third WNBA championship with the Las Vegas Aces, was named TIME’s 2025 Athlete of the Year. Not to take anything away from her accomplishments, but a WNBA star being named to such a lofty post seems specious, having just watched one of the best World Series in the history of the game.

Regardless, in a write-up for Wilson’s award, it takes little time at all for the magazine to pivot to Clark, calling her popularity “a toxic, racially divisive narrative that she was almost singularly responsible for salvaging a league whose foundation had been built by a mostly black player base.”

A’ja took the bait, of course, saying the completely fabricated narrative bothered her.

A’ja Wilson says Caitlin Clark’s success is erasing black history

Wilson, a four-time WNBA MVP still under the age of 30, suggested that Caitlin Clark’s popularity is erasing the league’s history, which, as we just mentioned, TIME framed as having “been built by a mostly black player base.”

Let’s pause for a moment here. Can you imagine for a minute if a sport had an overwhelmingly popular black player join their league and the media and its players began complaining that this person was erasing the history of a league built on a “mostly white player base?”

That’d be pretty racist.

Anyway, Wilson chimed in on the topic, saying Clark’s crossover appeal “wasn’t a hit at me, because I’m going to do me regardless.”

“I’m going to win this MVP, I’ll win a gold medal, y’all can’t shake my résumé,” she continued. “It was more so, let’s not lose the recipe. Let’s not lose the history. It was erased for a minute. And I don’t like that.”

“Because we have tons of women that have been through the grimiest of grimy things to get the league where it is today.”

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League doesn’t need her?

Look, I’m sorry that nobody cared about the WNBA before Caitlin Clark arrived. I’m sorry that the percentage of people who care about it is still pretty low, given that she is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, and considering the league still lost $40 million despite her bringing in ratings and improving ticket sales exponentially.

But it’s not her fault. And if Wilson had any class or sense, she’d be trying to uplift and cheer on a fellow star.

Instead, TIME makes it even worse by suggesting the league doesn’t need Clark because their ratings were up even with her on the sidelines with an injury for much of the season.

“The 2025 WNBA campaign provided a measure of vindication for many players,” the outlet writes. “Despite Clark’s missing most of the season with an injury—something Wilson, to be clear, did not cheer—viewership for both the regular season and postseason was up 5% to 6% on a per-game average across ESPN networks.”

Cute. But if you’re under the impression that those ratings are a residual effect of people curious what Clark’s team did in her absence, or they were watching in the hopes she’d return from her injury, you’d be sadly mistaken. The fact that TIME had to be sure to note that Wilson didn’t cheer on the injury is extremely telling.

This isn’t the first time Wilson has been critical of Caitlin Clark. Even before the Indiana Fever star began her rookie season, she was chirping that the attention being given to the Iowa girl by fans was due to her being white.

“It doesn’t matter what we all do as black women; we’re still going to be swept underneath the rug,” Wilson said. “That’s why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is.”

It’s definitely about race. WNBA players are continually knocking Clark down a peg or two – figuratively and literally – because she’s white.