Emmanuel Acho Argues Caitlin Clark Already Did Her Job for the WNBA and the League Doesn’t Need Her Anymore

Acho says Clark got the WNBA chartered planes, a new CBA, and max contracts worth up to $1.4 million a year. Now that the eyes are on the league, his take is that “if Caitlin disappeared from the WNBA, she wouldn’t be missed.”

“Caitlin got the necessary eyes there, but now that the eyes are there, we don’t necessarily need her anymore,” Acho said on the “Speakeasy” podcast, comparing Clark to Moses leading the WNBA past its own Red Sea.

At Paramount Studios’ Sherry Lansing Theatre, the April 2025 LA screening of “The Children of October 7” featured Emmanuel Acho addressing the audience from the stage. Photo by Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images.

The former NFL linebacker credits her arrival in 2024 with the boom: record attendance, record TV audiences, a media-rights deal worth more than $3 billion, revenue sharing, and charter flights made permanent under the new CBA. The salary cap jumped from roughly $1.5 million to $7 million, and the biggest stars now earn up to $1.4 million a year.

Sophie Cunningham (#8) and Caitlin Clark (#22) warm up on the CFG Bank Arena floor ahead of Indiana Fever’s matchup with the Washington Mystics on May 28, 2025. Photo by Greg Fiume / Getty Images.

His original line was that the league “would be better off without Caitlin Clark because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive.” Then the response turned ugly.

Caitlin Clark (#22), Aliyah Boston (#7), and Sophie Cunningham (#8) celebrate together during the Indiana Fever’s first-half run at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on June 3, 2025. Photo by Andy Lyons / Getty Images.

“I’ve been called the n-word more times in the last 24 hours than I have in the last 24 years in defense of Caitlin Clark,” he said, arguing the abuse from her defenders is exactly why he sees her as a net negative for the league.

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