Sports
If anyone knows what Caitlin Clark is experiencing, it's Diana Taurasi … to an extent
PHOENIX — Caitlin Clark was on the bench, for once, clapping as the final seconds ticked here Sunday. The Indiana Fever rookie celebrated an 88-82 win over the Phoenix Mercury with teammates, and then she was surrounded by television cameras and photographers. As she spoke to an ESPN reporter, Diana Taurasi walked past 20 feet away, headed for the home locker room.
This contest was big for the Fever, its first victory over a winning team in 20 tries, but it also presented a before-and-after picture that was impossible to ignore. Clark, 22, is the hotshot rookie, the future of the WNBA. Phoenix’s Taurasi, 42, is the league’s career scoring leader, someone who has a street named after her outside the arena.
In front of a sold-out crowd at Footprint Center, Clark was steady over 39 minutes. Although she shot 4 of 14, she finished just shy of her first professional triple-double with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 12 assists. “My gosh … she’s just an incredible passer,” Indiana coach Christie Sides said. “She just finds the plays that need to happen.”
Taurasi posted 19 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds in 32 minutes. Two nights earlier, in a home win over the Los Angeles Sparks, Taurasi had buried five 3-pointers. Against the Fever, she shot 2 of 10 from deep, never finding an offensive rhythm.
a near triple-double from Caitlin Clark in today’s win over Phoenix 😈 pic.twitter.com/KSJriLAb3l
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) June 30, 2024
Aside from the courtside interview, during which she praised her team’s resilience, Clark didn’t talk to reporters after the game. Sides said the guard did not feel well and needed to meet with the trainer. It’s also a fair bet Clark didn’t want to be put into position to answer questions about beating Taurasi, the rising star toppling a legend. In some ways, this has been a challenge for the entire Indiana franchise.
This weekend Sides twice was asked to assess Clark’s performance. Twice she focused her answer more on the Fever’s youth and their collective growth. After Indiana’s loss to the Seattle Storm on Thursday, Clark met with reporters alongside teammate Aliyah Boston. After reporters directed a fifth straight question to Clark, Clark waved her hand and said, “Ask Aliyah a question.”
If anyone can relate, it’s probably Taurasi, but this comes with an asterisk. Twenty years ago, she was in a similar situation. Like Clark at Iowa, Taurasi had finished her college career at Connecticut as the best player in the sport. She was the No. 1 pick of the WNBA Draft and was expected to elevate the league. The difference was media attention. Since joining the league, Clark has been the focus of countless debates — some on basketball, others on race. She has learned that anything she says can become a national headline or conversation.
Perhaps that explains her reaction Saturday when asked about the WNBA All-Star Game, which takes place July 20 in Phoenix. Even though Clark ranked second in recent fan voting, she didn’t want any part of the conversation. “I don’t know if I’ll be there,’’ she said after practice at Arizona State University. “I’m not going to talk in hypotheticals. My focus is on playing basketball. All that takes care of itself.”
In the same media session, Clark was asked for her first memory of Taurasi, a difficult task considering she was only 2 when Taurasi first joined the WNBA. But after thinking a second, Clark said Taurasi was always someone she associated with women’s professional basketball. She appreciated the intensity and fire in which Taurasi played, and called Sunday’s game a chance to compete against the best, “a dream come true.”
“That’s somebody I grew up idolizing and looking up to and wanting to be like one day,’’ Clark said. “I don’t know if there’s going to be many people to be able to do it like her.”
As a Phoenix rookie in 2004, Taurasi instantly became the face of the franchise. Her first home game drew 10,493 fans, the most for an opener in three years. Before many road games that season, Taurasi met pregame and talked with a select group of 50 fans. Former Phoenix general manager Seth Sulka told reporters at the time that the attention was unlike anything he had seen in the WNBA.
“I loved it,” Taurasi said when asked about this Sunday. “I just loved to play basketball. I didn’t care too much about outside noise or what people thought of me. I enjoyed every minute. Being a rookie was cool, man. It was fun. You could do whatever you want, you didn’t know any better. Being in Sports Illustrated, Slam … ESPN the Magazine.”
Taurasi glanced at a young reporter in the room.
“You’re too young. You don’t know what I’m talking about,” she said.
Like Clark, Taurasi still had to deal with physical play, with veterans trying to put her in her place. Opponents respected her talent, but they made her earn their respect. On April 5, while providing TV commentary during the women’s Final Four, Taurasi recalled a “Welcome to the WNBA” moment and how an intimidating defender named DeLisha Milton-Jones twice elbowed her in the face. It set up a rivalry of sorts.
During a recent phone conversation, Milton-Jones, the coach of the women’s program at Old Dominion, laughed. She had seen Taurasi’s comments on social media. “I’m like, ‘Invite me on your show so I can tell them the other side,”’ she said.
Milton-Jones was aware of Taurasi’s skill. In the WNBA, she saw it up close. How Taurasi manipulated the game with her vision. How she understood spacing and timing. How she applied a point guard’s touch to multiple positions. But what impressed Milton-Jones most was how Taurasi arrived with tricks that took most rookies a season or two to learn.
Milton-Jones said that when she elevated for a jump shot, Taurasi would poke her in the stomach, just hard enough to make her flinch and throw off her shot. On offense, Taurasi would come off a pindown and try to jam Milton-Jones to try to create space.
“She would literally punch me in the stomach,’’ Milton-Jones said. “Then she would blast off wide open. My coach is yelling at me like, ‘You need to be guarding her!’ And I’m like, ‘She just punched me in the stomach!’ She was feisty and crafty and she had this vet savvy-esque play to her game.”
(Responded Taurasi outside the media room Sunday: “I think it was my upbringing. Italian Argentines, we’re sneaky. We’re always trying to find an advantage somehow. In the game of basketball, there’s games within the game. And when you’re not physically gifted as much as other people, you have to find little ways to get that edge.”)
Carrie Graf, who coached Taurasi her first two pro seasons, said Taurasi’s biggest flaw was with the referees. She was too harsh. Instead of yelling in their faces, she told Taurasi to use her charisma. To remember that officials are people. But there was no questioning her readiness.
“I can picture this shot like it’s a photograph,’’ Graf said on the phone from Australia. “She’d get in the lane and she’d be up against the tall timbers. She’s on the right side and she extended her right arm out like it was an elevated hook shot. And then with her left hand, the shot blocker is coming in, and while she’s in the air, she goes up and grabs the shot blocker’s arm to clear some space so she could put the ball on the rim. Women just weren’t doing that stuff back then.”
Diana Taurasi drives against Caitlin Clark in Sunday’s game. (Chris Coduto / Getty Images)
Clark has this quality as well, but instead of hanging in the air, it’s pulling up from the logo, a trademark move that has made her famous within the sport. She did this twice Sunday, igniting the crowd. Even in Phoenix, the “Clark” jerseys outnumbered Phoenix players’ in many sections of the arena.
Caitlin Clark showing off her deep range with another logo three 🎯 pic.twitter.com/IX8wnVb3g4
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) June 30, 2024
Clark is still navigating this transition. Like she has all season, she forced too many passes Sunday, resulting in 6 turnovers. She tried a behind-the-back pass that had little chance. She misfired on a lead pass in transition. She lost the ball and fell to the court.
Before the game (Clark meets with reporters before every contest), she had said her biggest adjustment had simply been the pace of everything. After losing to South Carolina in the NCAA national championship, Clark returned to Iowa City for a day and “then my life kind of changed,” she said.
After the draft, Clark moved to Indianapolis. May 3, she played her first preseason game. She hasn’t slowed since, playing 20 games for the 8-12 Fever. The exciting part is she knows she has room to grow, mastering details that can elevate her game. The frustrating part is she hasn’t had much practice time to do so.
“I had to learn game to game,” Clark said. “That’s kind of been the biggest adjustment.”
Taurasi predicted as much. She didn’t mean it as a shot at Clark and the league’s talented rookies. Only that this transition often takes time. In a Phoenix radio interview, Taurasi compared it to a college quarterback adjusting to the NFL. After Sunday’s loss, she expressed how much she respects how Clark has handled it.
“It’s amazing what Caitlin has been able to do,” Taurasi said. “Her short career so far has been nothing short of remarkable. The one thing that I really love about her is she loves the game. You can tell she’s put the work in. And even throughout her short WNBA career, it’s been a lot of pressure, a lot of things thrown at her, she keeps showing up and keeps getting better every single game. Her future is super bright.”
(Top photo: Kate Frese / NBAE via Getty Images)
Sports
Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
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Sports
Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush
Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.
“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.
Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.
On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.
The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.
Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.
Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.
(Lindsey Wasson / AP)
The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.
Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.
His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”
Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.
Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.
A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.
Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.
A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.
The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.
He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.
“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”
Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.
“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.
“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”
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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead.
“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights.
Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.
“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann.
One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”
Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”
Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.
After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.
In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post.
In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”
Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media.
Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.
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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death.
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