Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark walked out with country artist Morgan Wallen during his May 10 concert at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The appearance came hours after the Fever’s 107-104 loss to the Dallas Wings, in which Clark recorded 20 points, seven assists, and five rebounds.
Wallen faced criticism in 2021 after a video showed him using a racial slur, for which he later apologized.
Some WNBA fans and commentators questioned Clark’s participation in the concert walkout tradition, citing Wallen’s history and the league’s predominantly Black player base.
Commentator Jemele Hill recently addressed the backlash and appeared to take an unexpected stance.
She asked why Clark received criticism when male athletes, including Peyton Manning, Travis Kelce, Myles Garrett, Marshawn Lynch, and Patrick Mahomes, had performed the same walkout with Wallen without a similar reaction.
Hill stated that policing entertainment choices leads to hypocrisy because no one meets a strict purity test. She noted that other WNBA players had attended concerts by artists with controversial histories, including Chris Brown.
“I don’t know that we want to play this game about policing people’s entertainment. Because I’m telling you nobody gonna hold up,” Hill said on the Flagrant and Funny podcast. “A lot of people in the same discourse, they unearthed photos and tweets about WNBA players going to see Chris Brown.
“Everybody has a problematic favorite, as I call them. And that’s why I said like, I don’t know that people wanna play this game of getting into policing people’s entertainment because I promise you, everybody’s a hypocrite. No one is gonna hold up to the level and to the purity test that a lot of people wanna employ on others.”
Hill’s comments suggest a double standard in responses to athletes’ personal activities.
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