Caitlin Clark finished 11th among WNBA guards in All-Star voting by her peers in the league, and ESPN’s David Dennis Jr. insists this is not the great injustice it’s being portrayed to be.
Clark’s name is once again being dragged into culture wars after the All-Star voting results were released. This time, there appears to be more credibility to some of the outrage, with even Candace Parker ripping the league’s players for their apparent snub. Parker alleged WNBA players must have “some insecurities if you’re sitting down and putting Caitlin Clark as the 11th best guard.”
David Dennis Jr., however, explained that getting the 11th-most votes doesn’t mean players ranked her the 11th-best guard. WNBA players were tasked with selecting four guards on their ballot. In theory, Clark may have been widely considered the fifth- or sixth-best guard, but dropped to 11th since there were only four spots available on the ballot.
“What bothers me is when this is framed as some sort of petty jealousy or insecurity by these women in the WNBA. Because that’s not what I’m seeing is happening with Caitlin Clark” – David Dennis Jr. pic.twitter.com/SQOaJR6WDM
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 9, 2026
“I don’t think you can make a compelling argument that Caitlin Clark is a top four guard in the WNBA,” Dennis Jr. said on First Take. “Nobody can at this point. That is why she was 11th. She got the 11th-most votes for being in the top four. So there’s really no controversy about that, especially when you add in the fact that she is one of the most popular players in the WNBA; she’s going to make the All-Star Game.”
While Clark finished 11th in the player vote, she finished No. 2 in the fan vote and third in the media vote, which led to her being named an All-Star starter despite little support from her peers.
“What bothers me is when this is framed as some sort of petty jealousy or insecurity by these women in the WNBA. Because that’s not what I’m seeing is happening with Caitlin Clark,” Dennis Jr. continued, citing Parker’s recent criticism of WNBA players. “Caitlin Clark is experiencing pretty much what happens anytime a young player comes into the league with a lot of hype, especially the hype that she’s receiving that says the whole entire league should be thankful that she’s there.”
Dennis Jr. noted that Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama, and even Candace Parker experienced similar treatment from veterans when entering their leagues amid hype as the second coming.
“Caitlin Clark, to her credit, is not somebody who’s going out there and begging for something to be done,” Dennis Jr. continued. “Caitlin Clark just wants to play basketball. She doesn’t want congressional hearings about her being fouled. She doesn’t want you to call in the National Guard when there is a foul on her. She wants to play basketball. She wants to deal with the physicality; she just wants it called correctly…this is not some issue where she is a victim of anything. If anything, she is a victim of people using her in bad faith.”
She also probably wants to be recognized as better than the 11th-best guard in the league. And while Dennis Jr. used sound reasoning in explaining that receiving the 11th-most votes doesn’t necessarily mean the players consider her the 11th-best guard, the media has had to do a lot of explaining when it comes to Clark in recent years.
There are reasonable explanations as to why Clark was left off the 2024 Olympic team. There are reasonable explanations for why she received the ninth-most All-Star votes last year, the 11th-most this year, why she was left off the league’s 30th-anniversary poster, and why she is met with heightened physicality on the court. But when you have to explain this many controversies, albeit often manufactured, the WNBA deserves some blame for not seeking to avoid pulling its most popular player into another culture war.
