Emmanuel Acho has watched Caitlin Clark get hit, stepped over, and talked about all week. His advice was not what most people expected.
While much of the reaction to Alyssa Thomas pressing her fist into Clark’s throat focused on the WNBA’s officiating failures, Acho took a different angle on his Speakeasy podcast. He put the challenge squarely on Clark.
“Caitlin Clark gotta fight one of these women,” Acho said. “Eventually if you fight somebody, now they will know the next time they try you, they are going to have to fight. You might lose, but they’re not going to want to fight you every single time.”
He framed Clark’s standing in the league in stark terms, arguing that opponents treat her the way they do because she has never pushed back.
“They treat you like a roach that’s intruded into their house,” Acho said. “And a roach that steps into your house, you step on. The bully is only the bully until they get tried. Once you try a bully, you really expose them for who the hell they truly are. And everybody’s bullying Caitlin Clark because she comes off as soft.”
The physical play in Wednesday’s 111-109 Mercury win over the Fever gave Acho the backdrop for a broader argument he has been building all season. He does not think the WNBA is failing Clark. He thinks Clark needs to change.
“I don’t think the WNBA is failing Caitlin Clark,” Acho said. “I think Caitlin Clark needs to get tougher. Protect yourself, stand up for yourself, defend yourself. Why are you always getting hurt? It’s your third year in the league. Hit the weight room. Hit some squats, some cleans, some snatches, some jerks, something.”
Clark left Wednesday’s game in the third quarter with a back injury after logging 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting and eight assists in 20 minutes. Fever coach Stephanie White said the Thomas play was “absolutely egregious and utterly disrespectful” and called the missed call unacceptable. She noted that Clark landed on a defender’s foot on a three-point attempt and aggravated the same back issue she has dealt with earlier this season.
Acho challenged that framing directly. He pointed to a recurring pattern he said Clark has not addressed.
“Leaving the game with a back injury, leaving the game with a groin injury, leaving games with lower leg injuries,” Acho said. “At what point, Caitlin Clark, are you going to let your physicality match your skill set? It’s time to get tougher.”
Emmanuel Acho Calls Out The Men Defending Caitlin Clark
Acho also took aim at the media personalities who have rallied around Clark after each incident, calling it a pattern he has grown tired of watching.
“These are grown women in the W, and we have too many grown men having to grab their capes and come rescue you,” Acho said, taking a direct shot at Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who had called out the officiating after the Thomas play.
“Caitlin Clark, you a dawg, be a dog. Get your butt off the ground. Alyssa Thomas, grab her wrist. See how tough she is.”
Acho is not alone in pushing Clark toward a different response. LeSean McCoy argued the league needs to do more to protect her. Congressman Tim Burchett told TMZ the treatment was “trashy” and warned that a European league would eventually pull Clark in if things do not change.
Acho’s take cuts against all of that. His argument is that Clark cannot keep waiting for the league, the officials, or outside voices to solve a problem only she can fix. Whether that is the right read or not, it puts the weight of this debate on the player who started it when she walked into the WNBA two years ago.
