Former NFL player Emmanuel Acho is no stranger to bizarre comments, but his latest ones about Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark might be the wildest of them all. Acho claimed on his Speakeasy show that the WNBA would be better without Clark.
“This is the dumbest smart take you’re ever going to hear,” Acho said. “… The W at this junction in time would be better without Caitlin Clark because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive. Caitlin Clark has gotten the WNBA over the necessary threshold they needed. Now people are watching. Now we realize, ‘Oh, there’s talent in the W.’
“Talent that’s actually even greater than Caitlin Clark,” Acho continued. “And I’m not just talking about bigs like A’ja [Wilson]. I’m talking about the Olivia Miles, I’m talking about the Paige Bueckers, hell, I’m talking about the Kelsey Mitchells. Caitlin got the necessary eyes there. But now that the eyes are there, we don’t necessarily need her anymore.”
Acho made these comments in response to Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s claim on her Show Me Something podcast that opposing players are targeting Clark. Cunningham also said that the WNBA and the officials are doing nothing to protect her teammate.
Clark has been on the receiving end of some questionable acts ever since the Fever selected her with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. The latest one involved Alyssa Thomas hitting the 24-year-old in the throat with her fist and kneeing her in the groin during the Fever’s clash with the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday.
No foul was called on Thomas at the time. The WNBA later reviewed the incident, and she received a flagrant 2 and a one-game suspension.
While many have been outraged by what happened, Acho isn’t one of them. He previously said Clark has to get tougher and made it clear he wasn’t buying all the talk about how the WNBA is failing her.
Getting back to this episode, Acho pointed out that Moses led the Israelites past the Red Sea, but didn’t take them to the Promised Land when explaining why the WNBA doesn’t need Clark anymore.
“Caitlin Clark has gotten the WNBA players past the proverbial Red Sea,” Acho said. “Chartered planes, new CBA, new max contracts. With all due respect, if Caitlin disappeared from the W, she wouldn’t be missed. We got Olivia. We finna have JuJu [Watkins]. We got Paige. We got A’ja. Angel [Reese] is setting records… We got Nneka [Ogwumike].
“Respectfully, Caitlin did what only Caitlin could do, and we don’t necessarily need her to do anymore,” Acho continued. “Thank you, Caitlin. We can take it from here… You’re getting general managers fired, head coaches fired, commissioners fired, social media teams fired, all because we have to coddle and cradle this woman.
“Respectfully, the league has gotten the necessary juice out of the squeeze,” Acho added. “Is there a little bit more meat on that bone? Sure, but I don’t need to eat it down to the gristle. I’m good with this wing. I can toss it from here. I’ve gotten enough meat out of the Caitlin Clark bone. We are good. At this point in time, trying to chew that thing down to the gristle, I’mma break a tooth.”
It is absurd for Acho to claim that Clark, who is averaging 21.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in 2026, wouldn’t be missed if she disappeared. Sure, there are plenty of great players in the WNBA today, and some of them are indeed better than the two-time All-Star.
None of them is a bigger name than Clark, though. If she decides to pack her bags and leave, it’ll be a massive blow to the WNBA.
Acho is a clown if they think the league would be better off w/out Clark. She IS the reason the WNBA is even relevant at this point. If she decides to move on so do the fans, so do the advertising $$$, The WNBA will go back to losing money every year and only be in existence due to the NBA subsidies. Clark is the only reason I ever turned on an WNBA game and can even name one WNBA team.