Monica McNutt has sparked a lot of controversy this week.

The ESPN WNBA analyst made it clear that she believes that Caitlin Clark should shoulder some of the blame for the media discourse surrounding her. Clark hasn’t really said or done anything to spark this kind of media and fan frenzy. However, McNutt believes that Clark needs to be more accountable for what her fans say and what’s said about her in the media.

“I think there’s just like a false characterization of who I am sometimes,” Clark told ESPN. “And I get it like as a reporter or as a blogger, like you can write an opinion piece and that’s your job and whatever. But at the same time, like you don’t know me. Like we’ve never had a conversation. I get people have a job to do. But at the same time, like don’t make accusations about my character and who I am when you don’t know me. I understand this is your job and this is your profession, and this is what you get to do. And basketball is my profession, what I get to do. And the reason I play it is when I step in between the lines, I love it. And that’s what’s so fun about it for me is like, I get to compete. This was always my dream. And nobody should ever try to take that away from me.”

“It gets frustrating,” Clark also said in the interview. “When I walk out of the locker room, I shouldn’t be fearful of what the conversation is going to be. But it’s emotionally exhausting. It’s draining.”

McNutt clapped back in a big way.

“I thought the choice, the word of being ‘fearful’ of the conversation is interesting,” McNutt said. “Because oftentimes, it seems …it’s the folks that are accused [of] doing something outside of the parameters of competition that are actually the ones that are fearful, when you look at their social medias.

“This is what I will say: Caitlin Clark is 24; she’s a shining star in the galaxy of the WNBA. But I do think, as she continues to matriculate through this league, there’s room for a little bit more accountability and self-awareness, in terms of her role in the larger sisterhood, if she sees it that way in the WNBA.”

McNutt, though, faced backlash this week, when she appeared on ESPN while getting her nails done.

“How are we suppose to take Monica McNutt serious when she’s on ESPN getting a manicure while reporting,” one media member shared.

McNutt’s appearance sparks debate

Kendrick Perkins wrote: “So most likely she got asked to a hit that wasn’t on her schedule and she said yes… and it’s her fault??? Stop trying to make nothing into something. It’s 2026 and nothing is normal no more.”

But not everyone agreed.

“This channel needs to be studied on how they have completely flushed everything good about it down the toilet,” one fan added.

“She respects nothing,” one fan added.

“McNutt is atrocious. Every aspect. How she has a job at ESPN is unfathomable. I would have turned the show off if I saw this. Disgraceful,” one fan added.

What do you make of McNutt’s behavior?