“She has been excellent at every level and even compared to rookies is playing excellent.”

Despite playing just five games in her professional basketball career, Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark has become a bit of a lightning rod for debate and commentary shows.

Wednesday morning on The View, co-host Sunny Hostin said she hoped that Clark could be the vehicle to the WNBA’s success, but still had concerns about representation and privilege.

Additionally, this week on his Mind the Game podcast, LeBron James spoke out against ‘haters’ of Clark, which Charles Barkley went on to echo Wednesday on Inside the NBA.

Thursday on First Things First, Nick Wright addressed the discourse, expressing frustration that it’s grown beyond basketball.

"It has really, really bummed me out that the Caitlin Clark commentary has spilled over into the 'more divisive than sports' piece of it … It's turned into some weird culture war stuff."

FS1's Nick Wright weighs in on the Caitlin Clark race debate: pic.twitter.com/pucxjZkjWh

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 23, 2024

“Everything else in the world feels political and divisive, and sports doesn’t. And it has really bummed me out that the Caitlin Clark commentary has spilled over into the ‘more divisive than sports’ piece of it,” Wright said.

“Do I think it helps from a marketablity perspective that it helps that Caitlin Clark is a white athlete? Yes, I do. But do I think that she’s some great white hype and she’s being elevated based purely that she’s a white girl? She has been excellent at every level and even compared to rookies is playing excellent,” he added.

Wright concluded that it is a “bummer” for this to be happening while the WNBA welcomes so many new fans.