Bracket season has arrived, and we can state confidently without even looking for evidence that there will be more AI-created entries than ever before.
Gone are the days where the people who don&#8217;t follow college basketball are left to bothering the biggest bro in the office for his picks. Or, better yet, submit an outlandish bracket that miraculously nails the 14 seed that makes it to the Elite 8. Now everyone is just going to turn to their imaginary friends named Claude, and end up submitting the same brackets.
Literally, the same brackets. The Daily Wire had the four leading AI models predict the 2026 NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament. The first round of projections from all four models was exactly what you’d expect from robots trained on the internet’s safest instincts: Duke, Duke, Duke, and Duke.
The Daily Wire fed the complete 68-team bracket to four of the top AI systems — OpenAI&#8217;s ChatGPT, Anthropic&#8217;s Claude, Google&#8217;s Gemini, and Perplexity — and asked each to produce a full bracket prediction from the First Four through the national championship. Each model received the same seed lines, win-loss records, KenPom efficiency ratings, key injuries, betting odds, and conference placement data.
This is unsurprising, as given a straightforward prompt to process sports predictions, top AI models default to the most obvious answer: The top-ranked team with the best stats. The Blue Devils enter March Madness as the No. 1 overall seed, sat atop the NET, AP Poll, and KenPom, and went 11-2 against AP Top 25 opponents.
There was very little divergence in the projections of all four AI models. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity all had Duke beating Arizona in the final. The models read the same numbers, weighted the same KenPom rankings, and arrived at the same safe, predictable conclusion: the No. 1 overall seed with the nation’s best defense and best player wins it all.
So we asked AI to think harder&#8230; 

As hard as it might be for AI chatbots to admit, Duke is not a lock to win this tournament. The pre-tournament favorite has won the NCAA men’s tournament only 7 times in the last 19 played tournaments over the past 20 years.
In a second round of analysis, The Daily Wire gave each model the same background information but supplemented the prompt with historical upset base rates dating to the 1985 expansion, specific vulnerability profiles for each No. 1 seed, injury data, and regional geography advantages — factors not fully captured in the first analysis. The models were instructed to abandon tournament-favorite Duke in order to play the role of &#8220;upset analyst&#8221; and to account for the fact that the best team on paper wins the national championship less than 35% of the time.
ChatGPT switched its prediction to Houston, projecting Kingston Flemings as MOP and routing the Cougars through a South Region where they’d essentially play home games at Toyota Center. Gemini also landed on Houston, envisioning a title-game win over Arkansas. Claude pivoted to Michigan, betting on the Wolverines’ No. 1-ranked defense to grind Duke down in the championship game, 71-65.
Perplexity had the boldest prediction, picking 4-seed Arkansas behind freshman point guard Darius Acuff Jr., who it projected to average over 30 points per game through the tournament.
<div id="attachment_1060705" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1060705" class="size-large wp-image-1060705" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Untitled-design-47-1024x559.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="559" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Untitled-design-47-1024x559.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Untitled-design-47-300x164.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Untitled-design-47-768x419.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Untitled-design-47-1536x838.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Untitled-design-47.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Illustration via Daily Wire staff.</div>
Without Duke as the default option, all four models agreed that the bracket would devolve into organized chaos.
All four models picked 12-seed Akron to upset 5-seed Texas Tech, citing the Red Raiders’ devastating loss of star J.T. Toppin to a torn ACL and Akron guard Tavari Johnson’s 20-plus points per game. All four picked 9-seed Iowa over 8-seed Clemson, noting that the Hawkeyes are ranked 11 KenPom spots higher despite being the lower seed. And all four picked 11-seed VCU to knock off North Carolina, a team missing projected top-5 NBA pick Caleb Wilson due to a broken thumb.
Here are the results.
ChatGPT 5.4:
<ul>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Final Four: (2) UConn, (6) BYU, (3) Virginia, (2) Houston</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Semis: Houston over UConn, BYU over Virginia</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Championship: Houston over BYU</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Champion: Houston</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">MOP: Kingston Flemings (Houston) — 16.4 PPG, 5.3 AST</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">1-seeds in Final Four: Zero</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Where Duke died: Elite Eight (lost to UConn)</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">First-round upsets by double-digit seeds: 7</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Boldest call: BYU to the Final Four behind AJ Dybantsa (25.3 PPG, nation&#8217;s leading scorer)</li>
</ul>
Claude Opus 4.6:
<ul>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Final Four: (1) Duke, (4) Arkansas, (1) Michigan, (2) Houston</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Semis: Duke over Houston 78-72, Michigan over Arkansas 64-56</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Championship: Michigan 71, Duke 65</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Champion: Michigan</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">MOP: Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan) — 19 pts, 9 reb in title game</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">1-seeds in Final Four: Two (Duke and Michigan)</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Where Duke died: Championship game (only model to get Duke to the Final Four)</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">First-round upsets by double-digit seeds: 6</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Boldest call: Michigan&#8217;s No. 1-ranked defense grinds Duke into submission in the title game despite Boozer&#8217;s 24 and 11</li>
</ul>
Gemini 3:
<ul>
<li>Final Four: (2) UConn, (4) Arkansas, (2) Iowa State, (2) Houston</li>
<li>Semis: Arkansas over Iowa State, Houston over UConn</li>
<li>Champion: Houston</li>
<li>MOP: Kingston Flemings (Houston)</li>
<li>1-seeds in Final Four: Zero</li>
<li>Where Duke died: Elite Eight (lost to UConn)</li>
<li>First-round upsets by double-digit seeds: 13 (tied with Perplexity for most chaotic bracket)</li>
<li>Boldest call: All four 1-seeds eliminated before the Final Four; McNeese to the Sweet 16; Arizona bounced in the Round of 32 by 9-seed Utah State</li>
</ul>
Perplexity Sonar:
<ul>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Final Four: (3) Michigan State, (4) Arkansas, (2) Iowa State, (2) Houston</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Semis: Houston over Michigan State, Arkansas over Iowa State</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Championship: Arkansas over Houston</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Champion: Arkansas</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">MOP: Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas)</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">1-seeds in Final Four: Zero</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Where Duke died: Elite Eight (lost to Michigan State)</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Where Michigan died: Round of 32 (lost to 9-seed Saint Louis — the single wildest pick of the experiment)</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">First-round upsets by double-digit seeds: 13 (by far the most chaotic bracket)</li>
<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Boldest call: 1-seed Michigan bounced in the Round of 32 by Saint Louis; 4-seed Arkansas wins it all</li>
</ul>
Duke may still cruise to a championship, but if not, these projections offer alternative brackets to help sort through the chaos of March Madness.

MarchMadnessAI

We Asked 4 AI Models To Do March Madness. They Picked The Same Team — Then We Made Them Think Harder

Artificial Intelligence

Basketball

College basketball

March Madness

NCAA Basketball

Sports

Luke Kornet did something this week that deserves to be acknowledged and applauded.
The San Antonio Spurs center publicly asked the Atlanta Hawks to cancel a promotional night celebrating Magic City, widely known as one of Atlanta’s most famous strip clubs. In a brief <a href="https://lukekornet.medium.com/concerning-the-atlanta-hawks-0f07c62ea65e">public statement</a>, Kornet wrote that he wished to “respectfully ask that the Atlanta Hawks cancel this promotional night with Magic City.”
For saying this publicly, he deserves real credit.
Professional sports leagues spend an enormous amount of time talking about respect, dignity, and protecting women. Those are good goals, obviously. But words like that begin to lose their meaning when the same institutions partner with industries built upon the sexual commodification of women.
Kornet simply pointed out the tension.
“The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women,” he wrote, “many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world. We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.”
That seems difficult to dispute.
If the NBA wants to be a league that honors women and welcomes families, celebrating a strip club is a terrible way to express it.
Kornet also drew attention to something many people would prefer not to think about. As he wrote, “Regardless of how a woman finds her way into the adult entertainment industry, many in this space experience abuse, harassment, and violence to which they should never be subjected.”
That observation alone should give us pause before turning such places into objects of celebration. In “<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/porn-myth-by-matt-fradd?srsltid=AfmBOoqVyM2W5DgdH9OSkAcJRshTPmFdlKwXey7LBEVuwFtZ7lwVZ_RY">The Porn Myth: Exposing the Reality Behind the Fantasy of Pornography</a>,” I documented at length the exploitation and harm that are often hidden behind the industry’s glossy marketing. Anyone unconvinced by Kornet’s concern should spend some time with the evidence.
The NBA is one of the most influential cultural institutions in the world. Millions of young people watch its games. Families visit its arenas. Players are presented as role models. Given that reality, it is perfectly reasonable to ask what kind of culture the league wishes to promote.
Kornet expressed it clearly: “We desire to provide an environment where fans of all ages can safely come and enjoy the game of basketball.” And then he added the line that captures the entire issue: “The celebration of a strip club is not conduct aligned with that vision.”
In recent years, we have grown accustomed to athletes speaking out about political causes. Much of it has been the sort of fashionable, low-risk virtue signaling that earns applause from the political Left. What is far rarer is seeing someone speak about the deeper moral direction of our culture, particularly when it comes to sexuality.
Yet these questions matter. They shape how a society understands dignity, relationships, and the value of the human person.
In this case, Luke Kornet simply asked his league to live up to the values it already claims to hold.
That is a modest but important request.
And I am grateful he had the courage to make it.

San Antonio Spurs v Brooklyn Nets

In Praise Of The NBA Player Who Asked A Team To Rethink Strip Club Night

Atlanta Hawks

Morality

Pornography

Stripper

Is college basketball broken? The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced on Thursday the indictment of 26 suspects, including 20 former NCAA college basketball players from 17 schools, for allegedly attempting to fix games through performance manipulation during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
Officials said the scheme started in September 2022 when defendants bribed players in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) to participate in &#8220;point-shaving&#8221; their games, before moving to NCAA basketball. Point-shaving occurs when the final score is manipulated to satisfy the point-spread of the game, not the win-or-lose outcome.
“Over the past two years, the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office led an investigation into a point-shaving and sports-bribery conspiracy resulting in the indictments announced today,” said FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey.
United States Attorney David Metcalf called the gambling scheme &#8220;historic,&#8221; and said the point-shaving scheme involved more than 39 players who were part of more than 17 teams who attempted to fix at least 29 men&#8217;s college basketball games
&#8220;Certain players were targeted because they were missing out on NIL money,&#8221; Metcalf said, also adding: &#8220;This is the corruption of college sports.&#8221;
According to the indictment, the suspects in the case include the following former college basketball players: Alberto Laureano, Arlando Arnold, Simeon Cottle, Kevin Cross, Bradley Ezewiro, Shawn Fulcher, Carlos Hart, Markeese Hastings, Cedquavious Hunter, Oumar Koureissi, Da&#8217;Sean Nelson, Demond Robinson, Camian Shell, Dyquavion Short, Airion Simmons, and Jalen Terry.
&#8220;We allege an extensive international criminal conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors who fixed games across the country and poisoned the American spirit of competition for monetary gain,&#8221; Metcalf said.
Other names listed in the indictment include trainers Jalen Smith and Roderick Winkler, as well as “high-stakes sports gamblers” Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen.
Per the indictment, the defendants approached and communicated with NCAA basketball players, in person and through social media, text messages, and phone calls. The &#8220;fixers&#8221; offered the players bribe payments, usually ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, to participate in the scheme.
The suspects face charges including sports bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, among others.
The games that were allegedly fixed include matchups in China, as well as games involving the following schools: Nicholls State, Tulane, Northwestern State, Saint Louis, LaSalle, Fordham, Buffalo, DePaul, Robert Morris, Southern Miss, North Carolina A&amp;T, Kennesaw State, Coppin State, New Orleans, Abilene Christian, Eastern Michigan, and Alabama State.
&#8220;When criminals rig the outcome of games for the purpose to lose, we all lose,&#8221; Metcalf said.
Antonio Blakeney, who is listed in the indictment as &#8220;charged elsewhere&#8221; from a previous sports gambling case, was one of the CBA&#8217;s top scorers and was allegedly recruited by Hennen and Fairley to join the point-shaving antics. According to the indictment, Blakeney received a $200,000 payment in Florida, which another defendant dropped into a storage unit. The former All-American from LSU went on to recruit college players to join the scheme.
There are four current players this season who are listed in the case: Kennesaw State&#8217;s Simeon Cottle, Eastern Michigan&#8217;s Carlos Hart, Delaware State&#8217;s Camian Shell, and Texas Southern&#8217;s Oumar Koureissi. All players have played within the last week.
Koureissi, at the time of the alleged crime, played for Nicholls State. The document states Koureissi was involved in fixing Nicholls State&#8217;s game against McNeese State in February of 2024. Koureissi allegedly fixed the game through point-shaving to ensure Nicholls State didn&#8217;t cover the spread against McNeese. Koureissi scored 0 points in that contest and won the fixers their bet.
This is just one of the countless examples of fraud in the indictment.
&#8220;There is integrity in sports,&#8221; Metcalf said. &#8220;You have the teammates of the players who were working their tail off.&#8221;
NCAA President Charlie Baker released this <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/news/2026/1/15/media-center-ncaa-president-baker-issues-statement-regarding-sports-betting-indictments-in-college-athletics-calls-on-remaining-states-to-ban-risky-bets.aspx">statement</a> Thursday: &#8220;Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA. We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports. &#8230; The Association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states, regulators and gaming companies to eliminate threats to integrity &#8211; such as collegiate prop bets &#8211; to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors. We also will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make well-informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.&#8221;
This bombshell gambling case follows two others from last fall involving former NBA and MLB players. Sports gambling in some form is legal in 40 states.
&#8220;I will say that the evidence in this case shows that the monetization of college athletics and athletics generally &#8230; furthered the enterprise in this case,&#8221; Metcalf said.
The United States Attorney added that this case is extensive and the investigation is ongoing.

Illustration by Daily Wire staff

Basketball Bombshell: 20 Former NCAA Players Part Of Suspected Point-Shaving Scheme

Crime

sports betting

U.S.

The NCAA’s <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-media-fans-losing-minds-222225599.html">decision</a> to grant immediate eligibility to James Nnaji, a former NBA Draft pick, marks a potentially transformative moment in the relationship between professional and college basketball.
Nnaji, a 7-foot, 21-year-old Nigerian-born center, has committed to Baylor University and received four years of NCAA eligibility, allowing him to play for the Bears beginning in the middle of the 2025–26 season. This ruling is unprecedented in modern college basketball and has sparked widespread confusion and criticism across the sport.
Nnaji was selected 31st overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, initially by the Detroit Pistons, before his rights were traded to the Charlotte Hornets and later to the New York Knicks in a three-team deal involving Karl-Anthony Towns. Despite being drafted, Nnaji never signed an NBA contract and has not played in an NBA regular-season game. Instead, he has spent several years playing professionally overseas with clubs such as FC Barcelona, Merkezefendi, and Girona, and has also appeared in NBA Summer League games, most recently with the Knicks.
According to reports, the Knicks will retain Nnaji’s NBA rights while he plays at Baylor, effectively creating a situation likened to an NBA team “loaning” a drafted player to a college program. This has raised alarms that NBA teams could now draft prospects, stash them in college basketball, and continue to control their professional futures. Coaches, analysts, and fans reacted strongly, with UConn coach Dan Hurley and former Indiana coach Tom Crean publicly criticizing the NCAA’s lack of clarity and long-term planning. Media members such as Jeff Goodman and Zach Braziller described the decision as evidence that NCAA rules are being improvised without consistent standards.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Don’t be mad at the players , agents, brokers or coaches. Don’t be mad at the current people in charge. If you’re upset go back and look at every “perfunctory “ committee that was formed to take a path of least resistance and who put them together and participated. Years ago.
&mdash; Tom Crean (@TomCrean) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCrean/status/2003911589586698544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Santa Claus is delivering mid season acquisitions…this s*** is crazy!! 🤪
&mdash; Dan Hurley (@dhurley15) <a href="https://twitter.com/dhurley15/status/2003909511250329610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It’s hard to blame Scott Drew or any of the college coaches for this if it’s allowed by the NCAA. 
But it’s become a complete joke now because there are no rules anymore. 
It’s just “make it up as you go” now. 
And where does it end? <a href="https://t.co/6pGKj8bZoT">https://t.co/6pGKj8bZoT</a>
&mdash; Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/2003916833108504676?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Old enough to remember players being ruled ineligible for accepting a free meal from fans. Now, players can literally get drafted and come back to school. Just a mockery of the sport at this point.
&mdash; Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPost_Brazille/status/2003928315309232377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The controversy is amplified by the NCAA’s own <a href="applewebdata://26731DC5-C904-4105-A86B-81E8AA9D35B5/v">bylaws</a>, which state that a men’s basketball player may jeopardize eligibility by entering the NBA Draft and being drafted. The apparent loophole in Nnaji’s case centers on the fact that he never enrolled in college before being drafted and never signed an NBA contract. Because NCAA draft-related amateurism rules apply only after initial collegiate enrollment, Nnaji was deemed eligible despite years of professional experience overseas.
This decision follows a broader trend of the NCAA allowing former professional players, including ex–G League athletes, to compete in college basketball. With NIL compensation turning top NCAA programs into one of the most lucrative basketball environments in the world, the traditional definition of amateurism has eroded. Critics argue the Nnaji ruling sets a dangerous precedent, undermines the NCAA’s credibility, and could fundamentally reshape the pipeline between college basketball and the NBA.

LDLC Asvel Villeurbanne v FC Barcelona – Turkish Airlines EuroLeague

NCAA Grants Eligibility To Former NBA Draft Pick James Nnaji In Landmark Decision

NCAA

Coach Bruce Pearl says he&#8217;s using the spotlight of the Auburn Tigers Final Four run to draw attention to the last American hostage believed to be alive in Hamas captivity.
“It just bothers me tremendously that people are gonna pay attention to a basketball coach winning a basketball game when we have an American held hostage in Gaza, named Edan Alexander, and nobody knows his name,” Pearl told The Daily Wire.
Pearl, who has been wearing a “Bring Them Home” dog-tag as a necklace, opened a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vocally-pro-israel-coach-leads-auburn-to-the-final-four?row=0&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;author=Kassy+Akiva&amp;title=Vocally+Pro-Israel+Coach+Leads+Auburn+To+The+Final+Four&amp;category=News">press conference</a> viewed by millions after Auburn’s victory over Creighton last month by drawing attention to 21-year-old Alexander. 
“I just felt compelled to say his name when I knew everybody was listening and have the discussion,” Pearl said.
Edan was born in Rockville, Maryland, before moving to New Jersey. He joined the Israeli Defense Forces after high school and was taken captive during Hamas’s October 7 massacre while at a small outpost by Kibbutz Nir Oz. He has been seen in Hamas propaganda videos.
Pearl said that he hopes President Donald Trump is close to crafting a deal that will bring home the remaining 59 hostages in Hamas captivity. 
Following the remarks, Pearl was connected to Alexander’s father, Adi, and learned that his other son, Roy, was a basketball fan.
“He called me and told me just how much it meant to him,” Pearl recalled. “I said ‘I’d just love to meet you, I don’t know what else I can do for you.’&#8221;
Pearl said he decided to bring him to a basketball game that weekend in Atlanta, and invited the whole family as his guests.
“I just wanted to spend time with him and just to let him know that they&#8217;re not alone,” Pearl said. “There are so many, so many people, including so many American Jews that are praying for him and his family to bring his son home.”
Despite having a different religion from the majority of his athletes, Pearl said they all connect over being children of Abraham and talk about God “every single day.”
“Most of my student athletes are Christian and I&#8217;m a coach, so my job is to bring people together—that&#8217;s what I do. And religion, unfortunately, sometimes has found ways to separate people to create division and divide,” Pearl said, adding that he prefers finding common ground.
“What I tell my players, about 95% of whom are African American, is, yes, there are absolutely obstacles to success and yes, there are obstacles to success being Jewish. There are obstacles to success being African American. But there are not road blocks,” Pearl said. “ I don&#8217;t want to hear that. You can&#8217;t do it because of this or because of that. I don&#8217;t want to hear it.&#8221;
Pearl said that his success and the success of two of the other coaches in the final four who are Jewish is proof that America is the “greatest country in the world where there is opportunity for everybody.”
&#8220;It can be done and Todd Golden and John Scheyer and Bruce Pearl are great examples of what can be done,” Pearl said, referencing the other two Jewish head coaches in the Final Four. 
Pearl credited his team&#8217;s success to God.
“The only way I can explain it, is it&#8217;s a God thing, like God&#8217;s got his hand all over this. Why me and why us? God reminds me all the time who I am, where I came from, and my love of my country, and my love of my faith and my ancestral homeland, Israel, means as much to me as, as life itself,” Pearl said. “I&#8217;ve been in this work for a long, long time, but it&#8217;s just that maybe more people are noticing now because we&#8217;ve had some more success.”
Looking forward to the upcoming games, Pearl said his team will have to play the best two games of the season in order to win the national championship. 
“I&#8217;m so proud of our guys,” Pearl said. “We will have to play the two best games of the year against Florida and the winner of the Houston-Duke game if we&#8217;re gonna be crowned national champion, but there&#8217;s only four teams left in the country that are still playing for the National Championship, and Auburn is one of them.”

Michigan State v Auburn

Bruce Pearl Uses Final Four Spotlight For American Hostage Edan Alexander: ‘Nobody Knows His Name’

Hostages

Israel

For the first time in 17 years, the four top-seeded teams in the March Madness tournament will meet in the Final Four — and in the same city as the last time it happened.
On Saturday, the University of Florida Gators beat the Texas Tech Red Raiders, and Duke University defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide. On Sunday, Auburn defeated two-seed Michigan State, while Houston defeated Tennessee. Florida and Auburn, both from the SEC, will meet in the semifinals, while Houston plays Duke on April 5 at the Alamodome.
Such a matchup hasn&#8217;t happened since 2008, when Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, and UCLA met in San Antonio. That year, Kansas defeated Memphis to take the crown.
Duke, coached by Jon Scheyer, is favored to win the title, with star freshman Cooper Flagg seeming a probable choice for the most outstanding player.
However, the Blue Devils face a tough match against Houston; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6243379/2025/03/31/final-four-no-1-seeds-duke-auburn-florida-houston/">according</a> to statistical archivist Ken Pomeroy, Duke has the best offense in college basketball, but Houston has the best defense. Additionally, Houston led the country in 3-point shooting, making almost 40% of their shots. One key difference could be Duke’s youth: their frontcourt of four freshmen will face three players who are 22 or older.
Florida, led by star player Walter Clayton Jr., defeated Auburn earlier in the season 90-81/
Duke has won the national title five times, all coached by Mike Mike Krzyzewski, who also brought the team to the finals four times. Florida won the national title in 2006 and 2007 under Coach Billy Donovan. Houston made the finals twice, in 1983 and 1984.
Auburn has never played in a national championship game.

NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament – Elite Eight – San Francisco

Final Four Is All No. 1 Seeds For Only The Second Time In March Madness History

Alabama

Duke University

Three Fresno State University college basketball players are at the center of a university and NCAA investigation into alleged sports gambling, including two players accused of betting on their own games.
One player, Mykell Robinson, has been removed from the team, and two other players, Jalen Weaver and Zaon Collins, have been suspended over their potential ties to sports gambling, ABC 30 Action News <a href="https://abc30.com/post/fresno-state-mens-basketball-players-allegedly-placed-bets-games-played-sources-say/15946235/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. According to the report, Robinson and Weaver allegedly placed bets on their own team, including bets that the Bulldogs would underperform in total points and rebounds in one game. Collins, meanwhile, is being investigated for placing bets on professional sports.
Fresno State, which is in the middle of its worst season in program history, will now lose two of its top three scorers — Weaver and Collins — for the foreseeable future, according to <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/43969441/fresno-state-holds-players-source-confirms-betting-inquiry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN</a>. Weaver is averaging 12.5 points per game this season, while Collins averages 12 points per game. Collins also leads the team with 4.7 assists per game.
The Bulldogs moved to 5-23 on the season after their last loss to Air Force, which put them on a 10-game losing streak. The team&#8217;s head coach, Vance Walberg, reportedly discovered the alleged gambling by the student-athletes and notified the university&#8217;s administration.
Robinson — who averaged 10.3 points per game — has not played since January 11, while Weaver and Collins were suspended just before the team tipped off against Air Force on Saturday. The Bulldogs, playing with only seven players, lost in overtime, 72-69. Just 30 minutes before the game started against Air Force, Fresno State announced that the two players were &#8220;being withheld from competition as the University reviews an eligibility matter.&#8221;
&#8220;The University and Athletics Department will have no further comments regarding the matter at this time,&#8221; Fresno State added.
Fresno State, currently part of the Mountain West Conference, announced last year that it would join the Pac-12 effective July 1, 2026.

Fresno State v UNLV

College Basketball Players Allegedly Placed Bets On Games They Played In

California

California State University Fresno

Fresno, California

gambling

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/university-of-florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Florida’s</a> men’s basketball coach didn’t violate Title IX, an investigation into allegations from multiple women found.
Todd Golden was accused of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, stalking, and cyberstalking by multiple women, some of whom were students, ESPN <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/43585673/florida-coach-todd-golden-cleared-title-ix-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The school conducted a four-month-long investigation and determined there was “no evidence” Golden violated Title IX.
&#8220;The University of Florida takes these matters seriously and works deliberately to ensure that due process is upheld for everyone,&#8221; university spokesperson Steve Orlando said in a statement obtained by ESPN. &#8220;After a thorough investigation that included dozens of interviews over the past months, the University of Florida has found no evidence that Todd Golden violated IX. The Title IX office has closed its investigation.&#8221;
A spokesperson for the University Athletic Association also told ESPN that the matter was closed.
&#8220;We take these matters seriously and understand the need for the process to be conducted with strict confidentiality and discretion,&#8221; the UAA said in its statement to the outlet. &#8220;Throughout this process, Coach Golden has demonstrated tremendous focus and professionalism, and we commend him for that. As the Gators move forward, we reaffirm our commitment to promoting a championship experience with integrity.&#8221;
In a letter to one of the accusers, the university said that there was no evidence showing Golden had committed any sexual harassment during “a university program or activity,” which is required for it to be actionable under Title IX. During the Obama and Biden administrations, this definition was expanded to allow schools to act as quasi-judicial systems punishing students and staff for crimes that couldn’t be prosecuted in the actual courts. It allowed women to accuse men of actual crimes without needing to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, as is needed in criminal court.
In Golden’s case, there do not appear to be any police reports of any of the actions he is accused of committing, hence the accuser’s use of school Title IX policies. But because the Biden administration’s policies were thrown out, schools must use definitions enacted during the first Trump administration, which narrowly define a school’s jurisdiction to punish accusations. Accusations that don’t involve settings and events directly tied to the school can no longer be used to damage someone’s reputation without going through proper legal channels.
It is unclear whether the university found the accusations to be false or unsupported, or whether the school simply didn’t have jurisdiction to proceed against Golden.
Golden’s attorney William Shepherd posted a statement saying the end of the investigation meant the complaints against his client were “meritless.”
&#8220;Coach Golden and I have respected the process throughout while actively engaging with the university. However, there were many who did not respect the investigative process,&#8221; Shepherd <a href="https://x.com/JonRothstein/status/1883918850548457552" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in the statement. &#8220;Instead, they sought to target Coach Golden and drive their agenda and this investigation for their own self-interest. Some leaked confidential material to the media; falsely posed as a UF lawyer in an effort to intimidate; harassed UF students and parents to try to generate a false narrative; and harassed my client, his family, and his friends.”
Shepherd did not respond to a Daily Wire inquiry prior to press time.
Attorney Karen Truszkowski, who represents one of the accusers, admitted to ESPN that the reported behavior didn’t fall under Title IX, but claimed &#8220;certainly evidence that there was questionable activity that occurred&#8221; at a university event attended by Golden, though she didn’t expand on that accusation to the outlet.
Golden himself posted <a href="https://x.com/CoachToddGolden/status/1883933459107963252" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement to X</a> following the investigation’s end, reminding people not to “rush to judgement based on allegations.” He also thanked his supporters.
In November, Golden suggested he was consulting with an attorney about whether to bring defamation cases against his accusers, but it is unclear whether he is pursuing the matter.

Todd Golden

Investigation Finds Florida Basketball Coach Didn’t Violate Title IX

General

Title IX

University of Florida

WNBA star <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/caitlin-clark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Caitlin Clark’s</a> alleged stalker will remain behind bars following his chaotic hearing where he seemingly pleaded guilty following his arrest over the weekend.
In an Indianapolis courtroom on Tuesday, 55-year-old Texas Michael Lewis had several outbursts in which he first declared he was “guilty as charged” before the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alleged-caitlin-clark-stalker-says-wants-stay-jail-yells-guilty-charge-rcna187596">NBC News</a> reported.
He yelled “Throw me the booky!” and “I’m free! I guess you got the wrong guy!” while also claiming that his name didn&#8217;t include a “Jr.” in court records, the outlet noted.
During the hearing, the Marion County Superior Court Judge Angela Davis tried to read the charges against him saying he “terrorized, frightened, or threatened” Clark and caused a “reasonable fear of sexual battery.” 
Lewis replied, “Can I say something?” before Davis replied, “Not yet.”
Each time the Texas man would interrupt, the deputies in the court tried to get him to stop and straighten up.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Caitlin Clark&#8217;s Alleged Stalker Appears In Court, Says &#8216;Guilty As Charged!&#8217; | Click to read more 👇 <a href="https://t.co/JyDblVW0Vg">https://t.co/JyDblVW0Vg</a>
— TMZ (@TMZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/1879302279578124376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
When asked if the man was dealing with mental health issues, Lewis told the court, “I need my medicines.” When the judge inquired if he needed an attorney, the alleged stalker said he couldn’t afford one and that he needed his medication. He was also asked if he lived in Texas, and he replied, “Sort of, I live in my vehicle.” 
The Texas man signed court orders agreeing to stay away from Clark’s home and have no contact with the Indiana Fever star. Judge Davis told him, “If you violate stay away or no contact orders, the court will revoke your bond.&#8221;
The judge ordered that Lewis be held in lieu of a $50,000 bond. Lewis then replied, “I don’t want bond, bail, whatever. I’m here. I’m staying.”
He was charged with one count of stalking, accused of engaging in a “course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of Caitlin Clark that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized,” according to court documents from Marion County prosecutors.
On Sunday, Lewis was arrested for felony stalking, accused of making several disturbing, sexually explicit messages and threats online against Clark, before traveling to Indianapolis where he was taken into custody, <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2025/01/13/caitlin-clark-stalking-arrest/?adid=social-tmzlikeshop-ig">TMZ noted</a>.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/caitlin-clark-reacts-to-being-left-off-olympic-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Caitlin Clark Reacts to Being Left Off Olympic Team</a>

2024 WNBA Draft

Caitlin Clark’s Alleged Stalker Will Remain Behind Bars After Chaotic Hearing

Caitlin Clark

stalker

WNBA

There are a lot of stories out there about lottery winners who go on to destroy their lives. Something like 70% of them supposedly go bankrupt within a few years. And it&#8217;s not hard to see why. When you give a lot of money and attention to a person who didn&#8217;t earn any of it, that person doesn&#8217;t suddenly change overnight. Instead, more often than not, all of their worst character traits are amplified ten times over. And in many cases, that leads to a very public and humiliating collapse.
This is a principle that doesn&#8217;t just apply to individuals. It applies to organizations too. Unearned fame and fortune are far more destructive than they might appear. And right now, there&#8217;s no organization on the planet that proves this point more than the WNBA. The league just posted its highest average game viewership in 24 years. They&#8217;re bringing in massive new sponsorships, at least by the league&#8217;s standards. They&#8217;re selling out arenas, which used to be unheard of. This should be a dream come true for everyone involved in the WNBA — from the executives to the players to the reporters who, for their sins in a past life, have been cursed with the job of covering a women&#8217;s basketball league. Everyone should be overjoyed.
But there&#8217;s a big problem. All of this success — every bit of it — is due to the presence of one player in the league: a generational talent named <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/caitlin-clark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Caitlin Clark</a>. She&#8217;s the reason the WNBA just won the lottery. Without Caitlin Clark, no one cares about any of these players or the league. With her, most people still don’t care. But a lot more people care than did before. And everyone knows that. Therefore, everyone in the league other than Caitlin Clark is doing exactly what so many lottery winners do. They&#8217;re allowing all of their worst personality traits to surface. They can&#8217;t help themselves.
Several months ago, I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-player-diversifies-the-wnba-champions-of-diversity-are-somehow-not-happy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">covered</a> the many cheap shots that Clark has had to deal with on the court. Some of these cheap shots look a lot like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-upgrades-foul-on-star-caitlin-clark-to-flagrant-1-violation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminal assault</a>, but of course they weren&#8217;t prosecuted. I also talked about the many &#8220;champions of diversity&#8221; in the media who are strangely very unhappy about the diversity that Clark has brought to the WNBA, a league that&#8217;s mostly made up of black players. There&#8217;s been a lot of resentment in this league lately, in particular since this season began.
And the thing about resentment, as we all know, is that it tends to fester over time. It gets worse and worse. And that&#8217;s exactly what we&#8217;re seeing now that the season is winding down and the playoffs are underway. Over the past week, race hysteria in the WNBA has somehow reached yet another inflection point. The league is currently in the midst of the single most contrived racism scandal in any professional sport, at least since the fake noose in Bubba Wallace’s garage.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1453-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Specifically, a bunch of WNBA players have come out claiming that they&#8217;ve been victimized by &#8220;racial slurs&#8221; and other racist attacks. In other words, they are now accusing the people who have started showing up to WNBA games — for the first time in more than two decades — of being horrible racists.
Now for the fine print. None of these &#8220;racial slurs&#8221; — some of which have supposedly occurred during games — have actually been caught on camera. There&#8217;s no visual or audio evidence that might substantiate any of this. There isn&#8217;t a single credible report. And that&#8217;s extremely unusual, obviously, given that there are cameras and smartphones at every WNBA game. 
You&#8217;d think that, if a mob of racists were buying up WNBA tickets so they could heckle the players with racial slurs, then the video would be all over the internet. But those videos are not all over the internet. They aren’t anywhere on the internet. So instead we have to take the players&#8217; word for it. 
Here&#8217;s Brittney Griner, for example:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Griner" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mSIhS7oAfsI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The question was about the massive growth of this league, which was dead in the water just a year ago. &#8220;What do you think of all the new fans,&#8221; asks the reporter. And instead of some gratitude — some appreciation for the people who saved the WNBA, who pay to come out to see bad players like Brittney Griner — we get resentment. The fans are racist, says Griner. They buy tickets just so they can yell racist things. And not only that — these racists happen to be magicians. They can shout racist things while also being completely invisible. You can hear what they say, but it&#8217;s impossible to record it or broadcast it anywhere. They&#8217;re like ghosts. They just appear in the stands, shout the N-word a few times, and then they disappear.
Put aside the fact that Griner is obviously lying. Let&#8217;s say, hypothetically, that someone did shout a slur at a WNBA game, and it really bothered Brittney Griner. Nothing about the answer makes sense, even in that context. Why would that be the first thing that Griner mentions when the reporter asks about the fans? Why not say, &#8220;The overwhelming majority of the fans are great people, and I&#8217;m so happy they&#8217;re paying money to see me playing basketball as badly as I do&#8221;? 
If anyone should be striking a note of gratitude, it&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/brittney-griner">Brittney Griner</a>. Less than two years ago, the Biden administration traded away a Russian arms dealer — someone who conspired to murder American citizens — in order to get Griner out of a Russian prison. So Griner has every reason to be extremely grateful to this country — not just because of the paycheck for playing basketball poorly, but also because the United States is a lot nicer than a Siberian gulag. At the very least, you&#8217;d expect Griner to be happier than the usual WNBA player. But that&#8217;s obviously not the case.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a></h3>
Of course the media — especially the sports media — is uncritically reporting on this phantom crisis of racism at WNBA games. Just search “WNBA racism” in google and you’ll get dozens and dozens of mainstream media articles frantically shouting about the racism crisis in the WNBA. Many other players have raised the alarm about this invented epidemic. Here’s another one:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;It&#39;s heartbreaking that &#8230; the excitement around the league is at its highest, but the racial slurs and the derogatory comments and the online bullying are also at their worst.&quot;
ESPN&#39;s Andraya Carter says there is &quot;no space&quot; for WNBA fans who dish hate: <a href="https://t.co/5ggjUdk4Dk">pic.twitter.com/5ggjUdk4Dk</a>
&mdash; Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) <a href="https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1839159138716160240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Notice the sad music in the background. Law enforcement might have to get involved. WNBA games have become Klan rallies, from what we’re told. You won’t see any of that on video or hear any of it. But take the WNBA’s word for it. Take the media’s word for it. Yet some WNBA players are still upset that the media isn’t making an even bigger deal out of the fake racism scandal. Reading from USA Today:
<blockquote>“Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese says the media should have done more to combat the ongoing issue of racism in women&#8217;s basketball before it reached a boiling point. The WNBA on Wednesday condemned all ‘racist, derogatory or threatening comments’ that have been directed toward players after Connecticut Sun All-Star Alyssa Thomas called out &#8220;racial comments from the Indiana Fever fan base&#8221; following the Sun&#8217;s series-clinching 87-81 victory over the Fever. Reese said this has been a long-standing issue, noting that she&#8217;s been the subject of racially motivated hate for some time. Reese, however, said her pleas for accountability and action have been repeatedly ignored. ‘The media has benefited from my pain &amp; me being villainized to create a narrative,’ <a href="https://twitter.com/Reese10Angel/status/1839457079544656170">she wrote on X</a>. ‘They allowed this. This was beneficial to them&#8230; Y’all a little late to the party and could have tried to put out this fire way before it started.’”</blockquote>
Yes, it’s a fire raging. You won’t see the fire. But it’s there. Trust Angel Reese on this one. This shaming obviously had the desired effect on some in the media. Which led to this line of questioning:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 loaded question" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eBE4PnFI7gk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;NaLyssa, how did you personally deal with the hate, the racism, the attention, the scrutiny?&#8221; If you listen to these press conferences, you&#8217;d think that skinheads are rushing the court and assaulting the players in the middle of the games. At the very least, you&#8217;d expect that this player would&#8217;ve been subjected to some kind of horrible racist chant from one of the WNBA&#8217;s racist ghost fans.
Here&#8217;s what actually happened. NaLyssa&#8217;s has a girlfriend named DiJonai Carrington who also plays in the WNBA. And recently, Carrington nearly took Caitlin Clark&#8217;s eye out on the court just a few minutes into a game. This is one of many flagrant fouls against Clark that have occurred since she started in the league, and this one wasn&#8217;t even called. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Caitlin Clark HIT IN EYE, NO FOUL on Dijonai Carrington | Indiana Fever vs Connecticut Sun WNBA" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DW8AjbzpYUk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
After this foul, as you&#8217;d expect, there were a lot of angry fans on social media. To a lot of people, this looked intentional. So in response, a USA Today reporter named Christine Brennan did what any reasonable &#8220;sports journalist&#8221; would do. She asked Carrington if the hit was intentional. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 Carrington" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PhyF3JgIbK0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
These are obviously reasonable questions from Christine Brennan. They&#8217;re not &#8220;racist.&#8221; They&#8217;re not offensive. They&#8217;re the bare minimum you&#8217;d expect under the circumstances. But Carrington immediately gets snippy and obnoxious in response. And then, just for asking these questions, Brennan — who, incidentally, is one of the biggest <a href="https://x.com/SbondyNBA/status/1839734099054887063" target="_blank" rel="noopener">champions</a> of women&#8217;s sports in the industry — is now getting dogpiled.
In particular, the WNBA Players&#8217; Association <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thewnbpa/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=b7e4450c-3bc6-4366-80b3-052bb522ae36">just put out</a> one of the most demented statements imaginable. They wrote:
<blockquote>We call B.S. &#8230; To unprofessional members of the media like Christine Brennan: You are not fooling anyone. That so-called interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating in a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic vitriol on social media. You cannot hide behind your tenure.</blockquote>
The statement then said Brennan was guilty of &#8220;abusing&#8221; her &#8220;privileges,&#8221; and charged that she does not &#8220;deserve&#8221; her &#8220;credentials.&#8221; It continues: 
<blockquote>We call on USA Today Network to review its Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms and address what we believe is a violation of several core principles, including seeking and reporting the truth. USA Today Sports should explain why a reporter with clear bias and ulterior motives was assigned to cover the league. We also urge the league to review its policies and take measures to prevent such issues, protecting the integrity of the game and its players.</blockquote>
So we&#8217;re at the point now that journalists can&#8217;t even ask black players about fouls they commit against Caitlin Clark without being accused of racism for asking the question. That&#8217;s how much racism there is in the WNBA. Even asking questions is now racist. Obviously there&#8217;s no reason to take any of these people seriously. 
But, just to make sure I wasn&#8217;t missing anything, I went looking to see if I could find the most egregious examples of racism in the WNBA. And I came across this monologue from a sports commentator named Nick Wright. It&#8217;s from a couple of days ago and it’s about as unhinged as you&#8217;d expect. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 Ban Nails FIX" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_iqDjQLN-ag?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
His grand example proving the WNBA is racist is that a woman mocked the player who gave Caitlin Clark a black eye with her nails. Apparently that&#8217;s racist because some black people have long nails. That&#8217;s it. That&#8217;s why this podcast host is invoking the Civil War. Mockery of WNBA players is a threat to the entire country, apparently — at least if those WNBA players are black. If they&#8217;re white, you can mock them all you want. You can assault them on the court, in fact.
What this fake outrage tells you is that &#8220;racism&#8221; isn&#8217;t really what they&#8217;re upset about. This is just too manufactured and overblown to take seriously. They&#8217;re reaching — to a degree that&#8217;s comical and delusional at the same time. This scandal has been invented, out of whole cloth, by WNBA players for one reason, and one reason only: They are wracked with envy and resentment that the most popular player in the league is white. What they&#8217;re really claiming is that Caitlin Clark, by bringing a bunch of white fans to the league, has naturally also brought racism. Basically they&#8217;re complaining that too many white people are watching women&#8217;s basketball now. And for her part, Caitlin Clark has basically <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/caitlin-clark-addresses-racism-following-wnba-statement-those-arent-fans-those-are-trolls" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gone along</a> with this narrative. She made a statement denouncing all of the made up racism.
<h3><a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a></h3>
The racial hysteria reminds me of the summer of 2020, just playing out on a much, much, much smaller stage. A white woman playing basketball has become the WNBA&#8217;s George Floyd moment. And just like we saw with the George Floyd situation, before long, people are going to start pushing back. No normal person wants to pay money to support a team, only to be told they&#8217;re racist and horrible. That&#8217;s a big part of why the DEI grift has begun to collapse.
And it&#8217;s why the WNBA&#8217;s brief resurgence isn&#8217;t going to last very long either. Very soon, the league will be back on the path to irrelevance and bankruptcy. It&#8217;s clear that none of these players or executives or &#8220;sports journalists&#8221; really want the league to succeed, anyway. To borrow an adage from the world of sports commentary, you might even say the WNBA is like a rubber band — one that&#8217;s been stretched to the limit by pathological narcissists who only know how to complain and demean their own fans on the basis of their skin color. And one deranged sports podcast and self-pitying press conference at a time, that rubber band is about to break.

Indiana Fever v Connecticut Sun – Game Two

Race-Baiting WNBA Players Are Sabotaging Their Own League Out Of Spite

Anti-Racism

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Racism

Women's Basketball

LeBron James faced backlash online over the weekend after he acted rudely toward a young fan in Paris following Team USA&#8217;s gold medal victory at the Olympics.
Video that was posted online showed James scolding the young fan for wanting to take a selfie photo with the NBA star.
&#8220;Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!&#8221; James snapped at the boy. &#8220;Don&#8217;t do that.&#8221;
The kid appeared stunned by James&#8217; rudeness and arrogance.
Moments later, James broke out into a dance as he arrived at the restaurant that he was going to to celebrate the team&#8217;s win.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
LeBron James tells a white kid who’s a fan to back the f*ck up and get out of the way so he can celebrate his gold medal. What a complete piece of sh*t. <a href="https://t.co/IbLAdV10hG">pic.twitter.com/IbLAdV10hG</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1822776788835303597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
LeBron James just snaps at a young white fan who wants to greet him and congratulate him on his win. Then he goes off and does a little dance over his gold medal. Brute. I’m heartbroken for the kid. <a href="https://t.co/bf9PlNCICa">pic.twitter.com/bf9PlNCICa</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1822791294856429621?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
James faced a considerable amount of backlash online where many were stunned to see how he treated the kid.
&#8220;LeBron James shows his true colors as he shouts as a young boy who politely had asked for a photo in Paris,&#8221; one social media user wrote on X.
Another used posted: &#8220;LeBron James snaps at a kid waiting to take a picture with him. A total POS.&#8221;
Others called the event shameful because the kid was going to &#8220;remember this for the rest of his life.&#8221;
&#8220;Hey @KingJames, f you and that gold medal,&#8221; another user wrote. &#8220;Treat a kid that way, I hope no one ever buys another piece of crap merchandise from you or the @NBA who ought to suspend your a*s for unsportsmanlike conduct…off the court. You show your true character in how you treated that kid.&#8221;

Basketball – Olympic Games Paris 2024 – Day 15

LeBron James Slammed For Nasty Interaction With Young Fan At Olympics

LeBron James

Paris Olympics

Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg defended rough play in the WNBA after Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter checked Indiana Fever&#8217;s Caitlin Clark so hard that she hit the ground.
The Carter shoulder-check — which was ruled a &#8220;flagrant foul&#8221; — took place during a June 1 game, after which video of the forceful collision quickly went viral.
&#8220;There’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary— targeting actions! It needs to stop! The league needs to ‘clean up’ the crap! That’s NOT who this league is!!&#8221; Indiana Fever GM Lin Dunn commented.
&#8220;Let’s be realistic, OK? This is basketball, OK? This happens in basketball all the time. Angel Reese got clotheslined the other day,&#8221; Goldberg downplayed the incident during Monday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;The View.&#8221;
&#8220;This is, ‘Get out the way or I’ma move you.’ That’s what the game is … A lot of people, however, are reading this as confrontation. But this is not confrontation. They’re not playing on the court. They’re there to win. And just because they’re women, get over yourselves, they’re athletes,&#8221; she added.
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WATCH:
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&#8220;Let&#8217;s be realistic.&#8221; 
After whining about new attention being given to the WNBC because Caitlin Clark was &#8220;white&#8221; and &#8220;pretty,&#8221; The View&#8217;s Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg now defend the on-court, physical attacks she&#8217;s been receiving. <a href="https://t.co/IevkKTpD3D">pic.twitter.com/IevkKTpD3D</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1797666588511920500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Hostin had previously complained that Clark got attention primarily because she was white and straight — despite the fact that she holds the all-time NCAA scoring record — and she also defended the rough play.
&#8220;It’s not dainty play. When you’re sitting there [and] you’re watching, sometimes when that happens you think, ‘Ooh, wow. I couldn’t take it,&#8217;” she said. &#8220;It’s gonna make them better. It’s gonna make Caitlin better. It’s gonna make Angel better. It’s gonna make the league better.&#8221;
Goldberg concluded by giving props to all of the players, adding, &#8220;None of us can beat them. None of us can do what they can do so let’s give them their due.&#8221;

WNBA: JUN 01 Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever

Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg Defend Brutal Fouls On WNBA’s Caitlin Clark

Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg Defend Brutal Fouls On WNBA's Caitlin Clark

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