Rob Parker went off on WNBA star Caitlin Clark for declining her invitation to participate in the 2025 NBA All-Star weekend, going as far as to say he won’t watch the event because of her absence.
The long-time Fox Sports radio anchor expressed on his show “The Odd Couple with Rob Parker & Kelvin Washington” that he believes Clark has an obligation to take part in the event since the NBA provides financial assistance to the WNBA to keep the league running.
Rob Parker Yells at Cloud as Caitlin Clark Is MIA From NBA’s All-Star Weekend
“Caitlin Clark has ruined NBA All-Star weekend. They invited her to be involved in a shooting contest with Steph [Curry] … that would’ve been the only reason to watch any of the festivities this weekend,” he asserted.
“She had the gall, the audacity to say no. How can she say no when the WNBA wouldn’t even be around if it wasn’t for the NBA? They have subsidized that league forever … guess how much money the WNBA lost this past year — $50 million, even with Caitlin Clark and her numbers. So, the least she could’ve done was do a solid for her brothers in the NBA.
“She should’ve shown up, participated, gave them some kind of numbers, especially since most of the people or women in the WNBA, they aren’t earning their keep,” Parker continued. “The least she could’ve done was take part in that and she has ruined NBA All-Star weekend for me. I’m not watching one minute because of Caitlin Clark.”
The numbers he used to support his argument are fairly accurate. According to the New York Post, the NBA subsidizes its counterpart by owning close to 60% of the WNBA, with the latter having lost $40 million in the 2024 season.
Caitlin Clark ruined….NBA All-Star Weekend?!?pic.twitter.com/RmHzKcxg2K
— PFSN (@PFN365) February 14, 2025
The rest, however, is purely his opinion. Whether her league operates at a loss or not, Clark is not by any means obligated to participate in “gimmick” events as Parker described the All-Star festivities.
Even if Clark did square off against Stephen Curry in a head-to-head 3-point contest, it almost definitely wouldn’t save the All-Star Game’s viewership, as proven by last year’s event where the WNBA’s New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu took part in the same event with Curry.
According to Sports Media Watch, 2024 All-Star Saturday (the night of Ionescu and Curry’s contest) recorded 4.57 million viewers, which was marginally higher than both 2023 (3.42 million) and 2022 (4.24 million) but still lower than every previous year dating back to 2001.
Regardless of Clark’s snub, Ionescu and Curry had still been set for a rematch at the 2025 All-Star Weekend, but it fell through independently of Clark’s decision. “We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass announced Thursday. “We all agreed not to proceed.”
Her team at Excel Sports Management declared the reason Clark declined her invitation to the event was that she preferred for her first professional-level 3-point contest to take place in front of her home crowd in Indianapolis at the WNBA’s All-Star weekend this summer.
Despite Parker’s objections, NBA All-Star weekend will proceed without Clark. Events are taking place from Friday, Feb. 14 to Sunday, Feb. 16 in San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.
If you’re brave enough to subject yourself to his full rant, check it out below:
