WNBA analyst Zena Keita sparked heavy backlash from Caitlin Clark fans after incorrectly stating on The Athletic's 'No Offseason' podcast that Minnesota Lynx rookie Olivia Miles had broken the all-time WNBA single-season rookie assist record.

Miles, who currently sits at 228 assists through 37 games, is having a remarkable rookie season. She already holds the Minnesota Lynx's franchise record for assists by a rookie.

But the actual WNBA rookie assist record belongs to Caitlin Clark. Clark recorded 337 assists across 40 games during the 2024 rookie campaign — a mark Miles is still 109 assists behind.

With just four games remaining on Minnesota's schedule, Miles would need to average over 25 assists per contest to surpass Clark.

That's why Clark fans clipped the segment of the 'No Offseason' podcast and accused the podcast of misrepresenting facts and downplaying Clark's historic debut milestones.

Keita returned to X to address the criticism, stating that she simply misspoke after recording multiple shows in succession.

She explained that her intent was to highlight Miles breaking the Minnesota Lynx franchise rookie record rather than the league-wide standard.

"Me having to log back into X to say…this was a simple misspeak. The stat was that she broke the LYNX rookie single assist record, not WNBA. I had done 2 podcasts before this one & simply misspoke. I am not racist, and I don't hate CC. You can think whatever else past that, idc," Keita wrote on X.

In a follow-up post, Keita also apologized for the error, noting that she and the show's production team should have caught the misstatement before publishing.

Fans question podcast comparisons and past commentary

Despite the clarification, many fans remained unconvinced by the explanation.

One fan countered the analyst's defense, writing: "She’s straight up lying. If she meant franchise record then why bring up Penicheiro or Sloot? Neither of them have ever played for Minnesota."

Keita brought up Ticha Penicheiro and Courtney Vandersloot during the podcast to explain Miles' record-breaking season.

Penicheiro built her career running Sacramento's offense, and Vandersloot became the second-most all-time assists leader in WNBA history largely during her run with the Chicago Sky. Neither has any tie to the Lynx, which made comparing Miles to them read like a league-wide claim, not a team-specific one.

"Well then why compare her to other non-Lynx players? I love Miles but come on," wrote another fan.

None of this is about knocking what Miles is doing on the court. She is averaging 19.7 points, 6.2 assists, and 4.6 rebounds while solidifying her case for Rookie of the Year.

That's why one fan commented, "Please don’t put out fake news to support Olivia Miles great rookie campaign and actually fact check your scripts. This is an embarrassing mistake for a sport podcast."

One fan even argued that Keita had made "multiple instances" of comments that negatively affected Clark.

"Nah man. You have multiple instances of you saying weird stuff that directly affects Caitlin. If you don't hate her, which I doubt, you're biased against her," the commentator posted.

In a June episode of the 'No Offseason' podcast, Keita floated a hypothetical idea about what it would take for Clark to stop being bigger than the Fever as a program.

She suggested that a rookie like Raven Johnson taking over as starting point guard could be the kind of moment that forces Clark to see herself as "a member of a team" rather than "the main event."

That's why, after the recent error, one fan referenced that incident sarcastically, asking, "Should Raven Johnson start at PG in the playoffs instead of Caitlin? Yes or no?"

Written by

Md Saife Fida