From Nancy Armour’s recent viral USA Today column, one would be led to believe that women’s basketball prodigy Caitlin Clark is inviting fans’ retaliation against her black peers. Thankfully, Barack Obama, the first black president, dunked on that narrative.

“You’re fantastic. Don’t let all this nonsense get you down,” Obama said upon meeting Clark courtside. “You know, I always say, one of the things that was luckiest for me was, I didn’t get famous until I was like 45. So I was an old a** man. I mean, you’re my daughters’ age. They’ve not had that much immersion in nonsense. So don’t lose that joy.”

“Nonsense” was putting it mildly, of course. A more accurate statement would be that the media have demonized the league’s biggest star because she demands fair treatment on the court. Armour’s column took that vilification to a new low:

It shouldn’t need reminding this country has an awful history of Black people being harmed, even killed, in the name of “defending” white women. The irony of the WNBA’s All-Star Game is that it’s happening this weekend in Chicago, the hometown of Emmett Till, who became an icon of the civil rights movement after his tragic murder. The local art gallery is currently hosting an exhibit imagining his life if he hadn’t been lynched.

Implicitly associating Clark and Carolyn Bryant, the woman who lied about 14-year-old Emmett Till sexually harassing her, leading to his murder in 1955, is outrageous. Clark is voicing her frustration with referees turning a blind eye to blatant fouls against her; she’s not instigating racial terrorists in the Jim Crow South. The writer later expressed “regret” for her “inartful” comparison, sort of.

But it’s not just Armour. Quite a few members of the sports media have insinuated that Clark, being a young star who has carried the WNBA on her back the past three seasons with her generational talent, is acting like a petulant child who thinks that she owns the league and has no obligation to any of her peers.

“Caitlin Clark is 24,” ESPN commentator Monica McNutt said. “She is 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.”

Longtime sports commentator Cari Champion blasted Clark for purportedly having an attitude of entitlement.

“The more we get to catch these glimpses of Caitlin Clark, I’m like, ‘I don’t like you,’” Champion said on a May episode of her Flagrant & Funny podcast.

I don’t like the way you behave on the court. . . . But the way that you behave, this entitlement, the way you are talking to your coaches . . . you enjoy that. So if that’s what you enjoy, if you want to be the villain, if you want to be the tough person . . . then let it be. Because we’re coming at you the same way we could come at anyone else. And her fans need to recognize that. Like, she chooses that behavior.

Champion claimed that Clark is being handled with kid gloves, supposedly being allowed to lash out at refs because of her status.

If Clark thinks she’s facing unfair treatment — whether on the court or in the press — it’s no wonder why.

A month after Champion’s remarks, Phoenix forward Alyssa Thomas appeared to shove her fist into Clark’s throat during a scramble for a loose ball during a game. Referees did not call a foul during the live play, and only after a postgame review did the WNBA upgrade the play to a Flagrant Foul 2, assessing Thomas a one-game suspension and a $1,000 fine.

Thomas said she and her teammates received death threats after the incident, and she demanded that WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert confront the online mob. Engelbert then released a forceful statement condemning the vitriol, which of course is unacceptable. But Engelbert and the WNBA are pretending that Clark’s objections aren’t serious. Had Thomas’s hand been a little closer to the jugular, it could have been career-ending for Clark, and yet the refs were aloof to it all as it was going down.

The WNBA clearly doesn’t know what to do with Caitlin Clark. They can’t escape the uncomfortable truth that she has single-handedly put the league on the map after years of irrelevance. Clark’s success has exposed the national apathy toward women’s basketball until her arrival on the scene. Clark’s very existence has wounded the pride of the organization. If Clark decided to retire tomorrow, the WNBA would be cooked. But instead of recognizing her contributions, they’ve decided to punish or ignore their golden goose.

The WNBA couldn’t even be bothered to include Clark on its 30th-anniversary poster — hilarious, considering that she is the only reason millions of viewers watch.