Did Caitlin Clark replace Brittney Griner on the Team USA women's Olympic basketball team due to rule-breaking by Griner? No, that is not true: The website the claim originated from is self-described as satirical and says on its "About Us" page that its content is "the freshest fake news." As of publication date, rookie sensation Clark had not been offered a spot on the 2024 women's Olympic basketball team, and veteran WNBA player Griner was not released from the team.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) where it was published on Facebook on June 15, 2024, under the title "Team USA: 'Britney Griner Is OUT - Caitlin Clark Is IN.'" It opened:
Team USA had to release Britney Griner for undisclosed reasons, which some are interpreting as a rule violation related to her testosterone levels.
We won't have answers before Paris. Caitlin is in.
Sometimes karma just works out.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Jun 17 18:58:27 2024 UTC)
The U.S. women's team for the Olympics was announced on June 11, 2024, and included Griner, as the official website (archived here) reported. Clark was not on the team. The team roster did not include Clark as of June 17, 2024 as this screenshot shows:
(Source: USA Basketball website screenshot taken on Mon Jun 17 18:45:16 2024 UTC)
The image posted on Facebook has a logo on the bottom right corner of the picture that clearly says "RATED S SATIRE," and credits America's Last Line of Defense, a clearly self-identified satire network.
The caption on the Facebook post reads, "Team USA: 'Britney Griner Is OUT - Caitlin Clark Is IN," with Griner's first name spelled incorrectly.
Had Clark, the 1st round draft pick for the Indiana Fever, replaced Griner, this would have been national and international news. However, a Google News search for keywords did not yield any matching results for Clark replacing Griner on the team.
ALLOD
The post is part of the America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the network has an About page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with 'comedy':sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake.
At the time this fact check was written, Snopes had reviewed the same claim about Clark and Griner.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about Brittney Griner can be found here.
