Did basketball star Caitlin Clark publicly refuse to advertise Tesla on her Indiana Fever jersey in May 2025? No, that's not true: A post promoting that rumor contained several fabricated quotes attributed to both Clark and Tesla owner Elon Musk. We found no corroboration for the story, or the claim that Clark had threatened to reveal damaging secrets about Musk.
The rumor appeared in a May 20, 2025, post which bore the headline "BREAKING: Caitlin Clark refuses to advertise Elon Musk's Tesla on his jersey! Caitlin Clark gives a compelling reason for refusing, and threatens to reveal it will silence and scare Elon Musk..."
The post read:
In a fiery twist to the ongoing conversation around sports sponsorships and tech moguls, WNBA star Caitlin Clark has firmly rejected a high-profile endorsement deal with Tesla, the electric vehicle company led by billionaire Elon Musk. But it's not just her refusal that's making headlines -- it's the bold warning she issued to Musk himself that has everyone talking.
In her own words, "If I revealed everything I know, it would silence him -- and scare him."
...In a press appearance following a recent Indiana Fever game, a reporter asked Clark about her potential endorsement opportunities. Her answer shocked the room.
"There are plenty of companies I'd proudly represent. Tesla isn't one of them. I won't be the face of that brand, and I won't wear their logo. If I told you why, it'd silence a lot of people -- and probably scare Elon Musk."
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Screenshot by Lead Stories)
If Clark had publicly refused to promote Tesla in a series of remarks, and if she had alluded to dark secrets about Musk, such remarks would undoubtedly have formed the basis of immediate and intensive news coverage.
However, a Google News search for the words "Caitlin Clark", "Tesla" and "Musk" yielded no relevant results. Despite the claim that Clark had made her comments at a recent press conference -- a public event routinely recorded on video and audio -- we found no corroboration for the existence of any such comments.
The May 20 post claimed that Musk had responded to Clark's refusal with a post on X that read, cryptically:
You can run fast but not from the truth.
That too was false. A Google search for that phrase, using the site:X.com operator showed that no such post existed on X.
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For previous Lead Stories fact checks about Caitlin Clark, click here.
For previous Lead Stories fact checks about Elon Musk, click here.
