PLEASE LEAVE CAITLIN CLARK ALONE — INSTEAD OF CALLING HER A COACH KILLER

Nothing in Clark’s past suggests she’s not telling the truth — and when she values her relationship with Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White, how about believing it instead of posting media lies?

There are better ways of disarming The Sleaze than accusing a boss of “murdering” a successful TV show. That’s how Scott Pelley addressed CBS News chief Bari Weiss before he was fired, which doesn’t help Pelley or the audiences of “60 Minutes” or those asking about the media’s close associations with the wrong people.

Do you trust Weiss? No, she is a pro-Trump propagandist.

Do you trust Pelley? No, he hates the President, who said Wednesday, “Look, Scott Pelley’s a stiff. And he’s afraid. And he’s part of this gang of stupid, crooked people that don’t care about our country.”

So, the smartest procedure is to let the loudmouths yak about an issue before publicly mocking them, as Caitlin Clark did this week. Quickly, she showed the sporting world — actually, the entire world — how to deal with creeps who don’t tell the truth. Just as men sometimes quarrel on the sideline, Clark and her coach with the Indiana Fever, Stephanie White, clashed during a timeout. The episode was worth mentioning, but the reaction was blazingly erroneous. Skip Bayless, who refuses to go away or just die, reported White would be dismissed.

“YOU CAN’T SHOW UP THE FACE OF THE LEAGUE ON CAMERA,” wrote Bayless, in caps, claiming the next Fever coach would be Jan Jensen, the coach at Iowa. That is beyond a figment of his blurry mind. It’s a lie on top of a lie.

He was not alone. Know how many paid media people screwed up? On an NBC Sports segment, WNBA legend Cheryl Miller fired at Clark when even Miller was known to rail on coaches. “Right now, it’s frustration. And unfortunately, it’s boiling over and it’s being seen,” she said. “It’s one thing to have it behind closed doors. But when it spills over, and when the coach has to basically say, ‘Hey, you know what, Caitlin, enough is enough. This is too disruptive, in and out, take a seat.’ When it becomes disruptive to the entire team, somebody has to step in.” Eventually, Miller realized she should walk back her take.

But social media and accompanying morons let the story spill for days. Not until Clark stepped to the microphone were the wrongdoers dropped into their societal dregs. She lashed out, in ways we haven’t seen during her charmed career. Anyone who assumes she was in a cover-butt mode to protect $20 million in endorsement fees doesn’t understand she has rejected many offers, saying, “Your brand will continue to grow. You’ll have other opportunities. But I need to take care of things on the basketball court first. And winning a championship is my main goal right now.”

And she wants to win a championship with White.

“There’s a lot of people out there in the media or on TV that think they know a lot of things, and they’re just blatantly wrong about a lot of things,” Clark said. “First of all, two people being competitive. Two people that really want to win. I think a lot of those things happen all the time. And I know there’s a camera on me, and that’s how it’s going to be. I ride for Steph. I ride for these girls. Steph has my back more than anybody. So, you know, nobody in our locker room, or Steph, or our coaching staff thought twice about it. It’s just another example of what everybody, all of you, want to blow up and make something that is just lost and not in reality.”

Is anyone still clueless? “The moment died right there,” said White, whose team lost 100-84 in Portland while Clark struggled in foul trouble.

Rarely do a star and a coach team up with harsh media critiques. When Clark spoke, White spoke. “We can’t control the outside narrative. We can’t control where people choose to take a snippet of an instance in a game or whatever it might be and run with it,” White said. “We know people are always going to have an opinion about what we’re doing in here, people are always going to have an opinion about Caitlin. It’s the reality of the world we live in, the reality of the job we have. But it’s not the reality of what the relationship is like.”

Sports and the media spin along in ugliness, much like Trump and the media. If “60 Minutes” was murdered or simply went bland, viewers will move along. I’ve said bosses at the Chicago Sun-Times have been too close to certain sports owners — circulation has dropped from 350,000 to zero paid subscribers on a non-paywall website. People hate scripted media. That’s why I write on Substack, where I comment with freedom — the money isn’t important — rather than hear an editorial bonehead threatening to can me.

Sports superstars? We just want them to be factual. Caitlin Clark is telling the truth, as someone we have covered responsibly since 2023. “When I got hurt at the Connecticut game last year, like I bawled in Steph’s arms,” Clark said. “That’s somebody I will ride for for the rest of my life. Those are moments that people don’t see. People just sit on their phones all day, they don’t see those moments. They don’t see the moments where we come into work, they don’t see the moments that absolutely suck when people have your back. They think they know everything when in reality, they don’t have a clue.”

The Fever are cracking down on local reporters, including independent beat writer Scott Agness, who wrote that Clark’s one-game absence last week was part of a more controversial management plan. She would miss time this season to remain healthy, as Agness wrote according to a “trusted” source. The team said his story was “inaccurate and unsubstantiated” and barred him from coverage. That seems harsh, but Clark has continued to play every game, at home and on the road.

“There’s no managing. She’s healthy,” White said. “We’re not managing anything. This is just a back issue that we want to make sure we give the time to be ready.”

Clark’s teammate, Sophie Cunningham, wasn’t happy with a new one-year contract at $665,000. No one is surprised she spoke about a lengthy team meeting Monday. Clark is scoring a career-high 20.1 points a game, with 8.1 assists, but the Fever are 4-4 while she shoots 33.3 percent from three-point land and averages 4.6 turnovers. Does she need to emphasize defense a season after playing only 13 games? “We built back all the layers,” Cunningham said. “I think everyone is on a good page right now and ready to work. We’ll say it started (as a) coaches (meeting) and then ended up being players.”

Another teammate, All-Star Kelsey Mitchell, said the Fever will be fine. “I think it’s a part of being a family,” she said. “If you think everything is glitz and glamour, then you’re mistaken. I think hard times can make you or break you, and I think losing is important because you find out a lot about yourself, about where you need to be and where you’re missing the mark. I’m happy that’s happening now. If there is frustration, I’d rather it be now than later.”

If it is humanly possible, it would be nice to watch Clark — the most important female athlete, ever — without drips and dribbles from media crazies. If she wants a coach fired, it will happen. If she says she likes the coach, she likes the coach.

Otherwise, let’s SHOW UP THE FACE OF SKIP BAYLESS.

Ugly sucker at 74, isn’t he?

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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host.