Getting a fact wrong is never a good look, especially when the mistake involves a major league record. The Athletic’s Women’s Basketball writer Zena Keita recently found herself at the center of that criticism after appearing to credit one of Caitlin Clark’s WNBA milestones to Olivia Miles. On its own, the mistake could be attributed to a slip of the tongue, and that’s what Keita did. However, YouTuber and podcast host Ben Daniel highlighted that the incident was another example of what he considers a recurring problem with sections of WNBA media.

“We also have these people at the Athletic Women’s Basketball show called No Offseason. Maybe you need to take the year off… Come back rejuvenated because the takes that you have given this year, not only have they been awful. They’ve been flat out wrong. You got your stats mixed up. It’s bad news bears… This is WNBA media. This is WNBA media right here. A bunch of tribalists,” Daniel said on his podcast.

Daniel’s comment came after Keita’s conversation with Atlanta Dream sideline reporter Autumn Johnson. The two were discussing Miles’ impact as a rookie and, while highlighting her playmaking, Keita brought up what she believed was another major achievement. “Olivia Miles has also made her mark this season setting the all-time WNBA rookie assist record,” Keita said. The statistic, however, was not correct. The all-time WNBA rookie assist record belongs to Clark, who finished with 337 assists. Miles, meanwhile, has recorded 228 assists.

It did not take long for the error to spread beyond the podcast. Daniel noticed it, and so did WNBA fans on social media. The mistake quickly became a talking point, with Keita receiving criticism for getting such a significant statistic wrong. But the reaction soon expanded beyond the record itself. Some fans began using the incident to revive an older criticism of Keita, accusing her of having an anti-Clark bias.

Daniel’s take was also partly tied to something Keita had said during another episode of No Offseason in June. While discussing Indiana, she appeared to raise the possibility of Clark eventually being replaced in the starting lineup by Raven Johnson.

“Curious if I think… I don’t know if it’s gonna be Caitlin doing it for Caitlin. I think an external event has to happen. Raven Johnson starts. Right?… I’m just giving you an example of, like, a canon-type event that would need to occur for Caitlin to, like, be like, ‘Oh, I am not the birthday,’ as the kids would say these days. ‘I am not the main event. I am a member of a team.'”

That particular discussion did not create much noise when it first aired. However, once the clip resurfaced alongside the Miles controversy, it took on a new life online and became part of the criticism directed at Keita. Keita ultimately decided to respond herself.

As the reaction to her Miles comment continued, she returned to social media to clarify what she had intended to say. Keita clarified she had not deliberately confused Clark and Miles’ records.

She said she had intended to reference Miles breaking the Lynx’s rookie single-season assist record, but simply misspoke while recording the show. She also directly rejected the accusations surrounding her feelings toward Clark.

“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.

The clarification was followed by an apology. In another post, Keita acknowledged that the mistake should have been caught before the episode was published, accepting that both she and her producer should have picked up on the incorrect statistic before it reached the audience.