Olivia Miles was worried about Caitlin Clark because she had to guard Kelsey Mitchell. The superstar rookie validated the recent MVP snub by the WNBA and its official television broadcast partner.
Maybe we should be focused more on other players despite the current betting odds!
By nature of who she is, the WNBA will always revolve around Clark. That does not mean she is the most valuable player in the league, or even on her own team!
The WNBA’s official television partner did not consider Caitlin Clark for MVP.
Scripps Sports and ION serve as the official Friday night national television network partner of the WNBA. It will air the most regular season games of any single network in 2026.
At some point during the most recent double-header, ION pulled up a graphic for the MVP race. The graphic included Kelsey Mitchell, Paige Bueckers, A’ja Wilson, Oliva Miles and Breanna Stewart. The graphic did not include Caitlin Clark.
ION chose not to feature the league’s biggest star despite the betting odds. As of this writing, FanDuel lists Clark third at +1400. Wilson and Miles are ahead of her at -475 and +650, respectively. Bueckers is listed at +2000. Stewart and Mitchell are listed at +10000.
Maybe ION was trying to stir the pot. Perhaps the person in charge of the graphic has a vendetta against Clark. Maybe it was a horrendous oversight. There is no way to know.
Regardless of what happened and why, it is ludicrous for the WNBA’s official television partner to omit the player with the third-best odds to win MVP from the MVP conversation… or is it?
Olivia Miles is more concerned about Kelsey Mitchell.
The Minnesota Lynx defeated the Indiana Fever by eight points on Sunday. Kelsey Mitchell made 14 of her 21 shot attempts to finish with a game-high 37 points, including six of eight attempts from beyond the arc. Caitlin Clark made only eight of 18 shot attempts and only two of nine three-pointers to finish with 19 points (and 10 assists).
Olivia Miles was tasked with guarding Mitchell. She said that it was her “welcome to league” moment. However, the original question from Holly Rowe was about Clark. The No. 2 overall pick was only worried about Mitchell.
Olivia Miles says guarding KM who has 23 at the half is her welcome to the league moment 😭 pic.twitter.com/34wZu2k937
— Shabazz 💫 (@ShowCaseShabazz) August 2, 2026
Miles has the second-best odds to win MVP. If this is what she is saying about Mitchell, perhaps we should be less concerned with Clark. Her comments actually provide some validity to ION’s surprising snub. It was silly to leave Clark off of the graphic but maybe it is not quite as crazy as we thought?