USA Today Gets Community Note on X After Claiming Caitlin Clark Skipped Event ‘To Get Her Hair Done’

Paul Beaty/AP Photo

USA Today quickly clarified a post on X claiming WNBA star Caitlin Clark skipped an event for the league’s All-Star game because she was getting her hair done instead.

The outlet posted Friday morning that instead of attending the league’s “Orange Carpet” ahead of the All-Star game, she had “skipped” it, “opting to get her hair done in her hometown of Des Moines.”

Caitlin Clark skipped the WNBA Orange Carpet on Thursday, opting to get her hair done in her hometown of Des Moines. https://t.co/9z3qjCS7EU

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 24, 2026

The article accompanying the post included a link to Bella Grundy, Clark’s hairdresser, who posted photos on Instagram of the basketball phenom in her salon chair, in West Des Moines, Iowa.

X users quickly jumped in, pointing out Clark was actually “hosting a charity dinner in her hometown.”

The Indiana Fever superstar was actually at an event for the Caitlin Clark Foundation.

The outlet then issued a clarification.

“Clarification: Caitlin Clark was attending an event for the Caitlin Clark Foundation, which is why she missed the WNBA All-Star Weekend Orange Carpet.”

The incident comes after a USA Today columnist made headlines this week for bizarrely comparing Clark’s “flopping” on the court to the horrific story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black teen who was brutally murdered in 1955 in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman.

Writer Nancy Armour said in the piece that Clark’s “histrionics” while embellishing contact she receives on the court puts “other people in danger.”

Armour, who received immense backlash for the comparison, later apologized and called the inclusion of Emmett Till “inartful.”

“There is a history in this country of perceived threats to white women being weaponized against African-Americans,” Armour asserted, “and the danger that poses to Black players in the league.”

USA Today did not immediately respond to Mediaite’s request for comment about the X post.

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