Nike Getting Backlash After Paige Bueckers Message originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
It seemed harmless enough. After Paige Bueckers of the Wings put up a monster performance in her return to the floor after missing nearly two weeks with a concussion and an illness, her shoe company–Nike–posted a congratulations.
Nike reposted an ESPN tweet about Bueckers’ performance, which included 35 points on 13-for-19 shooting. In the caption, the company wrote, “Rook got ’em shook.”
But because all things in the WNBA wind up coming back to the very vocal and seldom happy horde of fans of Fever star Caitlin Clark, there was an outcry over the fact that Nike somehow has not done enough to bolster Clark. That not only includes the company’s patience in releasing a signature shoe for Clark, but goes back to last year, when Nike apparently did not tweet about Clark enough.
Rook got ‘em shook https://t.co/P95paGpUTO
— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) June 12, 2025
The post was a positive one. But NIke felt the blowback below it.
One angry Clark booster wrote, “Caitlin did this and actually walked away with the W yet you didn’t acknowledge it. embarrassing.”
Another added, “Yall treat Caitlin Clark like (expletive) … How can you stand up straight with the jelly like spine?”
And still another, “Nike, you didn’t tweet once about Caitlin Clark during her historic rookie season. You are like the banks before the 2008 housing crash. You think you are too big to fail, but the Federal government isn’t bailing you out when you fail because of your bad business practices.”
And this, “Interesting corporate strategy. Instead of making billions off of the player who is arguably the most popular on the planet, you choose to alienate her, ignore her and piss off her millions of followers. The board of directors should replace the entire leadership team.”
Clark, of course, is a little over a year into her WNBA career, and there is ample time to get her Nikes up and running. She’s also said nothing negative about either Bueckers or Nike. But her fan base is more than vocal about both.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 12, 2025, where it first appeared.