A narrative derailed

 Team Spoon beat Team Coop 129-122 last night in the WNBA All-Star game, and, hey, look, none of those mean black girls (or mean white girls) punched out Caitlin Clark. Why, there's even a picture here of All-Star game MVP Jonquel Jones holding the trophy in one arm and hugging Caitlin with the other.

And when Caitlin dropped back-to-back logo threes on her way to 17 points?

Paige Bueckers from Team Coop -- one Clark's "rivals" who allegedly are just eaten up with jealousy of her -- didn't sneer or make a snippy comment or turn green with envy.

Nah. She just laughed and said "You goin' for MVP? Damn!"

This was bad news for the yapping sports talk poodles and other media poop-stirrers who've been working overtime to sell the narrative that poor Caitlin's being roughed up and persecuted by (choose one or all) hate-filled lesbians; hate-filled black lesbians; or  hate-filled established stars who can't stand that this relative newcomer is stealing their starlight with fame she doesn't deserve.

So they're playing rough with her because it's a jealousy thing or a black-white thing or a gay-straight thing, and not because, well, it's a rough league and has been for a long time -- mainly because the officiating stinks like Christmas leftovers in March.

It's a narrative that ignores the fact CC sometimes brings it on herself, because she's a platinum-grade chirper and an enthusiastic seller of fouls. And then chirps at the officials when they don't buy, which is why she's one tech away from a game's suspension.

None of this is criticism, mind you, at least explicitly. After all, Clark's hardly the first player, nor will she be the last, to bring a certain combativeness to her work. You could even argue it's part of why she's so good.

But when the media and grandstanding politicians choose to refract that through a black-white, gay-straight lens, they're using Clark to push an agenda, not reality. And that rightly ticks her off.

"I think there's just like a false characterization of who I am sometimes," she said in an ESPN interview Friday. "And I get it, like as a reporter or blogger, you can write an opinion piece and that's your job and whatever, but at the same time, you don't know me. We've never had a conversation.

"I get people have a job to do, but at the same time, like don't make accusations about my character and who I am when you don't know me."

Absolutely. And the villains in this manufactured narrative could say exactly the same thing.

Perhaps last night they did.