Dave Portnoy slammed an Indianapolis Star sports columnist whose awkward interaction with Caitlin Clark has gone viral.
During a press conference Wednesday, journalist Gregg Doyel kicked off his interaction with the No. 1 WNBA draft pick by doing her signature heart-hand pose, which she has consistently done on the court to address her family in the stands of her college basketball games.
“You like that?” Clark, 22, responded.
“I like that you’re here, I like that you’re here,” Doyel said.
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“Yeah, I do that at my family after every game,” Clark noted of the hand gesture.
Doyel then responded, “Start doing it to me, and we’ll get along just fine.”
The sexually charged interaction with Clark, who has a boyfriend, immediately went viral, with the Barstool Sports founder, 47, taking to X to lambast the columnist.
“@IndyStarSports do something about this pervert,” Portnoy tweeted Wednesday before adding, “To clarify I meant to call Gregg Doyle [sic] a sexist pervert. Which he is based on his nauseating actions today.”
Doyel issued an apology in which he called himself “oafish” for his “clumsy and awkward” comments.
“I sincerely apologize. Please know my heart (literally and figuratively) was well-intentioned. I will do better,” he wrote.
However, Portnoy didn’t buy the mea culpa, as he responded to Doyel, “Okay pervert.”
Clark has had a busy week since being drafted by the Indiana Fever, appearing on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend and then partying with Angel Reese, the seventh draft pick, at Tao the following evening.
We heard Clark had a blast and was “smiling a lot” — though she seemed relatively “reserved” — while Reese grabbed a microphone in the DJ booth and started singing along to the music.
A video on social media showed Clark’s boyfriend, Connor McCaffery, joined her at the celebratory bash.
