WNBA Analyst Apologizes After Misstating Rookie Assist Record
Her clarification that she misspoke about a franchise mark has provoked fan anger and renewed scrutiny of The Athletic’s fact-checking practices.
Overview
- An Athletic analyst, Zena Keita, said on The Athletic’s women’s basketball show that Minnesota rookie Olivia Miles had set the WNBA single-season rookie assist record, a claim that was factually incorrect.
- A clip of the remark circulated widely on X on Sunday, prompting fans and outlets to point out that Caitlin Clark still holds the WNBA rookie assists mark and to criticize the show’s verification processes.
- Keita posted public corrections on X, saying she had misspoken and meant that Miles set the Minnesota Lynx rookie single-season assist record and she expressly denied any racial motive for the error.
- The accurate totals are Caitlin Clark’s 337 assists in 40 games in 2024 and Olivia Miles’s roughly 227–228 assists in 37 games in 2026, with the Lynx franchise rookie record previously held by Noelle Quinn at 148 assists in 2007.
- The episode has amplified fan anger about sloppy stats, put production-level fact-checking at The Athletic under pressure, and underscored how quickly social platforms can escalate reputational fallout for sports analysts.