Fact Check

Caitlin Clark Signed Multi-Million Dollar Deal with Samsung?

Rumors about the WNBA star spread online after she missed out on Olympics selection in June 2024.

Published June 20, 2024

 (Facebook account SpaceX Fanclub)
Image courtesy of Facebook account SpaceX Fanclub
Claim:
WNBA star Caitlin Clark signed a multi-million dollar deal with Samsung in June 2024.

On June 14, 2024, the Facebook page SpaceX Fanclub posted a meme claiming WNBA star Caitlin Clark had signed a multi-million dollar deal with Samsung.

The image contained a caption, which read: "Caitlin Clark Signs Multi-Million Dollar Deal With Samsung - 'Need More People Like Caitlin Clark, Fewer Like LeBron James'."

Similar posts appeared elsewhere on Facebook, and on a "breaking news" website run by 3B Team.

People replying to SpaceX Fanclub's image appeared to believe the claim, with one saying: "Congrats. A talented young lady with class, decency, and traditional, non-woke values."

Together, the posts had amassed more than 28,000 interactions.

However, the basketball player's Samsung deal was not real. The post came from SpaceX Fanclub, a Facebook page that described its content as satirical in nature, as follows:

We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real.

The caption on SpaceX Fanclub's Clark post even read: "Caitlin Clark Signs Multi-Million Dollar Deal With Samsung - Satire."

The meme also contained a "Rated Satire" badge in the top-left corner.

Snopes addressed numerous satirical claims about Caitlin Clark following her omission from the Team USA basketball squad for the 2024 Paris Olympics. We also covered multiple satirical claims posted by the SpaceX Fanclub Facebook page.

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

Sources

Eifert, Sean. 'Team USA Lost $60 Million in Endorsements After Caitlin Clark Left Off Olympics Roster?' Snopes, 18 June 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/caitlin-clark-team-usa-olympics/.

Ibrahim, Nur. 'Elon Musk Invested $1B Into Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's "Un-Woke" Production Studio?' Snopes, 25 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/musk-gibson-wahlberg-studio/.

Liles, Jordan. 'Caitlin Clark Joined Women's National Team After Brittney Griner Released for "Undisclosed Reasons"?' Snopes, 14 June 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/clark-griner-womens-team/.

Log in or Sign up to View. https://www.facebook.com/login/. Accessed 20 June 2024.

---. https://www.facebook.com/login/. Accessed 20 June 2024.

Rascouët-Paz, Anna. 'Elon Musk Pulled Funding from Boy Scouts for Going "Woke"?' Snopes, 13 May 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/elon-musk-scouts-woke/.

'US Opts for Experience and Versatility on Olympic Women's Basketball Roster, Passes on Caitlin Clark'. AP News, 11 June 2024, https://apnews.com/article/olympics-paris-games-caitlin-clark-61e849cb0ca15bd430566a5acde97470.

Nick Hardinges is a London-based reporter who previously worked as a fact-checker at Reuters.