Caitlin Clark Speaks Out After Stalking Conviction
Michael Lewis was jailed for stalking Clark, whose Fever team-mate Cunningham and other WNBA stars have faced similar harassment amid the league's rising profile.
A 55-year-old man was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison last July for stalking Caitlin Clark, sending her hundreds of messages between 12 December 2024 and 11 January 2025, many of them threatening or sexually explicit. The case forced the Indiana Fever guard to change her appearance in public during a season already disrupted by injuries that kept her out of more than 30 games.
Michael Lewis, from Texas, believed he and Clark were in a relationship. He was arrested at a hotel in Indianapolis, where Clark plays. Clark said the ordeal left her fearing for her safety.
She is not the only player dealing with this. Sophie Cunningham, her Fever team-mate, had a 48-year-old man arrested in June for stalking her. Paige Bueckers was stalked while at UConn, with her stalker pleading guilty in 2024. Former Fever guard Syd Colson has spoken publicly about her own experience with a stalker, and Toronto Tempo's Kiki Rice received dozens of messages as a UCLA student from a man convinced the two shared a "magnetic" connection.
Not every close encounter with fans is troubling.
The league's growing popularity has widened its audience, and with it the volume of unwanted attention some players receive. The overlapping cases involving Clark, Cunningham, Bueckers and Rice suggest clubs and the league office will face more, not fewer, questions about player safety as the WNBA's profile continues to rise.
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