USA TODAY columnist Christine Brennan, whom the WNBA players’ association said should lose her tickets after asking a question “intended to incite racist vitriol,” responded to a “false” report that she filed a grievance against a player.

Brennan sparked controversy when she asked DiJonai Carrington if she intentionally poked Caitlin Clark in the eye during Game 1 of the first round playoffs between the Sun and Fever. When Carrington denied having any malicious intent, Brennan asked whether Carrington and her teammate, Marina Mabrey, laughed about it afterward – a view that Carrington also disapproved of.

On Monday, espnW’s Sarah Spain reported on X that Brennan filed a complaint with the league after Carrington’s teammate DeWanna Bonner approached her about her line of questioning.

Spain cited two anonymous sources who said Brennan had complained to the league.

Brennan, who appeared on the Spanish podcast “Good Game with Sarah Spain” last week, quickly shot down the claim.

“Hi Sarah, this is inaccurate,” she wrote. This is false. I did not file a complaint. I haven’t contacted anyone in the league. Your sources are wrong. You and I have a long and good relationship, so I always enjoy talking to you. Why didn’t you call me before posting this?

Spain replied about two hours later, writing: “Christine, thank you for calling me this morning. While I trust the sources who gave me this information, I regret not calling you last night for comment. I’m sorry I didn’t contact you earlier.

During her interview with Spain, Brennan shared that she had a few words with Bonner after the former’s interview with Carrington.

“I wouldn’t call it, um, hot,” Brennan told Spain. “I would call it a person who comes to talk to me.”

Brennan later told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she wouldn’t hesitate to ask Carrington about the eye poke again, and told Spain that people might hate her and her reporting.

“There’s nothing in me that would take away… any of the issues we’re discussing,” she said. “What happened from some people in terms of their hatred towards me is fine. It’s a free country. They may hate me. If something like that bothered me, I probably would have hid under my bed in 1982 and never come out.

Following Brennan’s controversial questioning of Carrington – which has so far received over 5.5 million views on X – the WNBA players’ association issued a scathing statement against Brennan, who was mentioned by name.

“To lay media members like Christine Brennan: you are not fooling anyone,” the statement read.

“The so-called interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to lure a professional athlete into participating in a false narrative designed to fuel racist, homophobic and misogynistic vitriol on social media. You can’t hide behind your job.

“Instead of demonstrating the basics of journalistic ethics, such as honesty, objectivity and fundamental commitment to the truth, you decided to behave indecently and downright disingenuously,” they added.

“You abused your privileges and do not deserve the tickets issued to you. And you certainly have no right to any interviews with members of this association or any other athlete.

“These credentials mean you can ask about anything, but they also mean you know the difference between what you should and shouldn’t. See you soon.

It’s worth noting that Brennan is writing a book about Clark’s impact on women’s basketball, and this season, she focused much of her USA TODAY column on Clark, a freshman.

While Clark condemned racist fans as “trolls” following her team’s exit from the playoffs, several players condemned her supporters for treating them racistly.

On her podcast Unapologetically Angel, Reese talked about how Indiana fans threatened her, followed her home, took AI-generated nude photos of her and sent them to family members.

Following The Fever’s elimination, Connecticut star Alyssa Thomas became furious over the racist attacks her team experienced from Indiana fans throughout the series. Fans targeted Carrington’s eyelashes, while another had “no nails allowed” written on his shirt with large fake nails sticking out from each finger.

“It’s a lot of nonsense. In my 11-year career, I don’t think I’ve ever seen racist comments from Indiana Fever fans,” Thomas said.

“We have had (Carrington’s) face on a serious matter that has happened in this world and, quite frankly, it is unacceptable. There is no place for this and we behaved professionally at all times, but I was never called anything like I was called on social media.

Nevertheless, as Brennan told CNN’s Jake Tapper, she doesn’t regret asking Carrington the questions that have now put her in hot water.

“The best thing I can do as a journalist is to give an athlete a chance – which I have done tens of thousands of times – to answer a question and tell us what she thinks happened,” Brennan told Tapper. – That was literally everything.

“As you know, first of all, I would ask this question 100 times out of 100, I would ask it today. The athlete has every opportunity to then answer that question and do it however they want,” Brennan continued. – And of course she did. So this is an opportunity that I think every journalist gives an athlete when they cover a story, to give them the opportunity to present their side of the story.