Dave Portnoy has been left relieved following his latest exchange with Caitlin Clark — after ruing the apparent dissolution of his “No. 1 relationship” and angrily blaming one of his own employees.
The Barstool Sports founder, who is known as an outspoken supporter of Clark’s, said on a recent episode of “Barstool Live” that his employee, Rico Bosco, had caused Clark to block him after setting his boss up on an awkward phone call with the brother of her boyfriend.
And after a recent message to Clark “went to green,” Portnoy feared his line of communication to the Fever star had been cut off — until she got back to him on Monday.
“I said ‘testing, am I blocked?” he shared on FS1’s “Wake Up Barstool.”
“She said, ‘Yes, crying emoji, laughing, then no, LOL. I think you sent that last text when I was flying.’”
Bosco, who had previously claimed he would “figure it out” for Portnoy, was seen giddily celebrating on the show after Portnoy’s revelation.
The 49-year-old believed he had been blocked by Clark after Bosco put him on the phone with one of the brothers of her boyfriend, former Iowa star Connor McCaffery, without Portnoy realizing who he was speaking to.
The McCafferys’ father, Fran, was the Iowa men’s basketball coach for 15 seasons before being fired last year.
And amid Iowa’s run to the Elite Eight this year, Portnoy was quick to point out the team’s uptick in performance under new head coach Ben McCollum. That apparently didn’t go over well when Bosco handed his boss the phone during a call with one of Connor’s brothers.
“He put a McCaffery in front of me on the cell phone, I didn’t know who I was talking [to],” Portnoy said on Friday’s “Barstool Live.”
“And he’s like, ‘I don’t like what you guys have been saying about my dad.’ I’m like, ‘Who am I even talking to?”’
Portnoy said that following that call, he never heard back from Clark about a pizza review they were set to film in Indianapolis, and was left “really mad” about the incident as he believed he was blocked.
But it was him — not Bosco — who took a dig at Fran McCaffery after the Hawkeyes took down No. 1 seed Florida and reached the Sweet 16 on March 22.
“I don’t want to tattle but my college basketball expert @Return_Of_RB [Rico Bosco] told me the grass isn’t always greener on the other side in regards to Iowa firing Fran McCaffery,” he wrote on X.
“Said it was the wrong move. It took 1 year for them to go further than their entire 17 year run with Fran.”
Iowa ultimately fell to Big Ten rivals Illinois 71-59 in the Elite Eight.
Clark, meanwhile, is gearing up for her third WNBA season, with the Fever set to host the Dallas Wings in their season opener on May 9.