Caitlin Clark offered to pay Texas flood victims’ funeral expenses?
Basketball star Caitlin Clark offered to pay Texas flash flood victims’ funeral expenses, with both her and her team, the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, donating millions of dollars in support.
A rumor that circulated on Facebook in July 2025 claimed basketball star Caitlin Clark offered to pay Texas flash flood victims’ funeral expenses, with her and her team, the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, donating millions of dollars in support. According to some versions of the rumor, Clark herself traveled to the Lone Star State to personally aid in rescue efforts.
The floods, mostly occurring in Texas’ Kerr County over the Fourth of July weekend, killed more than 120 people. Officials said more than 170 people remained missing as of July 10.
One Snopes reader emailed, “Rumors are on social media claiming that Caitlin Clark plans pay for the funerals for those lost in Texas floods, as well temporary housing for the survivors that have lost everything due to the tragedy, and she is also doing several other acts of great kindness to the community.”
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting about Clark or the Indiana Fever donating large sums of money to flood victims. Prominent news media outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if true.
Rather, the person or people who authored the stories fabricated the claims, just a few examples of at least hundreds of inspirational tales that depicted celebrities and athletes performing acts of kindness. Those users aimed to earn advertising revenue on the blogs linked from their Facebook posts.
Snopes contacted an Indiana Fever representative to request comment about this matter and will update this story if we learn more information.
Breaking down the false rumor
In the most prominent example of users sharing the false rumor, on July 8, a manager of the Facebook page NBA Evolution posted (archived) a video that received over 6 million views. The post displayed a picture of Clark next to two other photos allegedly showing the aftermath of the July floods.
While the low-quality picture of first responders standing next to a red car (lower-right corner below) authentically originated from the July 2025 Texas floods, a photographer captured the other image (upper-right corner) showing people walking through floodwaters in Houston, Texas, in 2017.
(NBA Evolution/Facebook)
The post’s text caption read:
SURPRISE! Caitlin Clark has stepped in to pay for the funeral expenses and compensation for the families of the victims of the devastating Texas flash floods for their emotional and financial losses, leaving fans VERY EMOTIONAL…
Full story: https://autulu.com/v65gIn a powerful act of compassion, basketball sensation Caitlin Clark has stunned the nation by stepping in to cover the funeral expenses and provide financial compensation for the families affected by the devastating Texas flash floods, leaving fans deeply emotional and full of praise for the young star.
Other Facebook users also shared similar claims about Clark and/or the Indiana Fever donating money to support victims, including with posts mentioning the contribution amounts of $3.5 million (archived), $5 million (archived), $5.3 million (archived), $20 million (archived) or $50 million (archived). Those posts featured links, either in the posts or in top comments, leading to ad-filled articles hosted on blogs. For example, the NBA Evolution post included a link to an ad-filled story hosted on the autulu.com website. A scan of the article’s text with the Copyleaks.com artificial intelligence (AI)-detection website concluded with an extremely high likelihood someone generated the story with an AI tool.
The NBA Evolution Facebook page’s page transparency tab — one displaying a Meta verified badge, despite sharing no official affiliation with the NBA or WNBA — showed the majority of its page managers as residing in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of several countries often appearing as participants in the online world of fabricated, AI-driven misinformation involving celebrities and athletes.
The Clark’s Hoops Journey Facebook page, with page managers also residing in Vietnam, also featured a post (archived) showing one or more artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of Clark wading through floodwaters. That image in particular displayed a Meta AI watermark, meaning a user asked Meta’s AI tool to create the picture. The post also falsely claimed, “SAD NEWS: Caitlin Clark and her boyfriend Connor McCaffery went to Texas to help refugees, unfortunately her boyfriend was swept away by floodwaters.” Despite its low engagement numbers, the post showed the lengths to which some users will go to make money online.
A Meta AI label is visible in the picture’s lower-right corner. (Clark’s Hoops Journey/Facebook)
Some of these stories resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as stories “that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental.”
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on numerous other rumors about the Texas floods, including a number of famous people also mentioned in false stories about donating their time and rescue efforts to victims.