Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel made a heart gesture at Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark on Wednesday at a news conference to begin an icky exchange with the WNBA s top draft pick.

You like that? Clark said, referring to Doyels imitation of her signature heart greeting.

I like that youre here, Doyel said.

I do that with my family after every game, Clark noted.

Start doing it to me and well get along just fine, Doyel replied.

Yikes. Ugh. Sigh.

Clark, who became the NCAAs all-time scorer at Iowa and was the No. 1 pick Monday night during the WNBA draft, may have just received her first major dose of sexism as a pro.

Doyel issued multiple apologies afterward. On X, formerly Twitter, he called his heart gesture uniquely oafish and comment clumsy and awkward.

Please know my heart (literally and figuratively) was well-intentioned. I will do better, he wrote.

Im devastated to realize Im part of the problem, he then wrote in a column published later in the day. I screwed up Wednesday during my first interaction with No. 1 overall draft pick Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever.

His mea culpa took a questionable turn:

What happened was the most me thing ever, in one way. Im sort of known locally, sigh, for having awkward conversations with people before asking brashly conversational questions. Ive done this for years with Colts coaches Chuck Pagano, Frank Reich and Shane Steichen. Ive done it with Purdue players Carsen Edwards and Zach Edey. I did it with IUs Romeo Langford, talking to them as people, not athletes.

Notice something about all those names?

Theyre all men.

Not helping, dude.

HuffPost reached out to the Indy Star for comment.