This WNBA season has been dominated by headlines surrounding Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark. There’s been constant coverage around her emotional outbursts, her struggles from the field, her game-winners, and the way she is officiated and defended. One of the hottest takes that has stood out was when a former Fox Sports analyst said that the league would be better off altogether without her in it.
“The W, at this junction in time, would be better without Caitlin Clark, because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive,” he said on his Speakeasy show. “Caitlin Clark has gotten the WNBA over the necessary threshold they needed.
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“Now people are watching. Now we realize, oh, there’s talent in the W — talent that’s actually even greater than Caitlin Clark… Caitlin got the necessary eyes there. But now that the eyes are there, we don’t necessarily need her anymore.”
“Absolutely, positively insane.”
On Friday, Stephen A. Smith addressed the take and made short work of completely writing it off.
“Absolutely, positively insane,” Smith said of the take.
“Caitlin Clark is the cash cow,” he continued. “I don’t care what numbers you see the WNBA making; they’re nothing compared to the numbers Caitlin Clark generates for the WNBA. That’s just the truth. You know, she comes into the league, and 2 weeks later, after years and years of flying commercial, they get chartered— they get chartered flights the moment she arrives into the league.”
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Acknowledging the “sisters”
However, Smith made sure to still show appreciation for the women who came before Clark, especially the women of color.
“Now, I want to be very, very clear about what I’m about to say,” he added. “Caitlin Clark did not build the WNBA. The WNBA was built on the backs of many people who came before Caitlin Clark, most of them being sisters, meaning Black ladies.
“The Cynthia Coopers, the Sheryl Swoopes of the world, the Lisa Leslies of the world. The Maya Moores of the world. List goes on and on.”
Smith also acknowledged that white women have played a part in helping to shape the WNBA, such as Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, and Breanna Stewart, but also wanted to acknowledge the reality that some of the league’s black stars haven’t gotten their due.
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“I’ve said it many, many times, and I’m gonna say it again no matter how uncomfortable it makes people, because it’s just reality. When white folks catch a cold, Black folks catch pneumonia. It’s always worse for us, and it’s always going to be better for them before it’s better for us.”
The post ‘Caitlin Clark did not build the WNBA’: Stephen A. Smith credits black women who made the league what it is today appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
