Let’s get a few things straight.
Is Caitlin Clark a generational talent? Yes. Has Caitlin Clark generated eyeballs and ratings for women’s basketball? You bet. Does Caitlin Clark fill up arenas wherever she goes? Undoubtedly. Can Caitlin Clark become one of the greatest? For sure.
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All that can be true, and at the same time, it can be true that Caitlin Clark is a human being with potential to grow. Her game can evolve, and she can improve over time and with experience. Clark needs to clean up the turnovers, build some muscle and improve her defensive game.
She is also not a damsel in distress with a target on her back from a league that she has wanted to be a part of her whole life.
It’s unfathomable that this needs to be reiterated time after time whenever something objectively inconsequential occurs that involves Clark and some of her perceived fans take it as an affront to humanity itself.
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That was once again on full display following the June 24th game between the Indiana Fever and visiting Phoenix Mercury, in which Clark and Alyssa Thomas fought for a loose ball. In the scrum, Thomas appeared to press her fist into Clark’s throat and step on her.
The officials didn’t rule the play a foul at the time, but after an official review following the game, the WNBA ruled it a flagrant 2 and issued Thomas a one-game suspension.
Was it dirty? No doubt. Should the officiating have been better? Yes, officiating in the WNBA has been a problem for too long. Would it have been reasonable for Thomas to be ejected from the game? Absolutely. Should her suspension have been longer? Arguably.
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However, all this can be true without turning it into a national soap opera where people who have likely never watched a women’s basketball game or perhaps a basketball period are weighing in. Many of these voices likely believe that a pick-and-roll is an appetizer.
One of those is Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who said that Clark should go play overseas in Europe. Burchett told TMZ:
I think it’s trashy. She gets the crap kicked out of her. … I think she’s an exceptional athlete, and she’s being just abused physically…. [The WNBA] will lose. Some European league is going to pull her in, and they’ll pay her, and she’ll pull out, and they’ll all be back flying coach.
No records show Congressman Burchett being present at a WNBA game or even at a Vanderbilt University women’s basketball game, given that the campus is in his district.
One would hope that the elected official has his hands full in a state where his constituents are dealing with surging personal bankruptcies, farms on the chopping block, a child welfare system facing serious systemic challenges and redistricting that is wiping away a majority-Black district.
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Pennsylvania Congressman Brendon Boyle questioned why the WNBA doesn’t market Clark enough, evoking the name of Michael Jordan while admitting that he isn’t a big WNBA fan, not until a franchise in Philadelphia arrives in 2030. Boyle posted on Twitter/X:
Admittedly I’m not a big WNBA fan and won’t be until Philly gets a team. But it’s just bizarre to me they don’t market the one player they have who attracts so many fans, and that’s Caitlin Clark. It’s so strange. I remember the way the NBA marketed Jordan to the hilt.
Former NFL Quarterback Boomer Esiason, not only said on his radio show that Clark should play overseas, but also laid bare the white identity politics that inspires these voices to “support” Clark, proclaiming:
If I were Caitlin Clark, I would seriously consider going to play overseas somewhere and get the royal treatment…she’s a straight white basketball player. And she is not being treated with any sort of respect.
But perhaps the one that takes the cake is that of Mark Vargas, editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review, a conservative website. He called on the United States Civil Rights Division to open an investigation into whether the WNBA is violating Caitlin Clark’s civil rights.
Seriously?! With Iran and inflation at the forefront of most rational people’s minds, this is what the federal government should be laser-focused on?
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That one is the winner because it really sheds light on what seems to be the motive behind some of this hyperactive tendency to want to “protect” Caitlin Clark. It has very little to do with basketball and is instead pure racial grievance.
To be clear, as someone who covered Caitlin Clark at Iowa, I can say she has genuine fans and supporters who relish what she has brought to the game. She is good for the game and good for sports at a time when sports are in real need of positive influences.
Nevertheless, there is a loud cabal using Clark’s image to unapologetically project their own insecurities, biases and outright hostilities towards Black women, and especially Black queer women, in the WNBA.
It’s been done before to players such as Angel Reese and Chennedy Carter, where aggressive play is perceived as assault.
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This needs to stop, especially when Alyssa Thomas has said that she and her family are on the receiving end of abuse and threats online.
The WNBA should be in a celebratory moment, marking the growth in popularity of women’s basketball in the league’s 30th season.
It would be nice if Clark could just be another player who is part of this celebration, not a symbol to divide and discredit the league.
