All of this has been years in the making. Viewership of women’s college basketball has steadily increased over the years. Since the 1990s, we’ve seen the rise of superstar players, powerhouse women’s teams, and billionaire coaches. As a young player, I remember idolizing Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Diana Taurasi, and Sue Bird, and watching Tennessee basketball under the pioneering coach Pat Summitt.
All history is worth learning from, and right now there are plenty of great young players like Reese and fellow rookie Cameron Brink, as well as great veterans like Taurasi, but if you listen to Clark’s biggest fans, She’s Alone It is the spirit of God that elevates sports. It is not enough to enjoy the 22-year-old rookie from the University of Iowa. Her followers demand that all fans and the league itself should bow down in gratitude for the interest in Clark, especially from white and male spectators. The implicit threat is that if Clark doesn’t get what they believe, she’ll… (clears throat) The audience Their interest can be snatched away at any time.
Given that the WNBA is more than 60 percent black, it’s hard not to feel like new fans are using Clark as a mouthpiece for their own issues and attitudes about race, sexuality and gender.
Take for example the recent decision to leave Clark off the U.S. team roster for this summer’s Paris Olympics. The team announced was chock-full of veteran talent, a women’s dream team that included Taurasi and Phoenix Mercury teammate Brittney Griner. Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart were also on the list. No rookies were named to the team. No players under the age of 26 were selected.
But for two weeks, commentators have been clamoring that women’s basketball is missing “the biggest opportunity ever” to grow the sport. USA Today columnist Christine Brennan called the Olympic decision a snub and accused the USA Basketball Association of “abandoning” Clark. Barstool Sports released a T-shirt featuring five photos of Clark, each holding one of the five Olympic rings. “The Only Player Who Matters,” the shirt reads.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently said of the selection, “I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, but I wish we could have seen her on the court,” adding that basketball’s governing body had “very clear instructions to field the best team possible from a competitive standpoint, and I acknowledge that they all did their job.”
In other words, Team USA’s job is to win. Clark readily acknowledged that she has some growing to do before she can fully match up with the best veterans in the sport. “Honestly, I’m not disappointed,” she said after the roster was announced. “It just gives me a reason to work hard. It’s a dream. Hopefully I’ll be there one day. I guess it just gives me a little extra motivation. Remember, hopefully I’ll be there again in four years.”
Of course, civility is in short supply on sports radio and social media. The right has used Clark to stoke not just racism but homophobia as well. Professional bombast Jason Whitlock has called the WNBA a “traveling lesbian sex cult.” Whitlock continued: “They’re treating Caitlin Clark so hostilely because they want to ruin her, ruin her, destroy her so they can put a lesbian or a black woman, preferably a black lesbian woman, as the face of this league. … Have you ever heard any of them talk about what men have done for them?”
When asked about her name being used as a weapon to promote racism and misogyny, Clark said, “I believe everyone in this world deserves the same respect. The women in our league deserve the same respect. My name should not be used to promote that. It’s unfortunate. It’s unacceptable.”
It’s amazing and part of the essence of sports to see talented young players challenge and eventually dethrone the stars they idolized as kids. Clark joins a great and growing tradition of women’s basketball and does so with grace and maturity. But she’s just getting started in the WNBA. Her fans need to follow her example and respect the legacy of the women who came before her.
But isn’t this the crux of our cultural and political moment? The rise of the WNBA has coincided with a broader wave of conservative masculinity claiming to “save” America from a variety of “threats”: critical race theory, DEI, immigrants of color, LGBTQ+ people, etc. Clark doesn’t want to be saved from anything. Her radical fans should shut up.
