No one at this point is denying that the arrival of Caitlin Clark into the WNBA has been a game-changer for the league. The fact that she has made other teams relocate games against the Indiana Fever to larger NBA venues tells the entire story.
Unfortunately, as has become well-documented, not all of the attention that has been brought to the W by the arrival of No. 22 has been positive. This is something that even she herself has acknowledged.
As we are on the eve of the 2025 season, we cannot help but look back at the 2024 season and how plenty of “new” WNBA media tried to manufacture a storyline that the rest of the W – specifically its Black players – were somehow “jealous” of Clark.
Chennedy Carter was a focal point of this as was DiJonai Carrington in last season’s postseason with Connecticut. And, of course, we cannot forget about the media’s favorite heel in Angel Reese.
Whenever Clark was played hard or whenever she fell to the ground, this precipitated days of toxic discussion on mainstream sports television and radio where pundits pontificated that the rest of the W’s players were jealous and they were out to “get” Clark.
Let us be honest – if there was a Venn Diagram between media types who were attempting to push forth this as a storyline and those who could only name Clark when asking about WNBA players, that Venn Diagram may be a perfect circle – 2πr circumference and all.
It was a lazy, unserious storyline that became a talking point of the 2024 season. For the love of everything that is Holy, it deserves to be left in 2024 – dead and buried in 2024 to never resurface in 2025 or any year following 2025.
For what reason would the rest of the WNBA be out to get someone who they themselves know is good for the long-term health of the league? The players are in the midst of a collective bargaining struggle with the W’s owners and the union is likely mentioning Clark every chance it gets to wrangle a friendly deal out of said owners.
Players have said themselves on numerous occasions that they have welcomed Clark with open arms – and Clark has returned the favor by welcoming in the WNBA as part of her sphere. Clark has always wanted to be in the WNBA since she grew up watching Maya Moore lead the Minnesota Lynx to four championships in the 2010s.
There is a very specific word for many of these personalities who were introduced to the W via Clark when they pontificate that the rest of the WNBA is jealous of her.
It is called projection.
Their main talking point is that Clark brought attention to a sport that supposedly no one was checking for prior to her being drafted last year by the Indiana Fever. That is incorrect because the WNBA had an increased amount of eyeballs on it even in the few years prior to Clark arriving on the scene.
Maybe the WNBA was not on the televisions of the specific households of these various media personalities who mentally combust when they have to watch a sport other than football, but the 2023 Finals should tell people that the WNBA was gaining in popularity even before Clark.
When these individuals claim the be the voice of the sports fan, they are really only the voice of themselves. Ari Chambers, Terrika Foster-Brasby, Khristina Williams, Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, Andraya Carter, Meghan Hall, Erica Ayala, Natalie Esquire and Monica McNutt are much more truly representative of the voice of the sports fan than these personalities who have only been following the W for the better part of 12 months.
Oh…and let us not even forget how Christine Brennan of USA Today used Carrington’s nail making contact with Clark in last season’s playoffs into an opportunity for her to mine quotes from Carrington – for an upcoming book she wanted to hawk. Brennan is a longtime women’s sports reporter and advocate who knows better but the financial incentives from book deals have a way of leading even individuals like Brennan to the sunken place.
The sad part about the toxic climate these irresponsible media personalities created was it made it difficult to marvel at Clark’s greatness. She had a great 2024 season with the Fever that included an All-Star berth, winning Rookie of the Year and delivering Indiana to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 – Tamika Catchings’ final season in the W.
That should have been the story regarding Clark – the near overnight turnaround of the Fever franchise. Unfortunately it was not because a bunch of overpaid television, radio and podcast pundits tried a divide-and-conquer scheme that failed epically. Clark is still in the W and she still has no problems hooping alongside Black players in an 80-plus percent Black league.
Keep the negative vibes and the negative energy far away from the W’s realm. Because we are here for the positive vibes and positive energy that will lead to more wins for the Fever (and the W as a whole thanks to Clark).
Oh…and one more thing…
I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege.
–Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever (Time Magazine)
A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.
–Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever (Time Magazine)
