It’s pretty clear that some WNBA players aren’t too fond of Caitlin Clark.
That should be a good thing for the WNBA.
The anti-Caitlin sentiment is becoming more apparent with each passing game. It flared up the biggest on Saturday, when Chicago’s Chennedy Carter threw a shoulder at an unsuspecting Clark, knocking Clark to the ground. Carter’s teammate, Angel Reese, an old Clark rival from college, cheered the move from the bench.
This was a clear escalation of an infighting between the two over the previous few possessions, with Clark appearing to throw an elbow at Carter and say something to her face.
Clark is a standout and it adds a lot of spice to a season where, unlike in college, she can’t dominate the competition.
Anyone expecting a 40-point performance with Magic Johnson-esque passing was always going to be disappointed. Watching Clark fight through adversity and rivals rise should be drama enough. Plus, Indiana is terrible.
Clark went just 1 of 10 from the field and scored a paltry three points in a Sunday loss to New York. She left the match with an apparent ear injury after hitting a screen.
The league clearly believes they can physically take her out of her game, a fairly common tactic against young players at all levels of basketball.
“We understand who the head of the monster is on that team,” New York veteran guard Sabrina Ionescu said of Clark. “We just try to make everything hard and difficult.”
Some of it is just business. Some of it seems personal, though. Neither is wrong.
Maybe it’s her fame. Maybe it’s her money. Maybe it’s the attention she commands. Maybe it’s just the newcomer who still has to prove himself. All these motivations can also be found in other sports and other circumstances.
Or maybe it’s just that Clark himself plays a hard, physical and in-your-face game.
Whatever it is, the spice – and the pushing – has become a constant and that should add a nice bit of interest to things. The most popular sport in America? Controversy. There’s nothing like some bad blood and uncertainty about what might happen to attract fans, or at least keep them if Clark’s game comes together.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect that,” Clark said of the pat on the back. “But it’s just like, ‘React, calm down and let your play speak for itself. It is what it is. It’s a physical game, make the free throw and then execute on the attack.’ It feels like we did that.”
For her part, Carter did not want to talk to the media about it, but made her position known on social media.
“Besides three-point shooting, what does she bring to the table man,” Carter asked in a message.
She later embraced the response of those who sided with Clark.
“I grew up with all brothers,” wrote Carter, a fourth-year player. “All we did was fight and argue. I love hate more than love… I’d rather you hate me [than] love me and i mean that to my late aunt.
Just the fact that “that’s what I mean by my dead aunt” is in the dictionary is enough to make this stuff fun.
What would make it even better is if everyone embraced Caitlin Clark’s mentality – this is not a problem. Carter’s shoulder was deemed a Flagrant 1 foul by the league, but there will be no discipline. The way to end this is with a hard screen or a push back, or best of all, Clark uses it as motivation to win.
The fact that Golden State’s Draymond Green has said the Fever should sign an “enforcer” to protect their star – as Green has done for Steph Curry, who was constantly challenged physically – and most people agreed is his own small victory for the legitimacy of women’s sports. . No kid gloves here. Play ball.
Yes, ideally every game is played with sportsmanship and respect, but that’s not how the real world, especially in competitive sports, is played. Many fans wouldn’t even want that either.
From a purely business perspective, WNBA players should appreciate Caitlin Clark for the sponsorship money, fan attention and media attention she brings to a league that hasn’t really made a breakthrough in more than a quarter century of existence.
Maybe Carter is right and Clark’s rookie game consists largely of three-point shooting. It’s a big adjustment from the college ranks, where there are only a few good teams and players, versus the W, which only has 144 roster slots with the best players in the world. It goes without saying that Clark will continue to establish herself and show the passing skills, scoring and leadership she did at Iowa.
What Clark undoubtedly brings is attention. If this happened a year ago, with another player, only the diehard fans would know. Or care.
Everything is bigger with Caitlin Clark, and that’s why that punch turned heads and won’t stop until she strikes back somehow.
Caitlin Clark was never going to immediately overwhelm the WNBA. Her attempt to get there – against those who don’t seem to care about her at all – will be worth watching.
