Caitlin Clark Has Been The Real Deal. So Her WNBA Rivals Hate Her

Breaking News from the WNBA: The Caitlin Clark experience is still a dumpster fire with her fellow players. Okay, let’s be honest: it’s the veteran black/ LGBTQ players who make up the league’s base. They are still seething over the attention Clark gets for jumps in TV ratings and sponsorships. But don’t take our word for it.

It can to be seen in recent on-court confrontations with black rivals Angel Reese and Rhyme Howard. The veterans of the NBA are happy to slap the newcomer around. They don’t like her slapping back. As we predicted in April of last year, “The most interesting reaction may come from the women already in the WNBA. The intrusion of a white, conservative, straight Catholic woman in their midst won’t sit well in a league where women of that description have been made to feel unwelcome in many dressing rooms. 

“She’ll need a tough hide to survive the resentment of other players who see themselves as the stars and Clark as a product of white privilege.” Her first reality check came with being snubbed for the 2024 U.S. Women’s Olympic team. The veterans said they couldn’t trust a rookie. Sure.

To short-circuit the hate Clark tried reaching out to the black community of the WNBA. “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” Clark told Time. “A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them.” (Fact check”: the WNBA was a chronic money loser ignored by most sports fans before Clark.) Her outreach boomeranged, alienating her white fans while being ignored by most black players in the WNBA.

On last Friday’s First Take on ESPN, Stephen A. Smith was succinct. “As a result of her greatness combined with her being white, there are plenty of Black players who were excelling on the WNBA level for many years before Cailtin Clark ever arrived that didn’t receive that shine. So, there is resentment from the perspective that, ‘Damn, we were doing this and everybody’s trying to act like it’s just her.’

“…They do resent the fact that a white player comes along and they’re getting all of this shine when they were doing a lot of great things for the league and for themselves as individual players, and they didn’t receive that level of shine, that marketability, that pizzaz, etc., etc.”

MSN reported that Robert Griffin III and Ryan Clark of ESPN were on opposite sides of the argument. Griffin offered the opinion that a number of WNBA players treated Clark unfairly, because they were jealous of the publicity she was getting, and that she was viewed as something of a saviour to the league. In addition to her skill, the fact that Caitlin Clark is a white player appeared to turn up the heat in the argument.

By contrast, Clark said that he believed Clark was a talented player, and that she had recognized the great players who had come before her. However, he said there was a “racial component” to the way her fans attack certain players.”

The problem for those hating on Clark, who’s been everything advertised, is that she has brought attention to their sport, attention they failed to generate themselves despite national TV contracts and the chequebook of the NBA. The latest TV deal increased sixfold as Americans tuned in to see Clark. @TheBabylonBee cheekily sums it up. “Caitlin Clark Canonized As Saint After Performing Miracle Of Making Women's Basketball Watchable.” 

As we wrote last April, “That resentment has been naked and ugly from many who see themselves eclipsed by Clark’s obvious drawing power— and by their own inability to break the glass ceiling. As we have written on multiple occasions, women’s sports has been in search of a marketable messiah to change it  from an ESPN liberal hype to mainstream.”

For many in the audience— including women— the image of these sports has become too political. As the gender revolt took hold, fans were turned off by the strident lesbian soccer player Megan Rapinoe and WNBA star Britney Griner who turned every game into a referendum on the latest #BLM talking points.”

In fact it was the insolent, angry face of Griner— here seen cursing out referees—  that informed the public opinion of the WNBA as a league dominated by lesbians and #BLM militants. When Griner, jailed in Russia for foolishly taking marijuana products into that country, was later exchanged by president Joe Biden for a violent militant known as Doctor Death many bridled at surrendering a known criminal just to free a basketball player. They said it showed privilege of a different kind.

Clark isn’t the only white player getting the hard fouls. Her new teammate Sophie Cunningham got rag-dolled by Houston’s Kiki Iriafen, and then acknowledged “We have a target on our back”.

Meanwhile the Professional Women’s Hockey League is desperate for any kind of attention in the U.S. that might attract a TV contract. While receiving well-meaning support in Canada from TV and the media, it remains a sideshow on the American media landscape. Thanks to Clark the WNBA has an 11-year, $2.2B  deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC Universal. So far, the PWHL is still looking (the National Women’s Soccer League has a four year deal with $240M.

While no one is suggesting a racial/ gender conflict to spice up the product, it would help if there were a Caitin Clark on skates somewhere to rescue the league from insolvency. 

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, Bruce is regular media contributor. The new book from there team of Evan & Bruce Dowbiggin is Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL & Changed Hockey. From Espo to Boston in 1967 to Gretz in L.A. in 1988 to Patrick Roy leaving Montreal in 1995, the stories behind the story. In paperback and Kindle on #Amazon. Destined to be a hockey best seller. https://www.amazon.ca/Deal-Trades-Stunned-Changed-Hockey-ebook/dp/B0D236NB35/