WNBA "Controversies" Really About Nothing

Caitlin Clark's rookie season has led to more exposure, but the rest of the league is being portrayed unfairly.

There is no doubt that Caitlin Clark has brought attention to women’s basketball. From the record setting viewership of the women’s NCAA tournament to the increase in viewership of the WNBA, the phenom has even non-sports people tuning into games, buying tickets, and sporting merchandise.

With that attention, the League is now a daily topic on sports radio, sports TV, and everyone’s podcast.

Make no mistake, this is a great thing. There have been some elite female athletes who have put together historic careers in relative obscurity whether that came in the form of no mentions on SportsCenter to half-full arenas. They are finally getting an audience and the attention to showcase what they’ve been doing all along…playing great basketball.

But, like everything else in sports media, there are these narratives going around that the League and its players are treating Caitlin Clark poorly, that there is a cattiness. The highlights of Clark getting elbowed, pushed hard, cheap-shotted are dominating the screen and talk shows. The narrative is pushing this idea that because Clark is white, she is getting extra attention. The narrative is that the veteran players are resentful and don’t think she’s needed.

All of it is noise.

Let’s start with the last one. Clark is most definitely responsible for the increased viewership as the Indiana Fever games have dominated the TV ratings. This continues a rise in viewership in the WNBA that started last season as well as in women’s sports in general. But, Clark poured gasoline on a flame that was already lit.

And, yes, Clark is getting the “Larry Bird” attention. There’s no debating that. But, like Bird, she is already one of the best players in the league as a rookie who literally had a month off between her college season and the grind of a professional season. She’s getting the attention, but there is no mistaking her talent as she is doing things that few others in the League are capable of. Just wait until she has a full offseason under her belt and the knowledge of what a full professional season is like. If we think she’s great now, just wait until next year.

Finally, the jealously narrative that is leading to Clark getting beat up. There is truth to that because we have seen rookies in all sports come in with such great hype that the veteran players are like, “What the hell? I’ve been doing this for years.”

I remember the time when I was sent by USA Today Weekly to Citi Field to write a piece about the Mets’ rookie phenom, Zack Wheeler. Walking around the clubhouse, I bumped into veteran pitcher LaTroy Hawkins. He was one of the nicest players I’ve ever spoken with. He praised his younger teammates, but then asked me why a feature on Wheeler? His reason for the question was simple; “He hasn’t done anything yet.”

There was no malice in Hawkins’ comment. He was simply, rationally, stating that there were guys in his own locker room who have accomplished things and were worthy of a cover story more than a rookie who hadn’t proved anything over the course of a 162 game season.

Sports fans and sports media are obsessed with the young phenom because we haven’t seen their flaws yet. All we have is the promise of greatness. I mean, I just wrote that a couple of paragraphs ago about Clark being better next year. I don’t know that for certain, of course. But, I do know her promise and exploits make me believe that as fact.

Athletes aren’t obsessed with promise. They are obsessed about their own play, about their own finite careers, and their own paychecks. Increased viewership, merchandise sales, and attention all lead to increased revenue. The players don’t care about someone getting an inordinate amount of attention if it is making them money.

That, however, does not extend to actually game competition.

Is Caitlin Clark taking hard fouls?

Yes, without a doubt.

This is a professional league with talented players.

She is a rookie.

The NBA players didn’t roll out the red carpet for Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the late 1970’s, even though both were responsible for the League suddenly being popular enough to warrant live television broadcasts. Yes, I am old enough to remember that the NBA playoffs were often played on tape delay.

The NBA didn’t give Michael Jordan some easy welcome. He survived his rookie season, but then took a hard hit which caused him to miss 64 games with a broken foot.

Athletes compete. Once the games start, it is about winning and losing. They aren’t going to let Clark run all over. And, Clark needs to calibrate her game to the professional league as each team has elite talent. There are no “gimmes” like there were in college.

The hard fouls are not out of cattiness or jealously. They are about competing and winning a game. They are about setting a tone that despite Clark being world famous, she will have to earn her spot in the WNBA pantheon of greatness. This group of women are elite athletes who have been competing at an elite level for a long time. We are simply late to the party.

I saw a TikTok clip—I searched and can’t find it—in which a young woman was saying that women were bad at lifting each other up and that the league veterans should be praising Clark and thanking Clark for all of the new attention.

That is nonsense.

A professional athlete should not ever have to praise someone else or go easy on someone, even if they are benefiting from their popularity. They are paid to win games. Caitlin Clark does not need a Diana Taurasi to lift her up. Clark is talented enough to do that on her own. Taurasi is an all-time competitor and isn’t beholden to Clark. They are on different teams so therefore they are rivals.

Those new to sports may not understand this concept. Professional sports is about wins, losses, and generating enough revenue to make, hopefully, astronomical salaries. The women of the WNBA are being portrayed poorly by the media and fans. The connotations of pettiness and jealously are not only sexist, but flat out wrong. All athletes have to be arrogant enough to believe that they are the best at what they do and that they are better than their competition. It’s one of the reasons they play at the highest level.

Whether it’s the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, and any other professional league, rookies have to earn their time, their respect, and their place in the league. No athlete is ever just handed that, no matter how great they are.

The WNBA athletes are no different. They don’t owe Caitlin Clark a thing. They owe her competition at the highest level and the opportunity to earn success. There should not be any different expectations because they are women or that their league is now on the rise in terms of visibility.

As for Clark, she’ll be just fine. By all appearances, she is an insanely hard worker, resilient, and a fierce competitor. She’ll earn her place in the game, in the hierarchy of the league greats. It won’t be instant and it isn’t guaranteed. But, if she continues this trajectory, she will. The rest of the league will respect her for it when she does.

That’s how professional sports works.