LOS AGNELES.–Women basketball phenom 22-year-old Caitlin Clark, NCAA women’s and men’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer, fresh off her loss to South Carolina in the National Championship Game, is set for her first Indiana Fever games May 14, is now savaged in the press for her White Privilege. What sent the reverse-racists into overdrive was Caitlin receiving a eight-year, $28 million deal from Nike, unprecedented in women’s basketball, prompting calls of racism in certain circles around the WNBA. “I think it’s a huge thing. I think a lot of people may say it’s not about Black and White but to me it is,” said Las Vegas Ace start A’ja Wilson. “It really is because you can be top notch at what you are as a Black woman, but yet maybe that’s not something that people don’t want to see,” showing the kind of cancel culture and reverse racism that’s ripping society apart in the United States.
Caitlin didn’t break all the records in women’s NCAA, Division 1 basketball because she’s White but because she’s, in fact, among the hardest workers in the sport who happens to be supremely talented. Women’s basketball fans of all stripes like to watch her because he does enviable things on the court, unprecedented in the women’s game. Caitlin is the best all-around player involving precise jump shooting, layups, assists, court management, much in the mold of a female Kobe Bryant, the late Los Angeles Lakers’ great who lost his life with his daughter Gianna Jan. 26, 2020 along with seven others. Bryant was compared to NBA icon Michael Jordan his entire career but that didn’t stop him from a work-ethic second to none, inspiring a generation of women and men’s WNBA and NBA players. Kobe was beloved for his work-ethic and fierce competitiveness, much like Clark.
Since Caitlan matured into women’s NCAA most exciting player, in a league by herself, she filled up basketball arenas just like she’s doing in the WNBA with her first game May 14 with the Indiana Fever a sellout, must-watch national TV. ESPN and other major sports’ networks, including every WNBA owner, are thrilled to have Caitlin driving up ratings for the league, never receiving so much attention. “They don’t see it as marketable, so it doesn’t matter how hard I work. It doesn’t matter what we do as Black women, we’re still going to be swept under the rug. That why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is,” said A’ja Wilson. Wilson is so off-the-wall, so misguided, and so suffering from reverse-racism that she can’t control her misplaced ire. Morphing her envy into racism is an outrage for women’s sports or sports in general.
A’ja apparently hasmn’t noticed where Nike spends it cash on NBA players. Would she like to add up all the contracts given to Black NBA stars and then conclude, that there’s racism in NCAA and professional sports. Whatever her jealousy of Clark, Black WNBA players need to think twice before dragging the WNBA into the muck of racism and cancel culture, something that Black men and women haven’t been able to acknowledge and accept. Clark enters the WNBA with a fierce competition over her NCAA career with Angel Reese, recently drafted by the Chicago Sky. A’ja should listen to Caitlin’s remarks on her key rival. “I would say me and Angel have always been a great competition,” Clark said. “I think Angel would say the same, like it’s not just use in women’s basketball . . .” showing that there’s nothing racist about to top players competing at the highest level.
When Iowa State’s Larry Bird came into the NBA Oct. 12, 1979, he had a fierce completion with Michigan State’s Magic Johnson, who came into NBA after beating Bird in the National Championship Game March 26, 1979. Magic always said that Bird pushed him through their college and pro-rivalry to be the very best basketball player. Johnson never accused Bird of getting more money from Nike or any other sports merchandising company. So, for Caitiln, coming up the ranks, she was focused on self-development, competition and exceeding her own high expectations. For A’ja Wilson to steal her much deserved thunder is inexcusable, dragging race into something involving pure meritocracy. Caitlin fills the arena’s up because she’s the most exciting, complete women’s basketball player to ever grace the hardwood. What doesn’t A’ja get about that?
If there’s ever a level playing field in society it’s in college and professional sports where sports talent is quantified through today’s cybermetrics. A’ja Wilson knows that Caitin Clark broke almost every record in NCAA women’s basketball. She entered the NBA as the No. 1 draft pick not because she’s White but because she puts up the numbers, night after night, bringing more fans of all backgrounds into basketball arenas around the country. “I don’t know how many times I read and heard her [Caitlin] as a generational talent,” said ASU sports journalist professor Victoria Jackson. Jackson says the same thing isn’t said about Black athletes. “There are overlapping, intersecting reasons for why that is. But, I think we can’t not think about it if the goal here is to have equitable treatment of the athletes in sports,” believing Caitian got White privilege in her NCAA and now WNBA career.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
