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    • Caitlin Clark is idolized while other WNBA players are vilified
    Iowa

    Caitlin Clark is idolized while other WNBA players are vilified

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    Caitlin Clark and the WNBA are finally calling out racism and disrespect toward Black players who were the target of the star player’s stans.

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    The WNBA wanted media attention. It wanted to attract attention and attention. And well, the data is undeniable: game after game with record-breaking attendance and record-breaking television viewers. The merch sales and commercials. The fact that women’s professional basketball has been a trending topic on social media and the main story on sports talk shows on many occasions.

    Depending on who you ask, Caitlin Clark was responsible for either all or some of the league’s growth. Ultimately it is a pointless debate. Decision makers in and around the WNBA decided early on that this would be Clark’s season, that she was the star and everyone else was just supporting characters.

    It was a decision that kept the coffers full and the hype train racing along, but it also had an unintended effect. The coronation of Clark as the new Queen of the W also spawned an army of loyal but malevolent subjects – men and women who threaten to corrupt everything the WNBA stands for.

    The demise of Negro Leagues baseball is a lesson for the WNBA

    This kind of Faustian bargain – where someone abandons their principles to achieve something that is considered more valuable – is not uncommon in sports. I have written frequently about the decline of Negro Leagues Baseball, which was directly related to the integration of Major League Baseball and, more pertinently, to the method Branch Rickey used for integration.

    Despite his years of experience in football, including his time in St. Louis building a Cardinals dynasty, Rickey defied all standard business practices in player recruiting when he began signing black players to his Brooklyn club. He stole Jackie Robinson, along with Roy Campanella and a handful of other black players, without paying a dime to the teams that owned their current contracts.

    Negro League team owners knew immediately that something was wrong, that Branch Rickey’s actions would have a detrimental effect on their teams. But they also knew that the entire black community was pushing for baseball’s integration and that Robinson’s 1947 debut at Ebbets Field was largely seen as the long-awaited reward after years of struggle.

    So they stayed quiet.

    They followed the plan and the promise of progress until they couldn’t, until their teams ran out of money and had to shut down operations. Perhaps the closure of their business could have been justified—a worthy sacrifice, if you will—if the floodgates of Major League Baseball had truly opened and dozens of black players had been brought into the league.

    Instead, it took 12 years for every team to sign even one black player. Years later, an unwritten quota ensured that the number of black players on a given team was limited to just a few.

    But by then the damage had long been done and it was far too late to right the ship.

    In media coverage, Clark was celebrated while other players were vilified

    Like Black baseball team owners, WNBA executives knew what was happening at the start of this historic season.

    During the Indiana Fever skid earlier in the season, 2023 No. 1 overall pick and Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston deleted her social media accounts because of the hate she was getting from Clark stans. And long before Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun denounced the racism of the Fever fan base — the likes of which she had never seen in the league in her pre-Caitlin Clark years — other players, including Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky, were speaking out loud about the poison that was thrown at them.

    Unfortunately, they were largely ignored by the league, while Fever fans and media members alike suggested they got what they deserved.

    “…(T)he media has capitalized on my pain and vitriol to create a narrative,” Reese posted on X on Thursday night. “They allowed this to happen. That was beneficial for them.”

    Reese is right. At some point, the mainstream media decided to prioritize new WNBA fans over the (much smaller) group that had been rocking the league for years. They wrote stories that reinforced the narratives being spread online, narratives that victimized Clark and portrayed most other players in the league as foils to their hero.

    And the W, thirsty for the attention it never got, let it happen.

    At the same time, Clark’s own behavior, including foul language toward referees and what could be viewed as overly aggressive defensive play, was overlooked or attributed to her willingness to stand up to the WNBA’s “bullies” and fight for herself.

    But Clark never really had to fight for himself. Most recently, after Game 1 of the Fever’s playoff series against the Connecticut Sun, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan, who is writing a book about Clark, asked the Sun’s DiJonai Carrington if a tough shutout resulted in a black eye for the Fever -Guard led, was intended. Brennan even went so far as to ask if Carrington later laughed about the game with a teammate.

    Not to mention, Clark himself said the play wasn’t intentional. Not to mention, Clark beat Carrington’s contact later in the game, on a similar defensive play that didn’t receive a foul. For Clark Stans, the piece of kerosene was on top of an already existing inferno jealousy And aggression and non-basketball Attacks.

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    Meanwhile, the league’s silence and distorted reporting from most media outlets only reinforced their stance. If reputable media outlets led the coverage with Clark’s black eye — and not, say, her virtual collapse under a stifling Sun defense (she finished the game with 11 points on 4 of 17 shooting) — why shouldn’t Clark’s fans continue to blame make and complain? Insults? Why wouldn’t they show up to Game 2 at Mohegan Sun with caricatured fake fingernails to make fun of Carrington? Why didn’t they send Carrington an email calling her a “n***** b****”?

    Clark’s troll has been addressed, but other WNBA players can’t say the same

    People will say that Clark’s entire fan base isn’t racist, that there are some who followed her from Iowa all the way out west and legitimately enjoyed getting to know and rooting for other players in the league. I would say that is definitely true, but I also know how dangerous it is to allow a small but vocal faction to terrorize unchecked.

    On Wednesday, before the Fever fell to Connecticut in their final game of the 2024 season, Clark alerted the referees to a man sitting near the field who had been harassing them throughout the contest.

    Later media reports referred to him as a “fan,” but I’m sure Clark saw him as a troll, a critic who had little purpose other than to make her job more difficult. It didn’t matter that he was there cheering on everyone else on the floor, including Clark’s opponents or teammates. Nor would it have mattered if he had brought up Clark’s past transgressions – like the way she shoved Connecticut’s Dewanna Bonner after not receiving a foul when Bonner appeared to be in after a three-point attempt Clark’s landing zone advanced.

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    All that mattered was that he was bothering Clark and she wanted him removed.

    That’s how he was. Security immediately acknowledged Clark’s complaint and immediately escorted the man from his seat. Indianapolis Star reporter Chloe Peterson reported that he was allowed to return, presumably after assuring security guards that he would not engage in disrespectful behavior.

    The WNBA is finally speaking out about racism

    On Friday morning, Clark was asked about the racism her WNBA colleagues have faced, and rather than dodging the question (as she did when first asked about her fans’ behavior in June), Clark was firm:

    “No one in our league should be subjected to racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats,” she said. “These are not fans. They’re trolls.”

    I agree. But while Clark’s own actions demonstrate the need to take swift and decisive action against trolls, her WNBA colleagues never had that advantage. Even Cathy Engelbert, the W’s commissioner, downplayed the racism directed at certain players, attributing it to the “rivalry” between Clark and Reese.

    Reese, Carrington et al. They were told to stay off social media and ignore the death threats, happy that more fans than ever were watching their games.

    The WNBA has since reversed its course of quiet neutrality, declaring in a statement that it “will not tolerate racist, derogatory or threatening comments about players, teams and anyone associated with the league.” (Engelbert also apologized).

    And although people who were paying attention rightly noted that the statement came after the Fever’s final loss – and after many die-hard Clark fans declared that they wouldn’t be watching the rest of the playoffs with the Fever eliminated, I have I still think it was an important step for the league.

    It’s just too early to say whether it was too little or too late.

    In fact, many people on the wrong side of Clark’s fan base can see what others can’t: that the WNBA may have already sold its soul.

    Andrea Williams is an opinion columnist for The Tennessean and curator of the Black Tennessee Voices initiative. She has an extensive background in country music, sports, race and community. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @AndreaWillWrite.

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