ESPN posted a YouTube video Sunday headlined with a question: “Is Caitlin Clark The Greatest Of All Time In College Basketball?”
The video, running just under 11 minutes, found that Clark is not the greatest women’s college player of all time. In fact, the video determined Clark is not even in the top five all time.
How could this happen? How could the sport’s all-time leading scorer, a two-time player of the year, not be one of the five best players in women’s college history? Plenty of fans were asking that same question about the video. By Monday, the video had drawn almost 650 comments, the vast majority blasting ESPN for not only snubbing Clark but for using a “clickbait” headline.
Sam Ravech, Ari Chambers and Alexa Philippou tackled the Clark question, and they agreed she was great, her failure to win a championship kept her out of their top five.
“Love Caitlin, love how she has transcended the game … But in the open, we said ‘What makes a top-five player? Winning,'” Chambers said. “The only thing, the only strike against Caitlin Clark, is that she has not won a national championship.”
“And that is the only thing that you can put against her, because the way that she has dominated the record books when she was at Iowa was something you could not duplicate,” Chambers said. She later added, “But how can you be a top-five player if you have not won a title?”
The three settled on an all-time top five led by Breanna Stewart, followed by Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Cheryl Miller.
All great players, but Clark seemed like a glaring omission to many fans.
And then there’s this.
The title of the video from ESPN is “Is Caitlin Clark Top 5 all-time in women’s CBB? They make the argument that she isn’t because she never won the title, but the clickbait title worked.
— Wes Reynolds (@WesReynolds1) March 17, 2025
Caitlin Clark is without a doubt a top 5 player.
Put her on an of the big college ball teams and she would have had numerous championships.
She accomplished more in Iowa than most other players did in the top teams.
It’s ridiculous this is even being debated. https://t.co/q2QVsAalHo
— James Scott #TeamOrca (@LongerTables) March 16, 2025
espn puts out a 10 min video ranking all time college players. they say caitlin can’t be ranked in the top 5. yet the title is “Is Caitlin Clark The Greatest Of All Time In College Basketball?” to farm engagement and hate lmfaooo pic.twitter.com/X26K6wm6pX
— correlation (@nosyone4) March 16, 2025
Anyone saying that Caitlin Clark isn’t the GREATEST college basketball player EVER is not dealing in reality. She broke EVERY scoring record and brought a non ‘main line’ team to two consecutive National Championship Games. She is the greatest college player ever … men’s or…
— ev riley (@evriley) March 17, 2025
Ravech, Chambers and Philippou aren’t the first to make the argument that to be truly great, a player must win a championship. But Clark left behind such a legacy at Iowa, as the sport’s all-time leading scorer and a two-time Naismith Player of the Year. Chambers even admitted she “transcended the game.” That list somehow feels incomplete without her.
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.