If you go looking for a simple explanation as to why everyone, including your parents, is so worked up about the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Chennedy Carter, you’re unlikely to find out.
The discourse surrounding the WNBA, the way its style of basketball is being perceived, and the impact of the rookies involved have devolved into chaos. You’re just as likely to get an opinion defending something or someone as you are to see someone saying it’s unacceptable.
Last weekend when Carter shoved Clark as Reese cheered from the bench, it lit a match that the sports media world had been dousing in kerosene continually since the WNBA season started. And now, there are no facts left, only narratives and hot takes.
And so, as we prepare for the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky to face off again this weekend, we thought it might be “helpful” to summarize what happened last week through the many ways that those in the sports media world discussed it and the people involved (H/T to Vince Mancini for the inspiration).
This may sound dumb and unhelpful, but then again, it can’t be much worse than how AI would generate it.
How should we think about Carter’s push on Clark, which was cheered on by Reese?
Ok so here is the whole entire sequence of the Carter & Clark incident. It started when Carter bump Clark from behind trying to steal the ball. And then it continued under the basket and then to the other end of the court. #wnba #indianafever #chicagosky pic.twitter.com/hR3lZrbsIC
— LiveWire Sports Media (@LiveWireSports1) June 2, 2024
The “excessive attack” was “egregious,” a “cheap shot,” an “assault” and did “deserve” to be called a flagrant 1. Carter “should have been ejected from the game” and anyone who says otherwise is trying to “gaslight” people and is “reflexively defending egregious behavior.” However, “plays like this happen in sports” and “you’re allowed to get an extra elbow in as long as you are competing and do it within the boundaries of the game” because “the WNBA has always been a physical league, full of competitive fire and trash talk” and anyone who thinks the play was excessive is “engaging in…bigoted narratives” and trying to “exaggerate” because “this happens in basketball all the time.” Besides, Caitlin should have “punched her in the face” while “Angel Reese celebrated the dirty hit.”
As for Carter, “she is showing some serious resolve” following the incident, which is “not indicative of the entire league” even though “she is a baller.”
How should we feel about Caitlin Clark’s teammates not defending her?
Clark should have been “pissed as s***” that no one came to her aid. We could ask “Where the f*** are her teammates at?” At the very least, “someone’s got to drop her” and “protect the asset.” They “should be ashamed.”
So, are WNBA players jealous of Caitlin Clark?
It’s time for the “girls” and “young ladies” of the WNBA to “cut the jealousy” of Clark. “The hate some of y’all women are putting on Caitlin” can “probably” be chalked up to “petty jealousy,” and it’s “really unfortunate” that they are “jealous of all of the attention and the shoe deal that [Clark] got, because “you women out there, y’all petty.” But also, we need to “stop acting like…all girls are against her” because “it’s not hating and it’s not jealousy, it’s competition” and “acting as if this treatment of Clark stems merely from jealousy or personal pique is a way of telling on yourself.” It’s the “same tired-a** rhetoric” and there is “room for multiple truths,” especially when WNBA players are “grateful” for Clark’s impact and we “have not seen anything excessive or anything dirty until that Chennedy Carter hit.”
Is Angel Reese a villain in all of this or simply misunderstood?
https://twitter.com/shawnamj_/status/1796958193974919318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1796958193974919318%7Ctwgr%5Edd5669577ecc573d56a0e0639b9f5de265925e5d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fawfulannouncing.com%2Fwnba%2Fsportscenter-ignore-chennedy-carter-caitlin-clark-foul.html
“Angel Reese isn’t the villain here” but she “should just continue to play villain and heel at every opportunity because she’s great at it” and because she and Clark are “hating each other with every fiber of their being.”
An “arrogant, unprofessional, and jealous” “clown,” Reese has “the biggest ego in sports,” she’s “made it personal,” though she is being held to an “unfair double standard.” At least she “added some femininity to the way these women dress.”
As for whether or not Reese made Clark or Clark made Reese, “Caitlin Clark was certainly surging in popularity before her and Angel Reese crossed paths” but “we were not talking about Caitlin Clark before Angel Reese walked up to her.” “The eyeballs on the WNBA really have to do with Caitlin Clark” but “Angel Reese is right about her role in the W’s popularity surge” although “nobody’s tuning in to watch Angel Reese play basketball” because “she’s not that good,” “her notoriety is based off of Caitlin Clark,” and “people are tuning in to see Caitlin Clark.”
We just need to stop trying to make each showdown into “an episode of The Kardashians.”
But are Reese and Clark the next Bird-Magic?
When it comes to Reese, “she’s not Michael Jordan, she’s not Magic Johnson, she’s not Larry Bird.” However, she and Clark are like Bird and Magic because those two “had a rivalry” in college and “brought all that with them to the NBA.” In that way, the rivalry “really does have the potential to grow into the kind of [Larry] Bird, Magic [Johnson] situation.”
What role do race and sexuality play in all of this?
Clark, “a white girl that has come into the league” and a “white heterosexual woman in a Black lesbian league,” is a “big draw” but not “just because she’s white” although we can note that “she’s white, she’s straight and she’s from Iowa.” When other WNBA players play aggressively around her, “Is it not about race? Is it not about sexuality?” Other WNBA players don’t like her because “she’s white” and “she’s straight,” so everyone “has to deal with…race.”
Clark may have “pretty privilege,” “white privilege,” and “tall privilege,” but “these women are just jealous, catty, and they don’t know how to handle it.” Also, “any black man who defends Caitlin Clark… is white knighting for a white woman and betraying black women.”
How is Clark doing through all of this?
Caitlin’s “been getting beat up” but it’s a rite of passage. “Jordan went through it. LeBron went through it. Kobe went through it.” She’s “the reason why a lot of great things will happen for the WNBA,” although “plenty of women’s basketball players seem to resent her for it” even though “she’s making everybody money.” Clark is “helping to grow the league” and “handling it great” but “deserves everything she gets.”
On the court, she’s been a “disappointment,” but is “playing excellent,” though her play has been “spotty at best” and her pro career is “not going as planned.” Maybe we need to “lighten up the schedule” for the Fever to help the “cash cow,” though “she cannot be babied as a rookie.”
What do we make of comments from Pat McAfee and other male sports media members?
Stephen A. Smith: "Who talks about the WNBA, who talks about women, who talks about women's sports more than First Take?"
Monica McNutt: "Stephen A., respectfully, with your platform, you could have been doing this three years ago if you wanted to."
Stephen A.: "Wow." pic.twitter.com/szQXOPQ3h4
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 3, 2024
You might ask, “What gives someone the right to call Clark a “white b****” and how did we end up in this “beyond unacceptable” “cesspool?” However, we also have to ask, “Why is it wrong for [McAfee] to call her that?” Clark is “seen as some white, straight b****, in a sport that is not necessarily about white, straight women.”
While McAfee, who is “a jackass, a buffoon, and a horrible host,” “shouldn’t have used ‘white b****’ as a descriptor, his “intentions when saying it were complimentary,” so there’s that.
As for the WNBA players who share their thoughts on the narratives, we “don’t know why you’d listen to them.” Some might say “You have to be careful about the words you put out there,” but men are “allowed to have an opinion” and don’t want to have to “sit up here and watch every syllable.” Still, “media professionals inexperienced in covering women’s sports struggle to overcome their implicit biases.”
Some men might say a woman must “humble yourself” because “who does more for the WNBA than us?” And while some might ask, “How about being a Black man?” others might say “Welcome to the world of being a woman” because “this is only women that get this s***.” Women who, it should be noted “are not fragile” though “some of you men who are covering them are,” and it would be good for women to not be “petty like dudes.”
Can we wrap this up with some nautical references?
Ultimately, everyone has to remember that, instead of “trying to sink Caitlin Clark’s ship,” a “rising tide lifts all boats.” Even though “people seem to forget that the ocean had to be there in the first place for the wave to form.”
