Sarah Spain: ‘When I imagined the WNBA leading the conversation… it wasn’t like this’

When Caitlin Clark was poised to join the WNBA this year, everyone expected a tidal wave of attention to accompany the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer.

It did, but so far, not as expected.

Clark’s arrival to the W has brought unprecedented attention to the league and women’s basketball, but that presence has come with a price.

At first, that ‘hot take tax‘ was expected, but in recent weeks it’s gotten out of hand. And in the last few days, the conversation has been derailed entirely.

Sarah Spain is one of the most prominent women in the sports media space and she had a lot to say about the situation. She joined Gojo and Golic on the DraftKings Network to discuss the current state of affairs when it comes to WNBA narratives.

“God I hope so,” Spain said after being asked if this could all be handled better. “So many of us are all echoing the same thing. When I imagined the WNBA leading the conversation on every single network, it wasn’t like this.

When @SarahSpain imagined the WNBA leading the sports conversation, it wasn’t like THIS.

“I don’t know who to blame for this. And I have seen everybody blamed — Caitlin, the WNBA, media, the other players, the fans. And in some ways it is kind of everybody.” pic.twitter.com/lSgyfUsdJs

— DraftKings Network (@DKNetwork) June 4, 2024

“We got a taste of this a couple years ago with Angel vs. Caitlin in the NCAA Tournament, and there were some real bad takes. There were some folks who stepped in and stepped in it when they tried to talk about it. But it still felt like, whenever people asked me, ‘Like, this is good for the game.’ Like yeah there’s some morons, but there’s morons talking about every sport. This kind of ability to create a debate, which we know drives so many of the main shows, was really key.

“That’s usually the issue with women’s sports is the connective tissue between the tentpole events, the big tournaments, or a major news event isn’t there. And if you don’t know enough about the players of the teams in the league, you can’t really have a debate on it. So you skip it. And what we’re seeing now is that there’s enough knowledge of where Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark played that we’re able to have conversations. They’re just pretty bad ones.”

Spain hopes that the conversations recover so more players, like Cameron Brink who was mentioned specifically, can get more coverage and more information can be used. But Spain is unsure about who is to blame for all the nonsense.

“I don’t know who to blame for this,” she said. “And I have seen everybody be blamed. Caitlin, the WNBA, media, the other players, the fans. And in some ways it kind of is everybody and it’s that nobody can get their tempers cooled enough and really decide to talk about it with enough nuance to get it to the next step.”

[GoJo & Golic]