Caitlin Clark has put women’s basketball on the map more than it ever has been. Her electric play has captivated the attention of people all around the world. Despite this, there has come a lot of backlash from Clark’s peers and WNBA athletes.
In her final season at Iowa, Clark set numerous records such as NCAA All-Time Points, NCAA single-season three-point record, and most points in a single season by a woman, amongst many others. Clark is a back-to-back winner of the Naismith and AP Player of the Year award along with the unanimous Big-Ten Player of the Year. She led the Hawkeyes to back-to-back national championship losses after their 87-75 loss to South Carolina.
Clark’s popularity led to Iowa’s final four matchup against UConn averaging 14.2 million viewers, becoming the most viewed women’s basketball game ever and the largest ESPN broadcasted basketball game ever. This was followed up by the National Championship game of Iowa vs South Carolina which averaged 19 million viewers according to ESPN, which was nearly 5 million more than the Men’s National Championship game. The previous most viewed women’s game featured LSU and Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes, which received an average of 12.3 million viewers. She has received shoutouts from NBA greats such as Lebron James and Dwyane Wade for what she has done for the game.
She has done nothing but be an outstanding role model and ambassador for women’s basketball throughout her career. People say they want to grow the women’s game, so why is the person single-handedly putting the game on a world stage being ridiculed?
ESPN gave UConn alumni and WNBA legends Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird their own show to call the final four games of the women’s tournament. Taurasi and Bird called the Iowa/UConn game, and they called the game very biased and were negative towards Caitlin Clark for no good reason.
On the show, Taurasi said, “Reality is coming. There’s [sic] levels to this thing. And that’s just life, we all went through it… You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.”
Breanna Stewart, former UConn player and WNBA star called out Clark and said that she must win a championship to become one of the greats. She said that no one will remember the records broken but only that Clark never won a title. Stewart won four titles in college and thinks that means way more than breaking records. Winning four titles is an outstanding feat, but dismissing Clark for setting numerous records is not called for. The number of things that Clark did for the game — from increasing viewership, to setting records, and just putting the game on the map — should not go unnoticed and unappreciated.
Lynette Woodard played at Kansas University from 1977-81 and scored more points than Clark in college, but at the time women’s athletics were not a part of the NCAA so her record didn’t count. Clark invited Woodward to her senior day and at the game, she broke the all-time scoring record as a sign of respect for what Woodward has done for the sport.
Woodard turned around and gave a speech saying Clark does not own the record because the games were played differently. “I don’t think my record has been broken because you can’t duplicate what you’re not duplicating…. You can help me spread the word.” Woodard’s comment is very disrespectful considering Clark went out of her way to invite Woodard and welcome her just for her to turn around and disrespect her and her accomplishments. Clark earned the NCAA scoring record, and Woodard never played in the NCAA.
Caitlin Clark was a legendary college basketball player and helped grow the game like no other person has ever done. WNBA ticket prices are already skyrocketing when teams are scheduled to play the Indiana Fever, who chose Clark as a first overall pick in the WNBA draft on April 15.
