Featured Is WNBA player Caitlin Clark a target?

[AgnosticBoy]

ESPN channel has been covering the WNBA a lot more and a lot of their coverage has been on the recently drafted player, Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark was a sensation in college for her good 3-point shooting. But lately, there has been a lot of talk that WNBA players targeting her perhaps because she's bought a lot of attention to the WNBA. The most recent incident was this play:

or this coverage on ABC news

What do you think is going on? Since it's a woman's league, I'd hate to dismiss it as just being about "jealousy" since that might feed into some gender stereotypes, although it could just be that.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Here's some good perspective from the show, The View... they brought up jealousy, race, etc...

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Here's one commentator that addresses the race issue with Caitlin Clark (it's the first video, and he does use profanity):

https://twitter.com/x/status/1797667443034452126

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

Some thoughts —

Caitlin’s teammates need to take care of her. They need to have the attitude, hey, if you want to go a couple of rounds, we can go a couple of rounds, no big deal.

As an adult, I came up with the theory that when I was a teenage boy in junior high, yes, there was the occasional fist fight. So, the best goal is tight, defensive boxing to a draw. Because you don’t want to humiliate someone you’re going to see again. But there’s no way I would have been mature enough to come up with this theory then! In suburban Houston, junior high is when I was ages 11 to 14

 

[AgnosticBoy]

@Multicolored Lemur

Yes, some teams tend to have 1 or 2 tough guy attitudes on their team. She needs one of those personalities to back her up, because otherwise she's going to get picked on being the new kid on the block and having so much attention thrown on her.

Going back to my question in the opening post, I think there's definitely some jealousy going on from other players towards Caitlin, and hopefully nothing else beyond that. I think men's basketball got real popular because of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson rivalry, so maybe the WNBA will explode in popularity with Caitlin Clark and a good rival. I'm sure football has rivalries, baseball, soccer, etc.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

I think men's basketball got real popular because of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson rivalry

Good comparison.

Look, I’m not in favor of fighting. But in a rough school, you need to be able to “go a few rounds” and pretend like it’s no big deal.

Please don’t go overboard. Because often it’s the person who retaliates who gets the whistle or gets in trouble.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

I've concluded that what's going on with this story on Caitlin Clark is that there is jealousy going on. Some WNBA players are jealous of her (not all, just some). I was slow to reach that judgement because I didn't want to think the stereotypes about women and jealousy towards each other were true, but in some cases they are true. WHen I think about it, plenty of other women have told me that it's hard to keep real women friends because of the jealousy and pettiness that can come between women.

Watching this video commentary of the issue from a former basketball player, who is also a woman, helped me reach that conclusion:

 

[Black Conservative]

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Welcome to the forum, Black Conservative.

I agree with a lot of the points in the video. However, there is some fault to be assigned to some on the pro-Caitlin side. Those that are responsible for being objective, like sports analysts on sports network, have shown bias towards Caitlin. They consider her a superstar in the WNBA, they seem to not want any hard fouls on Caitlin or they would probably be quick to interpret any hard foul as being something personal.

There's also some fault on the anti-Caitlin side. There are those that seem to think that any hard foul will never be anything personal - it's just a welcome to the WNBA play. Then some of them try to downplay the near celebrity-effect that Caitlin is bringing to the WNBA.

Both sides of course have some good points, but then they tend to go too far in their analysis and blow off potential nuances, etc. The latest example of bias comes from the pro-Caitlin side regarding her being left off of the Team USA Olympic roster. The pro-Caitlin think she was snubbed, perhaps because of her race, sexual orientation (she's heterosexual), and personal reasons. I think a more reasonable unbiased conclusion is it's because Caitlin is not one of the skillful/top players in the WBNA.

Most of my point above apply to professional sports analysts, coaches, and even some professional basketball players that have made comments on this issue.

Now when it comes to the fans, we should expect them to be biased towards their team and their favorite player. Their favorite team and player can do no wrong in their eyes.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

because Caitlin is not one of the skillful/top players in the WBNA.

In addition, Clark is a “high risk-high reward” type of player. When she’s feeling it, she’ll let it fly on long 3’s. That’s fine when you’re on an underdog team like the Indiana Fever.

But in the Olympics, I strongly suspect the USA will be one of the favored teams, if not the favorite. And therefore, “high risk-high reward” is not something we need.