Clark Should be Cheered, not Jeered

Clark Should be Cheered, not Jeered
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
June 7, 2024

A dozen games into her inaugural season with the Indiana Fever Caitlin Clark continues to be the center of the WNBA orbit, and that status seems to have ruffled more than a few feathers both within the league and outside of the league.

The ruffling has come to a head and turned into animus by some with demonstrative and aggressive behavior as well as hypercriticism on social media. With 15.8 seconds remaining in the third quarter of the Fever’s home game last Saturday, June 1, Chennedy Carter of the Chicago Sky forcefully shouldered Clark knocking her to the court just prior to the Fever inbounding the ball. Carter teammate Angel Reese applauded the intentional foul, which initially stood as a simple foul away from the ball. 

Putting it mildly, Clark and Reese have a less than friendly rivalry dating back a couple years when they faced each other in the Women’s NCAA tournament. Reese’s Louisiana State defeated Clark’s Iowa to cut down the nets in the 2023 championship. Clark and Iowa avenged that defeat by knocking off Reese and LSU in the Elite Eight this March.

Days after the June 1 game, the WNBA changed the foul call to a Flagrant 1, which is what the call should have been from jump, followed by an ejection, a fine, and perhaps a suspension of Carter. A strong message must be delivered now before someone gets seriously injured. The WNBA season is roughly a quarter of the way through and this behavior must be stopped before it worsens - not because it happened to Clark - no player should be on the receiving end of such an intentional foul.

“There’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary actions. This has to stop. The league needs to clean up this trash. This is not what this league is about,” said Fever General Manager Lin Dunn.

“Chennedy Carter should have been ejected. It was not even a basketball play,” said Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.

And Carter has a history of technical fouls and ejections, of overly aggressive and combative behavior on and off the court. In her fourth year in the WNBA, Carter, who attended Texas A&M, became the fourth pick in the 2020 WNBA draft selected by the Atlanta Dream. Her tenure with the Dream turned into a nightmare midway into 2021 when she remained in the locker room for the second half of a game, and later wanted to fight a teammate. Carter earned herself a suspension by the Dream for the remainder of that season. In 2022, as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks, Carter earned a season-ending benching after 24 games for poor conduct deleterious to the team. Released by the Sparks in March 2023, Carter played in Turkey for the professional team Bursa Uludag. 

In the post-game press conference Carter said, “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions.”

But this is not just about Carter’s insolence and inappropriate behavior. She is merely a symptom of what is emerging as a greater problem. A culture of exclusion seems to be developing in The W, as it is popularly being referred. A level of animosity is centering around Clark because of something said by Jason Whitlock on his podcast, “Fearless with Jason Whitlock,” akin to white savior syndrome.

Whitlock contended that Clark, at just 22 years old, is under immense pressure due to her race, faith, and the poor performance of her team, the Indiana Fever. "The level of pressure on Clark to rescue the floundering league, combined with the amount of jealousy, racism, and anti-heterosexual bigotry directed at Clark, and also combined with the incompetence of the Indiana Fever organization are going to permanently destroy Caitlin Clark," he said.

So apparently it is now acceptable to discriminate against a person’s race, sexual orientation, and level of religiosity, as long as that person is white, heterosexual, an observant Catholic. What happened to not judging a person based upon those attributes? Would the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. approve of myriad black WNBA players judging Clark on the color of her skin instead of the content of her character? Of what are they jealous? That arenas are full of paying fans? That The W now travels by chartered planes, heretofore not done? Should The W be a segregated league for only black and lesbian players? Of course not, and I doubt that notion came from anyone inside the league. But the critics are ignorant. 

Clark earned her place in the league. She set the NCAA scoring record with 3,951 points, passing Kelsey Plum, current of the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces for the women’s mark, and the late “Pistol” Pete Maravich for the all-time NCAA scoring total that he established at LSU. Plum scored 3,527 points during her time at the University of Washington, and Maravich scored 3,667 points.

This should never be about black and white - that’s shameful. Clark should be supported because the cash is green and she’s a player in The W like any other. A rising tide lifts all boats, and Clark should be cheered, not jeered for all she brings to The W. Her presence in the WNBA puts fans in the stands, both at home at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indy, and on the road - some opposing teams are using larger arenas when Indiana comes to town. Because of the Clark Effect, more WNBA games are televised. When Clark is televised so too are nine other players for 40 minutes per game, having the same opportunity to demonstrate their skills and talents. The sooner the haters cut the crap, the better for the entirety of the WNBA. 

If Clark is injured by someone's intentional maladaptive behavior and misses playing time, brief or considerable, attendance will drop overnight at arenas where the Fever are the visiting team, as well as at home games here in Indy. In five home games this season Fever attendance has already surpassed the attendance for the entirety of the 2023 home season; 82,857 attendees this year and 81,336 last season. (Front Office Sports)

Rising attendance should translate into rising salaries. Who in The W doesn’t want a pay raise? So again, why the jealousy and backbiting? In 2022 the average WNBA salary rang in at $102,751, and in 2023 it rose to $147,745 - a $45,000 pay raise in one year. Before the 2024 WNBA Draft, the top 10 league salaries ranged from $209,000 to $252,450 and 21 players in The W earned more than $200,000. Rookie salaries in 2024 are four year deals ranging from $338,056 to $276,830, or $84,514 to $69,207.50 per season depending upon where in the draft a player ranked. (SPOTRAC) It’s no wonder players in The W supplement their income with endorsements, when they can get them, and play overseas during the offseason in Europe, Israel, Turkey, Russia, and even Australia.

Don’t forget, since 1997 the NBA has ostensibly subsidized the WNBA financially, to the tune of roughly $15 million per year for league operating expenses. And, there’s also a "50-50 ownership of the league between all twelve WNBA teams and the NBA as of 2023." (sportskeeda)

The pressure Whitlock mentioned also must include the learning curve Clark, and all rookies must face. From a more grueling schedule and starting at the bottom, Clark is also facing a culture of losing in Indiana, 13 wins and 27 loses last year, good for last place in the East, and 2-9 thus far in 2024. The Fever have played 11 games in just 19 days. The champion Aces only played six games during that same stretch. Clark is getting acclimated to a new city, and road trips taking her from coast to coast, not just within the confines of the Big Ten. She is also playing with and against players with 10 or more years experience in The W.

A high turnover rate notwithstanding, Clark is fighting adversity and hopefully silencing the critics with her play on the court. She became only the second player in WNBA history to score more than 150 points, grab more than 50 rebounds, and dish for more than 50 assists in their first 10 games in the league. Caitlin Clark earned Rookie of the Month honors. Imagine what she will do when she feels at home in the W. And with the legions of fans Clark has around the league, home will be from coast to coast, as long as Fever fans remember there is no I in team, nor will one player turn around a team overnight.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.