I’m with Andrew - while I think it’s fair to say that Caitlin is being given cookies for doing the bare minimum and she’s being centered in racism, I think that exact same thing is true of the statements Paige and Cam made that they are continually lauded for. If we’re going to say it’s the bare minimum for Caitlin, we also have to acknowledge it’s the bare minimum for them, not say “Caitlin just needs to follow Paige and Cam’s lead!” as many were saying all season. (This is true of the timing portion as well - Paige and Cam benefitted from white privilege long before they called it out, just as you/others are pointing out with Clark.)
I also agree that Caitlin, a white person, is being centered in racism which is - I’m sure there’s a better word but I keep thinking of this one - cringe. However, she was already centered when everyone was putting the onus on her to stop the racism. This is why I pushed back on everyone’s assertion that she needed to speak out and that would solve everything - not only because I think the racism in the WNBA is an issue that’s existed long before her, but also because I saw how the response to things like Paige’s ESPY speech was to applaud her for being such a good ally while essentially ignoring everything she actually said. I personally think it’s more effective for white allies to use their power behind the scenes (which we have already seen Clark do, with things such as expanding the coverage of Full Court Press, and advocating for spot bonuses for players), and amplify the voices of the people who have actually experienced racism, but that was not the sentiment shared by folks this past season. Everyone said she needed to push back. Now she has, and I think people are realizing that it really was more complicated than they realized all along.
I personally am still glad she said what she did, as it shows a solidarity with other players that might not know her personally, and I think will deter bad faith actors from latching on to her. The ends justifying the means and all that.
As for the article itself, I can’t speak to whether it was new information for people, but I wouldn’t expect it to be as these profiles rarely are. But I don’t think Caitlin was at all framed as the savior of women’s basketball or the first player to shoot three pointers, but as someone who has brought a lot of new fans, one of the reasons being the consistency of those long range three pointers. (Also, side note: the insights we got into her personality were so funny, the passive aggressive digs at her coach really got me - who wasn’t been there with a boss before!)
I do feel like if she’d said all of this before/during the season, it would’ve been framed the exact same way, lol. Not even because anyone specifically wants to make her look good, but she’s just so popular everything she does is turned into graphics and memes and such.
"Cookies for doing the bare minimum?" How exactly did her race help her break that NCAA all-time scoring record for both women and men? How did it help her be number one as a ROOKIE in the WNBA in offense created? Or assists? How does race help her style of play or court vision?
It is really cool to see photos of Clark where she looks so comfortable – even as someone whose main point of exposure for all things WNBA is your newsletter and Instagram, these feel significantly different to any other shots I've seen of her. (Though would I have noticed this if you hadn't pointed it out? I'm not sure.) I'm definitely curious to see what happens with her style next season and, as you say, I hope she gets to keep looking like this if she wants to.
I was also surprised by the lack of many new insights (loved the ball-screen quote, though). I'm curious if there was a need to walk the average new-to-the-W reader through the timeline and offer some corrections or context for those who mostly consumed only the racist click-bait headlines that dominated a lot of the coverage of her rookie season.
I did come across quite a few posts from accounts angrily attacking CC (and the notion that she's bowing to "woke") for talking about race at all and using the word "privilege." It's possible they're engagement-bait bots and not real people, but if they are actual humans and follow through on their promise to stop following and supporting Caitlin, I think we can all say, good riddance!
Loved the ball screen quote, so funny she was thinking what we all were. I had the same takeaway on the piece overall - that there was a lot of noise this season, and here was an opportunity to actually distill it into something understandable for the casual reader/viewer
I love the pants on her and I don’t understand why she isn’t styled like this more often in the tunnel.
On the white privilege/allyship quotes, I wonder if the difference in reaction she’s getting compared to Cammy and Paige is that her response was in print rather than on camera.
I don’t think Clark has been given cookies for doing the bare minimum — in fact, I haven’t seen much of that. I’ve mainly seen right wingers to the extent of Elon Musk attacking her for bending the knee and WNBA media people saying she didn’t do enough, and I don’t think this article acknowledges that. She’s really in a lose lose situation and I think you underestimate the amount of scrutiny she’s under
She deserves the award. It is important to root out racism, but the "Race Card" has also been played so many times when racism simply wasn't in the situation. Simone Biles was named the most marketable athlete in the world. There have been plenty of white girls in the W before this. To say Clark is getting all of this because of her skin color is reductive and idiotic. It's the eye test, plain and simple. She's more fun to watch than anyone. Her mind is faster than anyone else's on the court and she moves with weirdly gorgeous balletic lines the same way Jordan did. We are coming into an era where actual privilege (as in the definition of the word related to class) is now at the forefront of division and on everyone's minds. It might unite the populist left and right. So, for someone like A'ja Wilson, who went to a 20k a year school, to claim Clark was getting all this attention because of her color just stunk of ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy. Wake up, there's been racism and bigotry is on all sides of the this; there is a comment on this site that says Caitlin has been given cookies for doing the "bare minimum" -- WTF? See how many records she smashed in college and in the W as a rookie. Much like the entire country, I am sick of the Far Right AND the Far Left. Juju Watkins, who isn't even the leading scorer int he NCAA is getting HUGE deals, as is Angel. Clark's SKIN had nothing to do with her electrifying style of play. This is why Democrats lost the election, because people are not willing to pander and pretend like most of this discussion isn't total bs.
Okay so I haven't yet read the article, but I did see the photos and my first thought was wow this photo shoot feels so much more queer than anything I've seen. So validating and interesting to learn that she was photographed by a queer woman! As always, I am grateful for your insight on this. I'm still think about those pants lol.
Maybe I’m in the minority but to me, Paige’s speech at the ESPY’s was memorable and to your point, maybe bc it was spoken rather than written, it was more impactful. It seemed genuine to me. I wasn’t tuned into the post-speech chatter if she was being celebrated for saying what she said. I don’t get the impression that’s why she said it. She took an opportunity, as a college student, at a large, well-covered event in front of a lot athletes and executives and delivered a mature and thoughtful statement.
It is because of Paige that I (incorrectly and irrationally) expected Caitlin to respond accordingly to the Caitlin v Angel media fueled drama and all of the hate and vitriol among the new fans that followed Caitlin to the W.
Her quote in the Time article seems like it was written by a PR person. I still can’t tell if she actually cares about any of it. Or if she’s just checking off a box to satisfy a request to calm the rhetoric. And now you’ve got the Megyn Kelly’s of the world crying foul (pun intended).
Whether she wanted the responsibility or not she had a chance to change the mindset of her bigoted fans but I think this comes too late and is weak at best.
I guess my question would be - what makes you think Caitlin’s quote is written by a PR person and not genuine, while Paige’s was genuine and not written by a PR person? To me, their gestures are basically exactly the same. They took the time when they knew they’d have a lot of eyes on them, to deliver a message. You may not recall, but Paige faced criticism for unfair media attention her whole freshman year, which is why she felt the need to make a statement. She didn’t address any of this before that. I feel like this is one of those things where Caitlin is being held to a different standard, either because people have short memories, or they are just harder on her because of how big she is. If anything, I felt like Caitlin’s sentiment feels more genuine because she was specifically asked, meaning she was speaking more off the cuff than Paige in her prepared speech.
Speaking of short memories, I think people forget Caitlin did defend Angel after the 2023 national tournament. She’s never bought into the rivalry, and has attempted to downplay it, so I think we can assume these are her real thoughts. I think she spoke out against everything because she genuinely wants to stop all of the harmful discourse, not because she wanted praise. I think she’s aware that she’s in the echelon of people who get praise and criticism no matter what they do.
I also have seen others say it’s come too late, and I don’t really understand that. I get people wanting this earlier, but if a statement was gonna make the bad actors go away and change the mindset of her bigoted fans during the season, why won’t it do the same thing now?
Clark also spoke on camera about this literally yesterday.
Paige’s comments at the ESPYs were also only made because of the amount of backlash after Paige beat Aliyah Boston for NPOY. That all makes me wonder how genuine it was. It was years ago and she hasn’t made any actions since then. Clark brought Kiki and Cardoso into full court press and Juju Watkins brought the entire USC team into Chipotle team. What has Paige done to lift black players in the same way?
And Megyn Kelly and others are not Clark fans. You also ignore all of the abuse that Clark has suffered from Whitlock and others in the last 48 hours which is quite the choice.
I totally think Caitlin is, as you note, in a lose-lose situation in a lot of ways. I'm hoping that some of the noise continues to die down as she settles into the league. I think CC fans (or maybe "fans") are the bigger problem than anything she does herself.
But uh those quotes about how college players "don't have the IQ".... Is it just me or did that make her seem incredibly unlikeable? These are the woman who will continue to be in the W in the upcoming years right? She was only in college a year ago and now she's talking about "girls that age?" That part was very odd to me.
They rubbed me the wrong way too but I’m wondering if her tone doesn’t translate well. From what we’ve heard from a lot of her peers, she’s very sarcastic and often joking and I wonder if there’s something about the way she communicates over, say, a day-long interview while a journalist hangs out with her alongside people she’s friends/comfortable with, that didn’t translate tonally in the writing.
I actually think those college vs. WNBA quotes make her more likeable to me. She's always had the "cocky swag" persona and I'm glad we are seeing it in interviews rather than her PR answers.
Also she's saying what everyone else thinks anyways about college vs. WNBA — what's wrong with pointing out the factual truth? If those college players are actually good enough to develop on the next level they won't take offense to this.
I think it's just my bias to not jive with the "cocky swag" personality and that's ok. I'm reading them again and rethinking my original reaction. And thinking again, a lot of my reaction is probably due to tone not translating and the author's decision on what quotes to include, which was a bit of Frankie's original point on the story that "the media is being weird." Part of the reason those quotes rubbed me the wrong way is that I've seen a lot of comments (and i get that this is all online discourse) that seem to only be engaged with anything women's basketball if it directly involves Caitlin. And here was an opportunity to lift other people up and it wasn't taken. But that is likely more the author/ editor's fault than anything about Caitlin the person. I think it's a really interesting study in what the "celebrity profile" is and does. Like look at this: "Clark’s eyes are glued to the TV, where the USC women are playing Ole Miss on the opening day of college basketball. 'I feel like if I was out there, I would literally have 50,' says Clark. 'The college game is so much easier than professional.'" USC is a top 10 team in the country, with one of it's most exciting players, and the quote we're given is a relatively negative comparison. I understand it's not false but it's interesting to include. Does Caitlin enjoy watching USC and Juju? I guess "her eyes were glued to the TV" so probably. It's not so much that people will take offense, but it just continues the 'Caitlin is the best and no one else is worth watching' narrative that I think exists among people.
Anyway thanks for letting me ramble on your comment🤣
She absolutely lifted up players in the WNBA throughout the profile. Her comments seem similar to what Taurasi said back in early this year that riled people up and now you are doing it again. I think a lot of people are quick to praise these type of quotes from men and accuse women of “not lifting up others” when they make the same quotes.
Wild of you to assume I love all male players for being confident, I don’t. I’d rather watch Caitlin over several NBA stars any day. The point I was making with this follow up comment is that I’m shifting my judgement of those quotes from Caitlin to the journalist/ editors. So you don’t need to defend her to me. I appreciate her skill and stardom, and am a fan of other teams and players more, and that’s ok.
lol that makes her unlikeable? That says a lot more about you than her. Women can never win. It is a fact that college players have a lower basketball IQ than WNBA players
What has Clark done herself that would make her the problem? It has very clearly been the MAGA people that are fans of nobody stirring the pot on Twitter
I’m with Andrew - while I think it’s fair to say that Caitlin is being given cookies for doing the bare minimum and she’s being centered in racism, I think that exact same thing is true of the statements Paige and Cam made that they are continually lauded for. If we’re going to say it’s the bare minimum for Caitlin, we also have to acknowledge it’s the bare minimum for them, not say “Caitlin just needs to follow Paige and Cam’s lead!” as many were saying all season. (This is true of the timing portion as well - Paige and Cam benefitted from white privilege long before they called it out, just as you/others are pointing out with Clark.)
I also agree that Caitlin, a white person, is being centered in racism which is - I’m sure there’s a better word but I keep thinking of this one - cringe. However, she was already centered when everyone was putting the onus on her to stop the racism. This is why I pushed back on everyone’s assertion that she needed to speak out and that would solve everything - not only because I think the racism in the WNBA is an issue that’s existed long before her, but also because I saw how the response to things like Paige’s ESPY speech was to applaud her for being such a good ally while essentially ignoring everything she actually said. I personally think it’s more effective for white allies to use their power behind the scenes (which we have already seen Clark do, with things such as expanding the coverage of Full Court Press, and advocating for spot bonuses for players), and amplify the voices of the people who have actually experienced racism, but that was not the sentiment shared by folks this past season. Everyone said she needed to push back. Now she has, and I think people are realizing that it really was more complicated than they realized all along.
I personally am still glad she said what she did, as it shows a solidarity with other players that might not know her personally, and I think will deter bad faith actors from latching on to her. The ends justifying the means and all that.
As for the article itself, I can’t speak to whether it was new information for people, but I wouldn’t expect it to be as these profiles rarely are. But I don’t think Caitlin was at all framed as the savior of women’s basketball or the first player to shoot three pointers, but as someone who has brought a lot of new fans, one of the reasons being the consistency of those long range three pointers. (Also, side note: the insights we got into her personality were so funny, the passive aggressive digs at her coach really got me - who wasn’t been there with a boss before!)
Thank you for this thoughtful comment! I appreciate it and you’ve given me a bit to chew on, for sure.
I do feel like if she’d said all of this before/during the season, it would’ve been framed the exact same way, lol. Not even because anyone specifically wants to make her look good, but she’s just so popular everything she does is turned into graphics and memes and such.
"Cookies for doing the bare minimum?" How exactly did her race help her break that NCAA all-time scoring record for both women and men? How did it help her be number one as a ROOKIE in the WNBA in offense created? Or assists? How does race help her style of play or court vision?
It is really cool to see photos of Clark where she looks so comfortable – even as someone whose main point of exposure for all things WNBA is your newsletter and Instagram, these feel significantly different to any other shots I've seen of her. (Though would I have noticed this if you hadn't pointed it out? I'm not sure.) I'm definitely curious to see what happens with her style next season and, as you say, I hope she gets to keep looking like this if she wants to.
I was also surprised by the lack of many new insights (loved the ball-screen quote, though). I'm curious if there was a need to walk the average new-to-the-W reader through the timeline and offer some corrections or context for those who mostly consumed only the racist click-bait headlines that dominated a lot of the coverage of her rookie season.
I did come across quite a few posts from accounts angrily attacking CC (and the notion that she's bowing to "woke") for talking about race at all and using the word "privilege." It's possible they're engagement-bait bots and not real people, but if they are actual humans and follow through on their promise to stop following and supporting Caitlin, I think we can all say, good riddance!
The ball screen quote!!
Loved the ball screen quote, so funny she was thinking what we all were. I had the same takeaway on the piece overall - that there was a lot of noise this season, and here was an opportunity to actually distill it into something understandable for the casual reader/viewer
This is a good point, about distilling things down to drown out the noise.
I love the pants on her and I don’t understand why she isn’t styled like this more often in the tunnel.
On the white privilege/allyship quotes, I wonder if the difference in reaction she’s getting compared to Cammy and Paige is that her response was in print rather than on camera.
Cameron’s was in print too, no? Or did she say more than I missed?
Oh, you are probably right, and I am conflating things in my brain because Cameron just has a more media-accessible vibe.
No, that’s totally fair! It’s hard to keep track of where each person said what, too.
I don’t think Clark has been given cookies for doing the bare minimum — in fact, I haven’t seen much of that. I’ve mainly seen right wingers to the extent of Elon Musk attacking her for bending the knee and WNBA media people saying she didn’t do enough, and I don’t think this article acknowledges that. She’s really in a lose lose situation and I think you underestimate the amount of scrutiny she’s under
When I wrote this, a lot of the right-wing backlash hadn’t started yet. I also fully acknowledged that this was a no-win situation.
She deserves the award. It is important to root out racism, but the "Race Card" has also been played so many times when racism simply wasn't in the situation. Simone Biles was named the most marketable athlete in the world. There have been plenty of white girls in the W before this. To say Clark is getting all of this because of her skin color is reductive and idiotic. It's the eye test, plain and simple. She's more fun to watch than anyone. Her mind is faster than anyone else's on the court and she moves with weirdly gorgeous balletic lines the same way Jordan did. We are coming into an era where actual privilege (as in the definition of the word related to class) is now at the forefront of division and on everyone's minds. It might unite the populist left and right. So, for someone like A'ja Wilson, who went to a 20k a year school, to claim Clark was getting all this attention because of her color just stunk of ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy. Wake up, there's been racism and bigotry is on all sides of the this; there is a comment on this site that says Caitlin has been given cookies for doing the "bare minimum" -- WTF? See how many records she smashed in college and in the W as a rookie. Much like the entire country, I am sick of the Far Right AND the Far Left. Juju Watkins, who isn't even the leading scorer int he NCAA is getting HUGE deals, as is Angel. Clark's SKIN had nothing to do with her electrifying style of play. This is why Democrats lost the election, because people are not willing to pander and pretend like most of this discussion isn't total bs.
Okay so I haven't yet read the article, but I did see the photos and my first thought was wow this photo shoot feels so much more queer than anything I've seen. So validating and interesting to learn that she was photographed by a queer woman! As always, I am grateful for your insight on this. I'm still think about those pants lol.
Maybe I’m in the minority but to me, Paige’s speech at the ESPY’s was memorable and to your point, maybe bc it was spoken rather than written, it was more impactful. It seemed genuine to me. I wasn’t tuned into the post-speech chatter if she was being celebrated for saying what she said. I don’t get the impression that’s why she said it. She took an opportunity, as a college student, at a large, well-covered event in front of a lot athletes and executives and delivered a mature and thoughtful statement.
It is because of Paige that I (incorrectly and irrationally) expected Caitlin to respond accordingly to the Caitlin v Angel media fueled drama and all of the hate and vitriol among the new fans that followed Caitlin to the W.
Her quote in the Time article seems like it was written by a PR person. I still can’t tell if she actually cares about any of it. Or if she’s just checking off a box to satisfy a request to calm the rhetoric. And now you’ve got the Megyn Kelly’s of the world crying foul (pun intended).
Whether she wanted the responsibility or not she had a chance to change the mindset of her bigoted fans but I think this comes too late and is weak at best.
I guess my question would be - what makes you think Caitlin’s quote is written by a PR person and not genuine, while Paige’s was genuine and not written by a PR person? To me, their gestures are basically exactly the same. They took the time when they knew they’d have a lot of eyes on them, to deliver a message. You may not recall, but Paige faced criticism for unfair media attention her whole freshman year, which is why she felt the need to make a statement. She didn’t address any of this before that. I feel like this is one of those things where Caitlin is being held to a different standard, either because people have short memories, or they are just harder on her because of how big she is. If anything, I felt like Caitlin’s sentiment feels more genuine because she was specifically asked, meaning she was speaking more off the cuff than Paige in her prepared speech.
Speaking of short memories, I think people forget Caitlin did defend Angel after the 2023 national tournament. She’s never bought into the rivalry, and has attempted to downplay it, so I think we can assume these are her real thoughts. I think she spoke out against everything because she genuinely wants to stop all of the harmful discourse, not because she wanted praise. I think she’s aware that she’s in the echelon of people who get praise and criticism no matter what they do.
I also have seen others say it’s come too late, and I don’t really understand that. I get people wanting this earlier, but if a statement was gonna make the bad actors go away and change the mindset of her bigoted fans during the season, why won’t it do the same thing now?
Clark also spoke on camera about this literally yesterday.
Paige’s comments at the ESPYs were also only made because of the amount of backlash after Paige beat Aliyah Boston for NPOY. That all makes me wonder how genuine it was. It was years ago and she hasn’t made any actions since then. Clark brought Kiki and Cardoso into full court press and Juju Watkins brought the entire USC team into Chipotle team. What has Paige done to lift black players in the same way?
And Megyn Kelly and others are not Clark fans. You also ignore all of the abuse that Clark has suffered from Whitlock and others in the last 48 hours which is quite the choice.
I totally think Caitlin is, as you note, in a lose-lose situation in a lot of ways. I'm hoping that some of the noise continues to die down as she settles into the league. I think CC fans (or maybe "fans") are the bigger problem than anything she does herself.
But uh those quotes about how college players "don't have the IQ".... Is it just me or did that make her seem incredibly unlikeable? These are the woman who will continue to be in the W in the upcoming years right? She was only in college a year ago and now she's talking about "girls that age?" That part was very odd to me.
They rubbed me the wrong way too but I’m wondering if her tone doesn’t translate well. From what we’ve heard from a lot of her peers, she’s very sarcastic and often joking and I wonder if there’s something about the way she communicates over, say, a day-long interview while a journalist hangs out with her alongside people she’s friends/comfortable with, that didn’t translate tonally in the writing.
It rubbed you the wrong way that she said college players have a lower basketball IQ than wnba players? Is this news to you?
I feel like you are willfully misreading or misinterpreting what I’m saying so I’m going to disengage at this point, but thanks.
That’s true! I’m certainly no stranger to sarcasm and I get it doesn’t translate.
I actually think those college vs. WNBA quotes make her more likeable to me. She's always had the "cocky swag" persona and I'm glad we are seeing it in interviews rather than her PR answers.
Also she's saying what everyone else thinks anyways about college vs. WNBA — what's wrong with pointing out the factual truth? If those college players are actually good enough to develop on the next level they won't take offense to this.
I think it's just my bias to not jive with the "cocky swag" personality and that's ok. I'm reading them again and rethinking my original reaction. And thinking again, a lot of my reaction is probably due to tone not translating and the author's decision on what quotes to include, which was a bit of Frankie's original point on the story that "the media is being weird." Part of the reason those quotes rubbed me the wrong way is that I've seen a lot of comments (and i get that this is all online discourse) that seem to only be engaged with anything women's basketball if it directly involves Caitlin. And here was an opportunity to lift other people up and it wasn't taken. But that is likely more the author/ editor's fault than anything about Caitlin the person. I think it's a really interesting study in what the "celebrity profile" is and does. Like look at this: "Clark’s eyes are glued to the TV, where the USC women are playing Ole Miss on the opening day of college basketball. 'I feel like if I was out there, I would literally have 50,' says Clark. 'The college game is so much easier than professional.'" USC is a top 10 team in the country, with one of it's most exciting players, and the quote we're given is a relatively negative comparison. I understand it's not false but it's interesting to include. Does Caitlin enjoy watching USC and Juju? I guess "her eyes were glued to the TV" so probably. It's not so much that people will take offense, but it just continues the 'Caitlin is the best and no one else is worth watching' narrative that I think exists among people.
Anyway thanks for letting me ramble on your comment🤣
It also sounds like you’d rather have her have said only meaningless fluff and nothing concrete or competitive. Wild given who she is
She absolutely lifted up players in the WNBA throughout the profile. Her comments seem similar to what Taurasi said back in early this year that riled people up and now you are doing it again. I think a lot of people are quick to praise these type of quotes from men and accuse women of “not lifting up others” when they make the same quotes.
Wild of you to assume I love all male players for being confident, I don’t. I’d rather watch Caitlin over several NBA stars any day. The point I was making with this follow up comment is that I’m shifting my judgement of those quotes from Caitlin to the journalist/ editors. So you don’t need to defend her to me. I appreciate her skill and stardom, and am a fan of other teams and players more, and that’s ok.
lol that makes her unlikeable? That says a lot more about you than her. Women can never win. It is a fact that college players have a lower basketball IQ than WNBA players
What has Clark done herself that would make her the problem? It has very clearly been the MAGA people that are fans of nobody stirring the pot on Twitter