July 3, 2024

The Un-American Attacks on Caitlin Clark

By Al Bienenfeld

What does prejudice look like? Follow the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) for a real-time lesson on how hating someone solely because of their skin color hurts everyone involved—the person who is the target of that hate, her teammates, and the businesses that support the venture.

The WNBA now frequently celebrates new attendance records and television ratings thanks to Caitlin Clark. But the league refuses to recognize that their top ten games this year featured Caitlin Clark. Moreover, one of the greatest players in collegiate history who broke records for scoring and assists while at the University of Iowa will not be on the Olympic team. (Imagine what the outcry would be if the WNBA players were white and treated a black rising star this way.)

A recent American Thinker column highlighted the WNBA’s absurd behavior in the face of the threat Clark poses to its status as a predominantly black league. A failed business venture since 1996, it is held afloat by “corporate welfare.” Only now, for the first time since play began in 1997, does the WNBA have a shot at a profitable future. Yet the league’s players appear willing to sacrifice this incredible opportunity because the player responsible for this is a white heterosexual. It does not get any dumber than this.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is a serious sports guy and successful entrepreneur. His two-minute attack on the WNBA captures the sheer stupidity of the WNBA from multiple perspectives:

Portnoy points out the obvious business and opportunity mistakes that come from blind prejudice. These self-inflicted wounds damage women’s basketball professionally and at the collegiate level.

A budding and popular superstar like Caitlin Clark could inspire colleges to expand their basketball programs, leading to more scholastic opportunities for young black and white girls. College education today is ridiculously expensive. Many young women of modest means, both black and white, will lose out because a small number of black women with enormous influence in their league cannot get over their racial prejudice.

Pot-smoking Russian felon Brittney Griner, who had only played in one game at the time of the Olympic team selection and scored 11 points, will be on the team. When thinking of Griner, it’s worth remembering that the price for releasing her was to free international criminal arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Who knows how many thousands of innocent people will be hurt or killed because of a politically motivated arrangement to free the “Merchant of Death”? Bout, who is alive and well in Mother Russia, had been jailed in 2012 for 25 years after two decades of selling Soviet-era weaponry to rebels, warlords, and dictators. The Taliban and al-Qaeda were reportedly on his client list. However, this appears immaterial to the WNBA.

A recent Gateway Pundit column observed that the WNBA will probably lose $50 million this year. It would have been much higher had Caitlin Clark not accounted for one-third of their newly high attendance numbers. For instance, on June 7, when Clark played in Washington’s Capital Arena, 20,000+ fans attended the game, eclipsing the NBA playoff attendance that same night! Ironically, the article talking about the WNBA’s bottom line came out the same week the brass told Clark’s fans to kiss off.

Despite the slights directed at her, Clark has responded like a champ. Maybe she’s been coached, but her composure and sense of purpose are truly admirable for her age. Even when the Chicago Sky’s Chennedy Carter practically assaulted her, Clark dismissed the idea that an apology was due to her. “No. I mean, basketball’s competitive. I get it. Sometimes your emotions get the best of you. Happened to me multiple times throughout the course of my career.”

A few weeks ago, Caitlin Clark suffered a ruptured eardrum from an apparently deliberately hard hit on the court. Clark, true to her heroic nature, refrained from complaining, saying simply, “It’s still a little hard to hear, but I’m all good.” What a trooper!

Last week, the Indiana Fever lost a rematch to the Chicago Sky by one point. In the last three minutes of the game (an eternity in basketball), Coach Christie Sides kept the ball away from Clark, which was either an act of stupidity or sabotage.

The referees are hanging Caitlin out with poor calls, thus encouraging physical play more akin to assault than an errant foul. The league commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, has allowed this. The black players celebrate hurting her. This is the “John Gotti” approach to basketball. Failing to get her that way has led to coaching sabotage. It is an obvious conspiracy.

Just in case you still do not believe me, this past Sunday, Sides pulled Clark with two minutes left in a massive win that she was responsible for, preventing her from getting a “triple double.” (A triple double is where you score double digits in points, rebounds, and assists.) No rookie in the WNBA has ever done this before, and Sides wasn’t going to let Clark break that record.

That maturity shined through with her comments on not making the Olympic team:

I think I’m excited for the girls that are on the team. I know it’s the most competitive team in the world, and I know it could have gone either way. Me being on the team, me not being on the team. I’m excited for them. I’m going to be rooting them on to win gold.

[snip]

Honestly, no disappointment. I think it just gives you something to work for. That’s a dream. Hopefully, one day I can be there.

How many of us could have handled this disappointing moment as well as Caitlin?

It appears that WNBA management prefers to run the business as a non-profit and not deal with someone like Caitlin Clark. It is doubtful the situation will continue. There are too many high-profile sports professionals coming out in support of Clark. For instance, black tennis superstar Serena Williams, a beloved champion in a previously white sport:

People are negative, it’s cause they can’t do what you can do.

Caitlin Clark is the “Donald Trump” of women’s basketball, for she is strong, determined, and unwavering in her commitment to excellence. They will keep attacking her, and despite this, she will continue to excel at her craft. This is why, as with Trump, they are determined to stop her.

This needs to stop. It is un-American.

Image: Caitlin Clark. YouTube screen grab.

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