WNBA thread… 28.5 ain’t your pay cut

The game was coached so much differently 20+ years ago that I think Stiles would've really thrived in today's game where her ability to shoot from anywhere on the floor would be considered more of an asset than a liability. If I remember she was pretty fearless for a smaller guard too, not afraid to go into a crowded lane and get to the basket, which probably didn't help her body stay together.

 

Some tweets escaped from 2020 and made their way into our current world. Scary.

 

I think a big part of the problem is projection.

From the right, as mentioned previously, Caitlin Clark is a straight white woman from the Midwest who appears to be a practicing Catholic. She is an avatar of a 21st-century "sporty" femininity that all those dads taking sunglasses pics behind the wheel of their F-150 can get behind. She doesn't hate the cops, have pink hair and kiss her wife on TV. Nothing about being a fan of Caitlin Clark makes any man uncomfortable.

On the other hand, she is an example of female excellence that has captured the country's imagination and she has a lot of swag, and is taking that swag to a venue that has long been a haven in sports for gay women and social activism. Even if she goes full Jordan and never takes a stance on any social issue of note, she is likely to inspire women throughout this country for the next 10-15 years.

That's the good part. The problem is that for the right, she is going to be this icon of white femininity under threat, and for the left, she's never be "intersectional" enough to avoid letting some of those constituencies down. And the problem is that, in 2024, everyone wants to have a hero that thinks exactly like they do and so they project their beliefs on to her until she lets them down.

 

Someday, there will be actual coverage of W games.

 

Seven points, 3-of-11 shooting, seven turnovers. There's tonight's coverage.

 

Reading an old story on Pistol Pete and again struck by similarities to the rookie campaigns.

Hoops wise--if she can find time to work on it while doing the important work of checking her privilege and solving the world's problems--she definitely needs to develop more of a pullup game or runner to combat better defenses being able to play tighter on the 3s. That's where I thought even in college Bueckers had a better all-around scoring package.

 

Maybe that monster needs to go back into hibernation.

 

You left out one pretty important stat from your daily obsession.

 

Zero technicals. Improvement!

 

You'd think being female and athletic would be all the intersectionality you needed. Used to be that way in the Dorothy Hamill and Mary Lou Retton days.

 

Yeah, but then Mary Lou bilked the public with her gofundme scheme, and everything went to shit.

 

How many team sports get that level of "actual coverage" these days before the playoffs? The NFL. College football. Christmas Day in the NBA. The big rivalry games in men's college basketball. Caitlin Clark's games in women's college basketball. And now, Clark's games in the WNBA.

The Yankees and Os have played half a baseball season in a blink of an eye. Incredible teams. How often are folks diving into the actual games?

The commentary on Clark has shifted a bit in recent days - especially on ESPN - where it seems to be accepted she's a superstar, and there isn't much anyone can do about it.

Which led to SAS's commentary Friday. Which includes Donald Trump, MLK, Rosa Parks, etc, and what Caitlin Clark needs to do, even if her stardom wasn't of her own volition.

https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/stephen-a-smith-invokes-donald-trump-caitlin-clark.html