WNBA thread… 28.5 ain’t your pay cut

By the way, if you think Carrington was being so super-duper mean to Clark, you should see what she used to do to Mabrey before they became teammates.

 

I’ve been watching, playing, covering and/or coaching basketball all my life, and I feel like I can comfortably say that very little of what we saw with Clark this season was normal.

Her pro career started with a local columnist being so weird to her that he got suspended, and it only went on from there.

 

I don’t know if it’s possible, but I hope that somehow for the next half-year or so Clark can find a way to lay low and live a somewhat normal life out of the intense media spotlight.

I became a fan of Clark her sophomore year of college, mostly because I am a University of Iowa graduate who has followed Hawkeye women’s basketball since the C. Vivian Stringer days of the early 1990s. It just so happened that one of the most talented — and eventually most hyped — women’s basketball players suited up for my team.

Somewhere along the way — and especially since she was drafted and played for the Fever — Caitlin Clark became a name and celebrity that stoked social media clicks, barely hidden racial commentary and no holds barred media arguments. I don’t know her personally, but my guess is she just wants to be a dominant and trailblazing basketball player.

All the rest is probably a huge burden she hopefully can take a break from until the 2025 WNBA season.

 

I should add to that: Caitlin’s no saint on the court, either. Just like everyone else in the WNBA, she’s an elite athlete and ultra competitive. So she and her opponents will do just about anything to win, whether that’s trash talking, flops, hard fouls or other forms of intimidation.

 

So you believe they call every flagrant foul a flagrant foul? Sometimes, like in the gooning last week, when she could have been blinded, there is no foul called at all. Good logic, comrade.

 

And Clark knocked out Carrington's contact lens in that same game.

But whatever, Christine.

 

next season is going to be about how much better Paige Bueckers is than Clark (she’s not) and how much she “gets it.”

And maybe the WNBA changes its rules to get JuJu Watkins in the league too. She certainly doesn’t need two more years of college. One more season will suffice.

I think you might see the WNBA announce more detailed behavior standards for attending games.

 

Another weird thing about turning women's college hoops and the WNBA into another battle in our neverending and dumb culture wars is that many fans who became huge women's basketball fans in April of 2023 during the Final between LSU and Iowa have turned Bueckers into a foil to Clark, because of one speech she gave. Those fans (like, oh, longtime women's basketball fan Jason Whitlock) should love Bueckers. Aesthetically pleasing game, a joy to watch and talks about god constantly! This is her after UConn made it to this year's Final Four:

"I'm a living testimony. I give all glory to god. He works in mysterious ways. Last year I was praying to be back at this stage and he sent me trials and tribulations. I did all I could so god can do all I can't."

You'd think Whitlock--who now drives Bible quotes into the ground faster than Wire ones--would be all over that. But somehow many of these folks dislike Bueckers because of...well, not really sure why. Because she, whose stepmom is black and brother is biracial, said something about black athletes they didn't like. So she's now the anti-Clark.

 

Bueckers will have the advantage of the UConn mafia on her side.

 

So Bird now has not only Magic as a foil, but also Jordan, Worthy and Kareem. Who knew?

 

Bueckers is, IMO, primarily a foil to Clark for coaches and players who don't like Clark.

 

That won't work. If you throw out alma maters, Clark and Bueckers are pretty damn similar.