The WNBA Turns the Caitlyn Clark Phenomenon into Something Ugly
In the WNBA, roughly 60% of the players identify as African American and 38% identify as lesbian. That means 23% are both black and lesbian. For decades, the league has served as a kind of a clique for the gay community; a place where they could gather with people of similar orientation. Women’s professional basketball has never been profitable, but a robust bottom line never seemed to be the primary goal. It’s always been more about empowering women and providing a platform to fulfill their potential.
Given their public display of support for Democrats over the years, including players from the Atlanta Dream and Phoenix Mercury wearing “Vote Warnock” black t-shirts before a game during the 2022 election cycle, it’s fair to say the league in general is skewed to the far left. Angele Delevoye, a PhD candidate in political science at Yale, concluded through data analysis that the WNBA played a role in Ralph Warnock’s victory over Kelly Loeffler in the 2022 Georgia Senate race. Ironically, Loeffler was co-owner of the Dream at the time.
In 2016, a number of WNBA players wore “Black Lives Matter” warm up shirts in front of the TV cameras before a game. When then candidate Loeffler wrote a letter to the WNBA commissioner objecting to the open display of support for BLM, the WNBA players association issued a terse response that read, “The WNBA is based on the principle of equal and fair treatment of all people, and we, along with the teams and players, will continue to use our platforms to vigorously advocate for social justice.”
According to Nneka Ogwumike, power forward for the Los Angeles Sparks and president of the WNBA, “Our league is made up of the people that require more rights in this world and our society. Because we understand our platform—and honestly, I think too, because of the narrative around how quickly it can disappear—I think that we take those moments to take advantage of, you know, the platforms that we do have and us being able to speak out and reach more than people would normally expect.”
So, you get the picture. A small league with poor attendance and poor viewership that is financed by the NBA to the tune of $15 million annually has traditionally been a hotbed of woke leftist activism.
But then something unexpected happened.
Caitlyn Clark Arrives
In hindsight, it seems odd that the WNBA was so unprepared for the arrival of Caitlyn Clark.
Clark had been setting records and selling our collegiate stadiums all over the country throughout the final year of her career at Iowa. Her stunning performance in leading the Hawkeyes to the NCAA finals in 2023 raised her profile nationally. As the 2024 season approached, all of Iowa’s home games sold out in advance, and she was responsible for setting attendance and viewership records in virtually every stadium that season.
Clark arrived in the WNBA in the kind of rarified air reserved for sports icons like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. She is that good. Despite a 1-8 start, Caitlyn Clark fans filled every stadium in the WNBA, regardless of whether it was on her home court in Indiana or on the road.
The impact Clark had on the WNBA in her first season is stunning. Clark’s games averaged 1.178 million TV viewers, which was almost triple the average for all the other WNBA games (394,000). Indiana Fever games averaged 16,084 in attendance, nearly double the 8,552 fans that attended non-Fever games.
The Caitlyn Clark effect has also translated into an enormous increase in revenue for the WNBA. The league recently completed negotiations on a new media rights deal that will bring in $200 million annually, a 233% increase over the existing deal ($60 million) that expires in 2025. This is ALL because of Caitlyn Clark.
Naturally, a good chunk of that revenue will be distributed in the form of hefty pay raises for players.
In essence, Clark really is the goose that laid the golden egg.
The WNBA Response? Kill the Goose and Play the Race Card
For her part, Clark has wisely followed in the footsteps of Jordan and Woods in remaining politically neutral and non-controversial. She focuses on basketball, promoting her teammates and providing non-controversial answers in her pressers. Clark always keeps her personal business to herself.
But there is one huge problem for the WNBA. Clark is white and straight.
From the moment she showed up, several of the league’s most high-profile players made it clear they weren’t very happy with the changing demographics of the fan base. When you look in the stands of a Fever game, you will see a disproportionate number of middle-aged white men with young daughters, always decked out in Caitlyn Clark jerseys. The racial makeup of the WNBA’s new fan base has not sat well with the league’s rank and file.
There are varying opinions as to why Clark had more flagrant fouls committed against her compared to any other player in the league, but in watching Fever games, it becomes very clear Clark is subject to a different level of physicality compared to the other point guards she plays against. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of introducing a highly touted rookie into the professional league, or a desire to avoid embarrassment by having your ankles broken by one of Clark’s patented crossover moves, but it will be interesting to see if this kind of physical play continues into 2025.
Recently, the league’s uneasiness with the Clark phenomenon took another predictable, but self-defeating turn. High-profile players and the league itself have launched an aggressive campaign to criticize Clark’s fanbase because they are… wait… you guessed it, racists.
It started with Alyssa Thomas, who, in a post-game interview after the Connecticut Sun eliminated the Indiana Fever in game 2 of their first-round playoff series, quickly turned the presser into a race-based grievance rant.
“I think in my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced the racial comments (like those) from the Indiana Fever fan base,” said Thomas. “It’s unacceptable, honestly, and there’s no place for it. We’ve been professional throughout the whole entire thing, but I’ve never been called the things that I’ve been called on social media, and there’s no place for it.”
Brittney Griner, the player imprisoned in Russia for drug violations, was quick to add her insights. “I don’t appreciate the new fans that sit there and yell racial slurs at myself, my teammates, and the people that I play against because, yeah, those might be opponents but those are friends, too,” Griner said. “They don’t deserve that, so I don’t appreciate the new fans that think it’s OK to do that.”
The WNBA was quick to issue a statement of support for the players speaking out against these racist fans:
“While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA will not tolerate racist, derogatory, or threatening comments made about players, teams and anyone affiliated with the league,” the statement said. Additionally, the league said it will be monitoring “threat related activity” and will work with law enforcement to “take appropriate measures as necessary.”
So, who are These Racist Caitlyn Clark Fans?
Okay, so the “new” WNBA fans, you know, the ones with the light-colored skin with the daughters in the Clark jerseys, are supposedly hurling racial insults and epithets at the players of color.
Sooooooo… where is the proof?
You would imagine in a stadium packed with people pointing cameras and cell phones in every direction at all times, someone would have a recording of at least one of these incidents. I mean, if there was even one, you can bet your house it would be splattered all over social media, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and Washington post within hours and followed up in subsequent headline stories for days.
But so far, except for a mean tweet about DiJonai Carrington’s long fingernails (she poked Clark in the eye) the “victims” of these alleged slurs have come up with nothing, and some posters on X are calling them out for it.
The WNBA Looks to Kill off Their new Golden Revenue Stream
This accusation of “new” fans who are racist seems more like it’s another derivative of the Jesse Smollett victim formula. For woke leftists, if there are dots that could possibly be connected to create an accusation of racism, go ahead and connect them, no matter how faint those dots might be.
I imagine next season these charges of racism might get worse since Clark is already the most exciting player in the WNBA. Next season, she might also be the best player. Can a league primarily made up of gay women of color come to terms with a player that has the skill of Jordan and throngs of fans that are overwhelmingly polite and courteous but happen to have white skin?
Maybe when they see how much more money their next contract is worth, they’ll quiet down and just accept their good fortune. But even then, I doubt it.
