Caitlin Clark has not exactly been welcomed into the WNBA with open arms since stealing the national spotlight during a historic run in the NCAA tournament during her senior campaign at the University of Iowa.
According to one major national sports analyst, Clark is being targeted over her skin color and her sexuality.
Conventional wisdom would tell us that Clark’s place in women’s professional basketball would be celebrated by her peers in a league essentially no one watched until just this past month.
A rising tide lifts all boats, so Clark’s ability to get butts in the stands should have the entirety of the WNBA excited about the league’s sudden relevance.
Instead, Clark has been chirped at on the court and in the media, and of course, there is the issue with all those hard fouls:
0-2 WNBA
Takeaways from today:
– The jealousy towards Caitlin Clark extends to both players and refs. She got double-teamed and fouled almost every play with no calls. The play below wasn’t even called a technical. 🤦♂️
– Mabrey misses with 15. The volume was there. She just… https://t.co/ImvXG4CnGL pic.twitter.com/373JxKjgqv
— Next Level Bets (@NextLevelBets_) June 1, 2024
Caitlin Clark got hacked right before this clip started and then is getting hugged/hit as she is going up.
No foul. Fever coach gets a technical.
I’ve never seen a super star get this type of treatment. She doesn’t even get normal calls 🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/7lGp5XaQO0
— Jordan Stocks (@StockTalks21) May 31, 2024
how do the refs allow them to foul Caitlin Clark for this long? pic.twitter.com/srCGMCEUIu
— LeLakers 2️⃣3️⃣👑 (@LeLaker) May 31, 2024
National radio host Clay Travis, a sports analyst who founded the website Outkick, has a theory as to why Clark has received such an icy reception.
Travis opined on Tuesday that one of the greatest college basketball stars of all time is not wanted in the WNBA because she is not only white but also heterosexual.
“Caitlin Clark is white and straight in a league that is primarily minority and lesbian,” Travis said on Fox Sports Radio Tuesday. “I told you this was going to be an issue, and now you got everybody acknowledging it all over the place.”
Travis added, “The average WNBA player does not like Caitlin Clark because she is white, because she is straight, and because now she is rich and getting a lot of attention. There is a great deal of resentment about that.”
Travis made similar comments during an interview on Fox News when he said bluntly, “It’s not just race, though. It’s also sexuality.
Clay Travis claims Caitlin Clark is a victim of discrimination against “white heterosexual women in a black lesbian league” pic.twitter.com/vvwexzPCV3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 4, 2024
“Caitlin Clark is a white, heterosexual woman in a black, lesbian league,” he added. “And they resent and are jealous of all the attention.”
Travis said that in his estimation, most WNBA players also envy Clark’s recent $28 million Nike shoe deal as part of a league where only 21 players were making $200,000 or more annually as of the beginning of the current season, according to Sporting News.
It’s hard to disagree with Travis on this.
We don’t know how much of the WNBA identifies with the LGBT community, but according to 2017 comments from retired WNBA star Candice Wiggins, she too was bullied relentlessly during her eight-year career because, as she put it, she was also straight.
Is Clay Travis right?
Yes: 99% (488 Votes)
No: 1% (7 Votes)
She categorized her career in the league as miserable and that throughout all those seasons, other players “were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time,” ESPN reported.
Apparently, Clark is no outlier.
No matter the rationale behind treating the league’s only cash cow as a punching bag, Clark’s peers are not exactly behaving in a forward-thinking manner.
If the 22-year-old sustains a season-ending injury, we can all assume that ratings for the WNBA would crash.
Despite claims to the contrary from people, such as fellow rookie Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky, Clark is the only reason a majority of people who are currently watching the WNBA are tuning in.
Without her, the league would quickly return to irrelevancy.
We can’t forget that this time a year ago, the WNBA was a punchline.
