Caitlin Clark’s arrival to the WNBA has brought a lot of welcome changes into the league. It has helped increase the viewership and the 22-year-old has also inked some big deals with companies like Wilson and Nike. Despite having achieved all this in her short career, the former Iowa player has been the victim of a lot of hate comments from her peers and other fans.
Recently, Sunny Hostin a host on ABC talk show ‘The View’ stated that Clark’s popularity and rise to fame is part of ‘White Privilege.’ This was not the only time that Clark was a victim of people being salty about her achievements, before her getting drafted, several WNBA stars opined that the guard would not be able to dominate in the league as she did in college.
While the WNBA stars have the right to share their opinions, they should have given the player some appreciation for what she has brought into the league. Not only has Clark transformed women’s college basketball, but she has also helped increase the value of the WNBA in just a month since making her debut. Charles Barkley gave a very scathing take on the disrespect directed towards her. “You woman out there, y’all petty, man… Y’all should be thanking [Caitlin Clark] for getting y’all a*s private charters. All the money and visibility she’s bringing to the WNBA,” said Barkley on ‘Inside the NBA’s’ broadcast.
Caitlin Clark has had a rocky start to her WNBA career
Caitlin Clark had her welcome moment into the WNBA in the first game itself. She scored 20 points but had 10 turnovers during the game. Despite her putting the points on the board, Indiana Fever has struggled to find form as they have started the season with an 0-5 record. In the most recent game against the Seattle Storm, Clark scored 21 points, but her effort was not enough to lead Indiana to a win.
She has averaged 17 PPG, 4 RPG and 5.5 APG, but what has been a worrying statistic is the number of turnovers she has given away. The 22-year-old currently leads the league with 6.5 turnovers per game. However, this could be expected as teams will try to throw double teams and force mistakes to make things difficult for her.
The Fever’s next two games are against the LA Sparks and the Las Vegas Aces. Caitlin Clark will be hoping to step up and lead her team to a win against both those teams as a few more defeats would put the Fever in a difficult position to qualify for the playoffs.
