This is the question asked by the L.A. Times in lengthy piece.
Caitlin Clark draws millions of viewers to WNBA games. Is it because she's white?
Caitlin Clark draws millions of viewers to WNBA games. Is it because she's white?
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Women's basketball has never seen anything like Caitlin Clark, the sweet-shooting rookie guard for the WNBA's Indiana Fever. She's Taylor Swift with a jump shot, Mia Hamm in a singlet; a figure so transcendent she is changing her profession.
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More than 55,000 people showed up to watch her play a practice game last fall and her final college game drew 24 million TV viewers this spring. That's 3 1/2 times larger than the audience for Serena Williams' final tennis match.
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Nike signed her to the most lucrative sponsorship deal in women's basketball history, a $28-million agreement that includes a signature shoe. Michael Jordan's first deal with Nike was worth less than a tenth of that.
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But Clark, who will lead the Fever against the Sparks on Friday at Crypto.com Arena, also stands out for who she's not. In a league in which approximately 70% of the players are Black, nearly a third identify as LGBTQ and most come from urban environments, Clark is white, straight and from Iowa.
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"Cailtin fits a very comfortable narrative for a lot of people in the United States," she said. "She comes from the heartland. She's an amazing talent. She's also a white, straight woman, right?
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For veteran players who have struggled for years with low pay, commercial travel and little media coverage, the attention and riches showered on Clark, who has played only three professional games, has fueled some bitterness. For them, there is more than just basketball at play and their issue isn't with Clark, but rather the hype machine that has beatified her.
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They don't see it as marketable, so it doesn't matter how hard I work. It doesn't matter what we all do as Black women, we're still going to be swept underneath the rug. That's why it boils my blood when people say it's not about race because it is."
Asked about Wilson's comments, Clark chose to deflect the criticism and talk instead about the big picture.
"There's opportunities for every single player in women's basketball," she said.
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It hasn't stopped many from wondering why talented, charismatic women such as Brittney Griner, Candace Parker and Maya Moore didn't get the same media attention when they took the league by storm.
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In the meantime, Clark, the league's poster girl, is being burned by the intense glare of a spotlight she never wanted. All she ever wanted to do was play basketball yet now, like Taylor Swift, she finds herself at the center of political conversations she didn't start, but ones that are long overdue.
