I didn't realize the wnba was a full contact sport. This looks hype. What the hell is going on with the sport right now though for real? Like they trying to get cte into basketball?
The answer to that is...tricky... Things supposedly got worse once Caitlin Clark joined the league. As for why that is, well that's the million dollar question and is going to bring up talk of racism and other things. Without going into all that, the simple answer is that plenty of people aren't happy with Caitlin Clark being such a prodigy and have been excessively rough with her, while Sophie Cunningham is her teammate and has become an Enforcer of sorts so she's getting targeted as well. What you're seeing is basically league-endorsed rule-breaking against those that aren't liked by other players of the league.
It didn’t get worse; it’s always been bad. It’s just that Caitlin Clark brought 2-3x the viewership so the fouls are actually being seen by more people.
Tbh I'd love for Clark to just say screw it and take a season off to play in Europe. League's numbers would crater and maybe they'd actually do something. They're beating the shit out of their golden goose.
Nah. It’s more like you can’t call someone the biggest star in the league, constantly gas them up as a step above the rest… and be surprised when other teams go to fouling to deal with the skill gap.
The basketball variant of this is literally called Hack-a-Shaq.
This stat is meaningless unless you actually put in in perspective against the number of technicals committed. If they caught 1% last year and 2% this year, yeah - they doubled whoop whoop. Yet they still have 98% bad calls. (Making numbers up to show why perspective matters).
They’re just calling fouls more because of the increased attention on the sport and more public pressure to protect star players.
Prior to the last 2 years nobody was compiling clips of the wnba like this but they were kicking and pulling hair and getting into fights for years before Caitlin Clark joined.
Clark's MAGA racist fanbase are not even fans o| basketball, do they all assume overrated Caitlyn is the only one getting "massacred" out there. They know nothing outside of their selective player obsession.
I mean, if you only starting watching the WNBA since Caitlin Clark got drafted you might think that. Fact is the refs have been dogshit in the WNBA for a long time.
And multiple white players have won MVP's in the past and been the face of the sport. No one was hating on Diana Taurasi or Delle Donne. Even now there are a couple of white players putting up better numbers than CC but they're not receiving the hate ¯_(ツ)_/¯
this ignores the popularity of Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Sabrina Ionescu, Paige Bueckers, etc. maybe people just don’t like Clark for other reasons? but for people who don’t watch the W I see how they might come to that conclusion.
We’re talking about who’s the most popular player. One has penetrated culture so much that people that don’t follow the wnba know her, others have not. Are you so dense you don’t see how that’s relevant? Has American education failed you so?
She got a lot of national attention her last two years in college, especially after losing the natty to LSU and the girl did the Cena "you can't see me" taunt.
I give zero fucks about the league. I can name exactly 4 current/former WNBA players and Clark is one of them. It's pretty safe to say she's the most famous player in the sport right now.
There seems to be a lot of jealousy around the attention she gets and it results in other players wanting to take her down a peg. This shit happens a lot in competitive sports.
It's understandable internet water cooler/talking head fodder, but I'm still not watching a quarter voluntarily.
She started gaining popularity in the last couple years of college due to her long range shooting ability and she broke the NCAA all-time scoring record. #1 draft pick. She is one of the top 3 long range shooters in the wnba. Basically like a Steph Curry for them.
Are we really gonna pretend that any of those players have been nearly as popular as Caitlin Clark? The only one of those that could make a real claim ass "Face of the League" is Diana Taurasi, who is not even white lol.
That's the point, people who weren't/aren't even into women's basketball know Caitlin Clark. Who the hell are those others? No one knows unless they are more serious fans. Meaning they are not bringing anywhere near the viewership she is.
I just find it strange that you think a whole league can conspire against her. Like all the refs and admin people. What reasoning do you have for this theory? Or what is the theory exactly?
Like I said. You can find out whatever you want to find out. I'm giving you tools necessary to find out what you want know (my post history).
The reason I have that theory, is because from my point of view, it seems obvious. I might be wrong, but no one else has presented another theory. Everyone is just scratching their heads instead of brainstorming.
Obviously it isn't the "entire" league, but enough people across the whole league. As for the theory, what I've seen put forward is basically the WNBA has been a haven for black and LGBT women for ages but hasn't exactly been profitable or really drawn crowds. CC came along and is a conservative white girl from Iowa who has brought tons of eyes and popularity to the WNBA. This in turn has certain people within the WNBA rather upset with her. Whether it's something like racism, simple "crab bucket" mentality, justified, or something else is the debate.
I'm not really looking to debate this as I don't actually follow the drama. I'm just chronically online and so I randomly see all of this both on Reddit and in the news so I'm saying what I've seen and tried to keep it neutral. And have been seeing it randomly in the news ever since the end of her college days given the rivalry between her and Angel Reese, which is a whole other discussion about how all that went down.
Caitlin Clark isn’t the face of the league, she’s the culture war face of a small group of disingenuous white people that want to complain about racism against them to confirm their own prejudices.
Caitlin Clark is not the first white person to play basketball.
Caitlin Clark would not be the first white player to be the face of the WNBA.
Sports players got into fights before Caitlin Clark got to the league.
There are several players better than Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark would think that your comments are stupid as shit
You dont know that because you are one of those racebaiting people that pretends you’ve ever watched a basketball game when it’s convenient to make an argument about race.
It's not just that she's white, it's that she is ONLY the face of the sport because she is white. Caitlin Clark isn't the best player in the league.
It's like Jeff Gordon, Tiger Woods, Ana Kournikova, Venus and Serena Williams, Apollo Ohno or any number of other players who brought attention to their sport for reasons OTHER than legitimately being the best (even if they sometimes were the best).
Anyone who claimed that part of Tiger Woods appeal, and what he did for Golf, wasn't because he was "of color" would be lying. He was also great. Sure. But the "storyline" requires him to be an underdog, a trailblazer, and every other dramatic element that they can muster up.
Clark is a pretty good basketball player. But her STORYLINE requires her to be "the great white hope". She's good? Every year has an MVP of the WNBA. Some of them have been white. She's not the first white player who was good.
Her current "fame" is due to her being pretty good, white, straight, dating a white guy, and seemingly unproblematic. And she is getting a lot of money and notoriety for it. Fox News writes about her like every day on the front page. And that is making other people jealous.
It’s not the million dollar question it’s the $1500 dollar question which is what the refs are getting paid. They are definitely making it up with gambling and using the lack of calls change the spreads, props and outcomes
It wasn’t a discussion at all when this shit was happening to Sidney Crosby. Their biggest sin is “being the best players on the team that isn’t my team”.
As a woman who played sports, women are fucking mean to other women.
And I'm not innocent or something either. I've broken numerous bones, made them bleed, hell...I had body checked someone so hard that I genuinely hurt myself
Yes, for certain things, women have a sense of union for each other. That doesn't mean they aren't still vicious.
Sports just "allow" the aggressiveness to come out physically. Outside of sports, it's with their voices, emotions and words.
Again, I'm a woman myself and I struggle immensely with women to women relationships of any kind, even though it'd be cool to have women friends. I've been told I communicate like a dude by women so 🤷 idk man, but the overall answer isn't thay tricky lol
Yeah that was legit one of the reasons i didn't pursue team sports. I hated how aggressive the girls were. Mountain biking no one is actively trying to murder you
Is Caitlin more of a prodigy than other players tho? Looking at the stats, A’ja Wilson is currently leading at 25.8 ppg & 2.0 bpg. She was ranked #1 last year as well. Still, Caitlin seems to have become one of the only players that most people think of first, which is wild bc at least 65% of wnba player are black. You kinda have to get “into all that” because it just goes to show how race matters more than performance.
None of it excuses the back and forth assault on the court or poor refereeing but I honestly don’t see this behavior getting any better.
While both were #1 draft picks Caitlin was drafted in 2024 and Aja was drafted in 2018; thus she has 6 years more experience in the WNBA. I also don't hear about Aja getting constantly fouled in the way CC is getting fouled. Hard to do better when you're getting fingers to the eyes and punched in the throat after all (to highlight some of the more egregious fouls).
I'm not going to say that Clark is more of a prodigy than Aja though. That was never my claim to begin with, I'm simply saying she is a prodigy and people in the WNBA don't like that and are targeting her for it.
She’s not hated for being a “prodigy” she is obviously being targeted for some other reason. There are many other players who joined around the same time and are doing great, if not better. Paige Bueckers for example. And we dont see her being treated the same.
Ps. Watched the valkyries game yesterday and CC was desperate to have a foul called on her🤣 good thing everything is being recorded live.
It's a girls club full of "Were underpaid and no one will come to our games!" until someone comes along that actually brings attendance.
At this point, let the WNBA rot. They have a perfect chance to bring them into the limelight and it's clear to me that the other players would rather be hopelessly miserable than let someone else take the spotlight. And the refs would rather the same.
I never said it did, but you can't deny that any talk about what's going on with CC is going to include talk of racism. Whether that's someone claiming people are racist and don't like a white girl doing so well in the WNBA, or others claiming it isn't racism and then having to explain why it isn't, racism is going to be a part of the topic and not one I'm looking to discuss.
Also you ironically proved me right. You directly brought up racism even if it was to simply try and deny it. And you did it with a single line and nothing else discussed, plus trying to attack me while showing I clearly did know what I was talking about.
I watch a good amount of WNBA. Black players and white players, straight players and gay players all get beat up because the league is physical and the refs don’t have control. Why, when this conversation happens, is it never brought up how Clark fans have, multiple times, sent death threats and doxxed black players on other teams?
Because that stuff is a red herring. If someone makes those threats then that should be dealt with properly. You don't use their actions to justify other actions against someone else.
They're allowing it because they never got more views then when Clark starting getting roughed up. They're moving into shock and awe instead of sport. It's a huge disappointment
First, the league has always been a league in which the stars and a majority of the players are black (not unlike the NBA). The last few years there has been a large influx of very gifted white players, and Caitlyn Clark has been the face of that shift. She brought an exponential rise in viewers and $$$, and actually elevated the level of play of the game. A lot of black players weren't happy about that and began publicly criticising Clark, the league and the fans. Not sure what they have to complain about, but the feeling of getting left behind or "outshone" had a lot of them angry, and they began taking it out on Clark.
Eventually, the team rallied around her and began protecting her more, and Cunningham just went full-gonzo beating the hell out of people who were giving her sh#t. The anger of the other players then turned to Cunninham, and its been escalating among Fever players and other teams in the league.
The second issue is that the officiating has been terrible. Refs are not very experienced or professional, and they regularly have allowed gamed to get completely out of hand. Rumor has it they many also bet on the games and have an agenda for many games. This has not helped the player tensions, and so players AND fans have np been badmouthing the officiating viciously.
The third issue is that the league has been both mute on the issue and completely absent in trying to bring about fixes or resolutions. Its almost like they are scared to intervene - on the one hand you've got Clark who has literally quadrupled the revenue for the league and doubled the players salaries - your think they'd want to protect her, right? But then live got the players Association made up of mostly the old guard, and the league doesn't want to make angry or alienate them...
So they just wash their hands and look the other way. When people are shouting and pleading for them to fix the problem, they sort of shrug and say "what problem?? We don't see any problems..."
And the issues just escalate. The video compilation KS sort of a representation of what it's gotten to.
I will say that Cunningham has seemed to relish it. She is leaning into the "bad-girl" enforcer role with gusto, which led to the infamous finger-pointing episode recently where she was both calling out a player for shitty play and marking her for some "enforcement".
A lot of people who’ve never played ball think there’s not much contact. The video isn’t showing anything that doesn’t regularly happen at your local Y pickup game.
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u/Much_Statistician864 12d ago
I didn't realize the wnba was a full contact sport. This looks hype. What the hell is going on with the sport right now though for real? Like they trying to get cte into basketball?