Welcome back.
WNBA superstar Caitlyn Clark has been credited for ushering in
a new era for the league, but a recent play
between Clark and veteran Chicago Sky guard Kennedy Carter has
sparked a debate that longtime fans didn't necessarily see coming.
Saturday's game between the Sky and the Indiana Fever was
tense, resulting in a foul where Carter was seen pushing
Clark to the ground.
Officials later upgraded the foul to a flagrant one, but
the move has sparked outrage among media personalities and new
fans alike.
Some are claiming Clark is being unfairly bullied in the
league, but the debate also has former players and longtime
reporters calling time out, saying hey, this is nothing new.
Challenging everyone to put some respect on the league and
its players.
Kavitha David and joins us on set for more insights.
She's a sports writer and the co-author of loving sports
when they don't love you back.
Dilemmas of the modern fan.
Kavita always love when you join us.
Thank you very much for being here.
It's fun to have you in studio.
So this whole thing really exploded over the last few
days, right.
So I I mean this there's media personalities and then
new fans, people who kind of just as we've seen
this explosion in popularity of the WNBA be drawn to
this sport, be drawn to watching these games.
Walk us through what we have seen and then how
you do think the media and fans alike are handling
an event like this, especially as there's a lot of
people who have not ever really talked about or delved
into the WNB before entering the chat here, right?
So I think that that's kind of the crux of
the issue is that we have a lot of people
weighing in with opinions that they have every right to
have, but who have not covered the league before, who
probably are not also equipped with the language to properly
talk about these women and these athletes.
Look, there was a a very hard foul, a flagrant
one on Caitlin Clark that was very clearly not a
basketball play that was reviewed.
And said, and even, you know, Kennedy Carter's own coach
has said that.
But the idea that Caitlin Clark is being bullied, I
think speaks to a larger issue.
We are trying to infantilize or protect Caitlin Clark, who
was a grown woman herself, who was playing in a
physical league, in a league that has always been physical,
some would argue more physical than the men in recent
years.
So there are a lot of narratives at play here
that are getting lost in the noise in the conversation.
So some of this I feel like is fans who
are new to the WNBA maybe not understanding what's going
on, media that hasn't covered the WA NBA before that
maybe isn't really familiar with what's going on.
But then also just we can't ignore the fact that
race and gender are part of what's going on here,
right?
Well, they obviously are.
And I will start any conversation about race and gender
to point out that none of this is Caitlin Clark's
fault.
She has not said or done anything to feel this
part of the conversation.
But when you're talking about a league that is 70%
black and a star who happens to be white who
is capturing the nation's attention, you can understand why some
of the conversation is, well, why not the women before?
And that is not the only, you know, race is
not the only reason that Caitlin Clark.
It's it's definitely not the biggest reason that Caitlyn Clark
is this popular, but it is a reason.
And that's not something that we can ignore.
It's important for us to note that the WNBA is
made-up of, as we're kind of touching on here, so
many talented players.
That is a point that rookie Angel Reese made recently.
I want to listen to a little bit of that
interview and we'll talk about it.
On the other side, The reason why we watching women's
basketball is not just because of one person.
It's because of me too.
And I want y'all to realize that, like, it's not
just because of one person.
A lot of us have done so much for this
game.
And Kennedy has been here before, obviously, but there are
so many great players in this league that have deserved
this for a really, really long time.
And luckily, it's coming now.
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, first of all, I'm so glad you played that
whole clip because frankly, there have been other media outlets
that cut that clip off when Angel Reese, it said
it has been me too.
And then she says it has been all of us
because they're trying to feel this narrative that Angel Reese
is selfish or all about her versus Caitlin Clark being
unselfish and again, being quote UN quote bullied.
So it's good to have the whole clip there.
She's absolutely right.
There are other players that have fuelled where the WNBA
is here, even if Caitlin Clark is currently the number
one reason, and that that viewership is up and there
are players in the future who will continue this rise
and will continue to sustain this viewership growth.
And that's important to the league.
And as you very smartly pointed out to us before
we started there a lot of other stories here that
we could be following a lot of other threads within
the WNBA.
Kavitha Davidson, thank you very much.
Great to have you here.