The WNBA continues to find itself on a growth trajectory with augmented interest in the league and its players. Indiana Fever guard and first-overall draft selection Caitlin Clark has helped the league attain record audiences for early games. Clark is believed to be one of the catalysts for league growth and has led several commentators to express their opinions on the WNBA. TNT Sports analyst Charles Barkley in particular called out other WNBA athletes to implore them to be thankful for Clark instead of petty towards her. The commentary, however, is something that was addressed by ESPN host Elle Duncan this week during an appearance on The Right Time with Bomani Jones.
Duncan, who covers the WNBA as both a SportsCenter anchor and host of WNBA Countdown, explained to Jones that women in the league have sacrificed throughout their whole careers to allow the next group of players to have better conditions. Clark is among the latter cohort and is widely extolled by her peers and fans. The characterization Barkley insinuated though was something that ostensibly misrepresented those in the league. Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James attributed Clark as a reason behind growth in the WNBA during last week’s episode of Mind the Game with JJ Redick.
“That’s all they do is fight for the next generation – to have more visibility; to have these platforms and these stages – and for you to paint them as just some old, jealous women, it’s bullsh**,” Duncan said. “It’s not okay, and it’s not Caitlin Clark’s fault. It’s everyone else that’s othering her – it’s the so-called fans that are making her the other.”
Duncan explained that Clark just wants to play and that she is able to take care of herself. Moreover, she expressed that she is tired of hearing men discuss the game when they cannot grasp and delineate any of the storylines going on in the league. Duncan also mentioned earlier in the conversation that she believes the coverage surrounding Clark on ESPN is apropos and elucidated on the process to determine what merits discussion.
“We don’t make these decisions in a vacuum, guys,” Duncan said. “You can get mad at me all we want because we’re rehashing Cowboys talk. We literally have metrics that show that when you talk about the Cowboys, you watch, and when we talk about something else, you turn, and that’s how these things are guided. So people watch Caitlin Clark, they love Caitlin Clark. It’s true — I think she is getting the appropriate amount of coverage, and it’s deserved”
Within her discourse, Duncan tried to adumbrate the parallels between the WNBA and other professional sports leagues. An agitating part of the issue is in having people who are more unfamiliar with the league delivering commentaries and opinions just to have their voices as part of the conversation. Duncan, along with her colleagues Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter, have all been covering the WNBA for several years and receive plaudits as an informed and entertaining studio program.
“This is not specific to Caitlin Clark,” Duncan said. “You’re just new in this space, and so while you’re new before you put your f***ing feet on my couch, look around. Get the lay of the land; get to know it a little bit before you just jump in and continue to fan flames of divisiveness that frankly target Black and brown women. It’s not okay.”
Jones replied by hypothesizing the chance that women in the league are jealous of Clark, something he perceives not to be a bad thing if that is the case. In fact, he recalled the perceived freezing of Michael Jordan out of the 1985 NBA All-Star Game upon Isiah Thomas telling people not to pass the ball to Jordan. Although he did not personally see broadcasters mention to take it easy on Clark, he believes it to be an insane assumption.
“I think for a lot of people, it’s going to be interesting watching men migrate into this,” Jones said. “I’ve talked about this a few different times in the past. The way that we talk about sports is very specific to the way that we talk about men and reconciling the way that we generally talk about women in public and polite company with how we talk about sports is going to be a very interesting endeavor as we try to bring these things together. And so I think for a lot of dudes, they don’t necessarily know how to talk about women in public doing the things that these women are doing.”
Drawing a parallel to the monologue delivered by America Ferrara in the Barbie movie last summer, Duncan claimed Jones to have provided a fair assessment. There are times where she thinks it is unfair when women always have to appeal to morality and do things under market value because it is good for the game. While Duncan believes that race plays a factor in the popularity of Clark, she also articulated that she is “wildly fricking talented” and benefitting in a time where the platform has never been bigger or commanded more attention.
“It does feel a little bit impossible, and I think that to understand that we are all still competitors, and I think women have to show levels of humility and deference that men never have to show, and so much of that we naturally carry with us because we are beholden to something better,” Duncan said. “Like a white top prospect doesn’t have to worry that if he doesn’t do the job well, no white man will ever get the job again.”
