By Rich Lowry
Tuesday, July 07, 2026
What sports league, handed a generational talent who has
played brilliantly and delivered massive commercial dividends, would make this
very same player seem unwelcome and an object of scorn?
The WNBA.
Caitlin Clark arrived in the league three seasons ago
already a superstar considered one of the greatest college players in the
history of the sport, and instantly boosted the league — otherwise a
commercially marginal outfit — to another level.
For her troubles, the Indiana Fever star has been treated
like a virus that the league’s antibodies seek to reject.
The latest controversy erupted after a player with the
Phoenix Mercury named Alyssa Thomas pressed her fist to Clark’s neck when the
Fever guard was prone on the court. The officials missed the foul in real time,
but the league later deemed it a flagrant foul and suspended Thomas for a game.
The episode was shocking given Clark’s importance to the
game, a little like Tom Brady getting clotheslined or Shohei Ohtani getting hit
by a pitch, and the refs or umps not noticing.
Still, ABC News ran a sympathetic segment about
Thomas, who is black, getting death threats after the incident, and sports
influencer Emmanuel Acho said that the incident showed that Clark is more
trouble than she’s worth.
This is a little like saying in the 1940s or 1950s that
Major League Baseball didn’t need Ted Williams. Now, of course, Clark hasn’t
proved herself one of the greatest offensive forces in her league’s history,
the way Teddy Ballgame did. She has a chance, though, if she stays healthy —
all the more reason for the WNBA to keep her from getting singled out for hard
fouls on the court.
Players envious of Clark should realize that the only
reason a segment of fans care about the league is that she is playing in it.
A player who is very good, and also famous and
charismatic, is a priceless commodity for any league, and the entire WNBA
should be grateful for what it has in Clark.
They used to say of the New York Yankees that Yankees are
born, not made. In a similar vein, the WNBA could have had a limitless
marketing budget and would have been unable to manufacture the Caitlin Clark
phenomenon — it is organic and not replicable.
Clark fills arenas at home and away, where teams
sometimes temporarily move to larger NBA arenas to accommodate the crowds. She
drives huge spikes in TV ratings. Her jersey is the league’s bestseller. By one
estimate, she accounts for more than a quarter of the league’s revenue. In
terms of sheer economic value, Caitlin Clark is the Elon Musk of the WNBA.
The root of her appeal is that she’s truly extraordinary
on the court, a top scorer and an exceptional playmaker. This year, she’s been
averaging roughly 21 points and eight assists per game. She holds the record
for most assists in a game and for most assists in a season, and reached 500
career assists at the fastest pace in WNBA history.
Her total offensive production per game — points plus
assists — is the best in the league this year.
She should be just getting started. But her WNBA tenure
has been marked by controversies with an identity-politics edge, since it’s not
hard to imagine that the predominantly black league with a disproportionate
number of openly lesbian players looks askance at the white, straight player
who gets outsized attention.
Clark’s teammate Sophie Cunningham said after the latest
incident that Clark is clearly being targeted. The league should make it clear
that — as a sport and entertainment business — it wants no part of such an
agenda and it highly values its most valuable player.
Clark’s agent has said, correctly, that there’s no way
that the WNBA can pay Clark what she’s worth. What the league can do is provide
an environment for her to reach her full potential; it’s the very least it can
do for Clark, the sport, and their fans.
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