Two weeks ago, it was a dramatic 40-foot shot from the logo that cemented Iowa State star Caitlin Clark’s place in history.
The sharpshooter, often compared to Stephen Curry, broke the women’s all-time scoring record held by Kelsey Plum. And she is currently on the brink of breaking the all-time scoring record for men and women held by late pistol star Pete Maravich.
Pretty amazing, right?
Broadcaster Jay Williams didn’t think so. He said Clark isn’t “great” yet because he hasn’t won a championship yet.
He then doubled down and moved the goal post to the superlative position of the “g”.
“We were talking about being the best. You hear people talk about the GOAT, right? For me, it’s like, ‘OK, you want to be the Goat, right?’ Are you okay. There are levels of greatness. You have to win championships to be the GOAT,” Williams said.
wonderful? Sorry, Mr. Williams. Clark is too busy transcending.
The fact that the 22-year-old is even the subject of these discussions proves that she has already climbed higher than Williams’ arbitrary perch, in the ring or not. There is.
I’ve never seen female athletes participate in boring mainstream discussions reserved for male athletes.
But show us some bigger names in college hoops right now – male or female. You can blame one-and-done for the dilution of notable talent on the men’s side, but you can’t deny Clark’s unique power.
Or that her magic is changing the women’s game in more ways than one.
Her teams fill arenas and recently held the Women’s Big Ten Tournament to a sold-out house for the first time in history. She has broken records on and off the court and has a NIL contract with a company that normally signs top male athletes.
It goes without saying that she attracts an unusually large amount of attention. During the regular season game against Ohio State on January 21, 1.93 million viewers tuned in. Compare that to the NHL’s famous Stadium Series last week. It attracted 1.57 million people.
Last year’s NCAA championship game between Iowa and LSU, a matchup between Clark and fellow genius Angel Reese, drew a whopping 9.9 million viewers on ABC. Meanwhile, the most recent World Series between the Rangers and Diamondbacks averaged 9.11 million viewers.
This week, Clark became Fanatics’ highest-selling college athlete during the NIL era. According to on3.com, her contracts with Buick, Nike, Bose, and Gatorade bring her NIL value to $919,000. Clark also became the first college athlete to sign with State Farm, whose pitchers include Patrick Mahomes and Chris Paul.
In other words, Clark is treated like a superstar athlete first. Not female athletes, just athletes.
Clark’s social media accounts are mostly filled with on-court moments and reveal little about her personal life, much less about her body. In that sense, she is an antidote to what has been called the NCAA’s “hot girl problem.”
A 2023 Free Press profile of Haley Cavinder and Hannah Cavinder explains why the highest-paid women in NIL college sports aren’t always statistically the best players. It was described as being attractive. Cavinders and her girlfriend, LSU gymnast Libby Dunn, both unapologetically package sex appeal in addition to athleticism.
Flaunting her butt and posing in a Sports Illustrated swimsuit — I have no problem with that choice. But Clark is fulfilling the feminist question of rewarding talent without objectifying it.
Humility aside, she is unashamedly confident. She’s not afraid to slap her with a John Cena-like gesture, show her hand in front of her face to taunt her with “you can’t see me,” and use it as her prolific score. I was able to corroborate this to the extent that it was incomprehensible.
Of course, there are also her detractors. Among them was legendary baseball player Sheryl Swoopes, who apologized after belittling Clark with wildly false statements that exaggerated Clark’s age, eligibility and number of shot attempts.
But Clark seems to be taking the criticism in stride. She doesn’t give angry rebuttals on social media or give her whining comments in post-game interviews.
Her conversations, yes, trash at times, take place on the court.
Maybe she doesn’t have that ring yet, but that’s an unfair indicator.
She could have followed the trophy path to schools like UW or the University of South Carolina. Instead, she went to Iowa State. Iowa State has won many conference trophies, but has never won a national title (although they came pretty close last year).
Clark forged his own path and wrote more complex and interesting stories.
And surprisingly, her story is just beginning. I’m lucky.
