The Indiana Fever have assigned Kaitlyn Clark to a group of babysitters: her teammates, whose job it is to keep the mercurial, arrogant WNBA star from getting into altercations with referees.
Doesn't work.
Ponytailed Pete Maravich, America's biggest sporting star, is turning into a victim-addled, obnoxious, whiny, whining crybaby named Caitlin Clark.
On Sunday afternoon in front of another sellout crowd in Indianapolis, Clark scored a season-high 35 points, passing Samone Augustus for the most points scored in a season by a WNBA rookie, and the Fever won the game 110-109 for their 20th win of the season and clinched the No. 6 seed in the playoffs.
Perhaps more importantly, Clark finished the game without picking up his seventh technical foul, which would have resulted in a suspension for Thursday's regular-season finale against the Washington Mystics.
But Clark's babysitting failed. Her star power prevented the umpire from letting her tee off on Sunday. Clark spent the entire match waving her arms around, dropping to the ground at the slightest contact and complaining to the umpire. She left the umpire confused.
Caitlin Clark is Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, and only the actions of their “oppressors” matter.
“I didn't expect to get a technical foul tonight,” Clark told reporters after the game. “I feel really bad for the guys in D.C. I didn't want it to happen. I did my best.”
“My teammates are doing a really good job. They think it's funny. And Aaliyah [Boston] “She's the one who gets beat on a technical. That's the funniest part. She was taking care of me and then somehow she gets beat on a technical. But she didn't do anything. She just stood there. That's what's really funny.”
I understand the humor between teammates. I get it.
But I find it impossible to laugh.
I have watched every single Caitlin Clark game this WNBA season, I have purchased WNBA League Pass, and I recently purchased two Caitlin Clark jerseys. Clark has been my favorite athlete for the last 18 months or so.
But she has worn me down. The whining, the complaining, the failures, the victim mentality, the flattery, the excessive focus on interacting with fans and arguing with umpires. I can't take it anymore.
She plays an exciting, stat-packed, low-IQ type of basketball.
If Taylor Swift and LeBron James had a child, that child would play basketball just like Caitlin Clark.
Clark is what basketball fans assumed was Mike Krzyzewski's white Duke University basketball player.
The signs were there during Clark's time in college. Her darkest moment came when the Iowa Hawkeyes lost to Ohio State, Buckeyes fans stormed the court, Clark was hit by a student, and she fell to the ground as if she'd been shot. Clark initiated contact and faked the injury.
Six months ago, during March Madness, cameras caught Clark's father yelling at her from the stands to shut up and stop arguing with the umpires.
I thought Clark's on-court attitude would improve with time, that she would be less cocky as she was before, but it has gotten a lot worse. She spends every match whining and complaining about everything.
This is one of the main reasons she broke the WNBA turnover record. She has 220 turnovers. Prior to this season, no player had more than 137. In a 40-minute WNBA game, Clark has a chance to tie James Harden's NBA record of 5.7 turnovers per game. An NBA game is 48 minutes long. Clark averages 5.6 turnovers.
She wastes too much energy and focus on watching the referees and playing the basketball poorly. She is trying to control things that she cannot control.
Clark's admirers blame her teammates for her high turnover rate. That's not true. There are occasional instances of Clark's teammates mishandling good passes. But the truth is, Clark is frequently dribbled off the field and throws passes into double coverage like Jameis Winston. She also draws offensive fouls for pushing off with her left hand.
Her lack of emotional control, high turnovers, victim mentality, poor shot selection, and lazy defense are the reasons I expect the Fever to lose in the first round of the playoffs.
Clarke never seems to realize that her self-inflicted shortcomings matter. Her false idols shield her from criticism. They blame everyone else for her shortcomings. They emulate their leaders. Clarke blames the referees for everything. They blame racism. In their minds, they believe that because black girls in the WNBA have been mean and unfair to their heroes, Clarke deserves to be pampered.
It's the same mindset as the Black Lives Matter group.
“Black people are the victims, so we should ignore their pampered and entitled behavior. Don't you know they've been mistreated?”
Caitlin Clark is Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, and only the actions of their “oppressors” matter.
Clark's admirers, especially some of them white, are so fascinated and amused by watching her win in a league dominated by angry black leftists that they are blind to her obvious shortcomings. No different to black leftists, many of Clark's followers are in the grip of racial idolatry. They have abandoned their so-called core values in order to join the race war.
Clark's behavior on the court, especially his constant victim mentality and his tendency to put down others, goes against my values, just like LeBron James'. I don't like James. I've come to dislike Clark, too.
She's an incredible talent, and with the right adjustments, she could lead the Fever to the WNBA Finals this year. Hopefully she'll get back on track before the playoffs begin. I'm not optimistic. Fame is the most debilitating drug known to man. It locks you into the loudest echo chamber and makes it impossible for dissenting voices to be heard.
Everyone thinks I hate Caitlin Clark. I don't. I hate what she's become.
