It’s been a steady stream of asinine statements on all sides after Caitlin Clark was deservedly awarded TIME Athlete of the Year for 2024.
Clark unwittingly set off a firestorm of controversy when she gave a nod to ‘white privilege’ for her success in the WNBA and suggested the league needs to do more to celebrate black players.
“I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” Clark told the magazine. “A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them.”
Clark’s comments dismayed fans by seemingly lending credence to players who have suggested her popularity is motivated by race as opposed to, say, record-breaking performances week after week.
Mystics Team Owner Says Caitlin Clark Wasn’t Worthy Of TIME Cover
Despite being the most transcendent player in a generation, Caitlin Clark continues to be torn down by jealous players and owners in the WNBA. It’s just a fact.
Nowhere was this more apparent than with Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson, who suggested the TIME Athlete of the Year should have been awarded to everybody.
Like I said, never-ending stupidity.
“Why couldn’t they have put the WNBA on that cover and say, ‘The WNBA is the league of the year,’ because of all the talent that we have,” Johnson suggested.
Imagine not putting Magic Johnson and Larry Bird on the cover of SI because it’s “really the league” that is having a great year. Yeah, that league that still lost $40 million even with Caitlin Clark drawing record audiences.
“When you single out one player, it creates hard feelings,” Johnson whined, “so now you’re starting to hear stories of racism within the WNBA, and I don’t want to hear that.”
RELATED: Caitlin Clark Is Your Time Magazine 2024 Athlete Of The Year
Clark Is The Only Player Responsible For The WNBA’s Popularity
The Mystics owner got rightly shellacked for making such a statement. Despite what anybody says, the WNBA has only surged in popularity because fans want to see Caitlin Clark.
Nobody else. Not even Angel Reese. Not their league MVP in A’ja Wilson.
Clark has been responsible for an astonishing 26.5 percent of the WNBA’s activity this season, including attendance, merchandise sales, and television viewership, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star.
“Good luck naming another player who altered the trajectory of their entire team sport within five months on the job,” TIME says in their Athlete of the Year article.
There are no other players. And the WNBA didn’t have a great year, Catlin Clark did.
Clark’s brother appeared to take a jab at Johnson by sharing a video on X which showed a record 20,711 fans in attendance at Capital One Arena in Washington for the Mystics’ game against the Indiana Fever.
A record 20,711 fans were in attendance for Fever-Mystics tonight—the largest crowd in WNBA history.pic.twitter.com/NszrT2gGMk
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) September 20, 2024
They were there to see Clark. Nobody on the Mystics. Nobody else on the Fever. And certainly not Johnson.
“It has taken the WNBA almost 28 years to get to the point where we are now, and this year something clicked with the WNBA, and it’s because of the draft of the players that came in, it’s not just Caitlin Clark, it’s Reese,” Johnson insisted. “We have so much talent out there that’s so unrecognized, and I don’t think we can just pin it on one player.”
We can. We should. And we will.
The Mystics had the third-worst home attendance in the WNBA, totalling just 130,830 for all of their home games. The video Colin shared was for a game that Clark came to town and put 20,711 butts in seats.
That one game represents well over 15% of the Mystics’ entire home game attendance on the year. That’s why Clark is on the cover.
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