Black sports pundits are still complaining that Caitlin Clark is white
Black sports pundits cannot stop complaining about Caitlin Clark’s skin color because they cannot get over that a white player is the face of a sport predominantly played by black athletes.
Jim Trotter, formerly of Sports Illustrated and ESPN and now writing for the Athletic, has joined the pile-on. While claiming he is not dismissing her accomplishments and college success, Trotter does exactly that to suggest the real reason that Clark is receiving so much publicity and endorsement deals is because she is straight and white. In doing so, he also belittled the accomplishments of Sabrina Ionescu, who committed the same grave crime of being good at basketball while being straight and white.
Trotter can’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that Clark is the most exciting female basketball player to watch ever, with a game similar to that of the NBA’s Stephen Curry, the most exciting male player to watch possibly ever and certainly the most exciting for his generation. Clark is the all-time scoring leader in college basketball history, which, combined with her play style, explains her popularity.
Even for the less well-known Ionescu, who Trotter complains gets too much publicity, this holds true. Ionescu was another college legend (or “college icon,” as even Trotter admits) who holds the NCAA record for triple-doubles. Ionescu being highlighted in a video game, the supporting piece of evidence in Trotter’s argument against straight white WNBA privilege, is easily explained by the game and the WNBA trying to capitalize on Ionescu’s personal popularity — even if, in the pros, she is “just” a measly two-time All-Star, former first overall pick, and the youngest player to record a triple-double in WNBA history who is playing for last season’s second-best team.
Trotter joins USA Today’s race-obsessed Mike Freeman and former ESPN personality turned professional race-baiter Jemele Hill in complaining that Clark, the best women’s college basketball player ever, is only given so much attention because she is white. It is a gross kind of racism masked as profound commentary on the country that reduces Clark to her skin color and ignores the basic reality that Clark (and Ionescu, to a lesser extent) is popular because of her play style and countless records.
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This is not exclusive to women’s basketball coverage either. Last year, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins decided to taint the NBA’s MVP debate with racism by suggesting that making Nikola Jokic a back-to-back-to-back MVP winner would be racist. Jokic, the best basketball player on the planet, committed the crime of being a white Serbian dominating a sport predominantly played by black players. He went on to be the NBA Finals MVP instead.
Every person boiling players such as Clark, Ionescu, or Jokic down to their skin color is simply pushing their own race-obsessed worldview at the expense of those players and the leagues they play in. When it comes to Clark, these pundits would rather sabotage the WNBA’s chance for national relevance than be content that a white player becomes the face of the sport. If that isn’t racism, what would you call it?
