WNBA is a ‘tough league’, and Caitlin Clark isn’t being intentionally targeted, sports reporter says
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Caitlin Clark has brought a lot attention to women’s basketball over the past year.
However, the Indiana Fever star’s rise to fame has created discourse about how she has been treated by the media and advertisers in comparison to the WNBA’s Black players.
There has been a lot of talk over the past week about what is happening between Clark and opposing players on the court.
Emmy award-winning sports reporter Betsy Ross joined Daybreak to discuss more. Ross says people watching WNBA games for the first time are learning some of their beliefs about the league aren’t true.
“People are now looking at, and seeing, what the league is all about. Whatever the stereotype that you may have had, not necessarily being that familiar with WNBA, those extra eyeballs now that are watching, you see that the league is more than just the stereotype. You can see that it’s diverse,” Ross said.
Critics have claimed that Clark is being intentionally targeted, but according to Ross, both current and former WNBA players say that is the nature of the game.
“It is a tough league. It is a league that I think that if you just watch college basketball, you may not realize that it is, you know, a tough league, a big girl league,” Ross said. “But I always bring up the quote that John Wooden said years and years ago, he said, ‘If you really want to watch to see how basketball should be played, watch the women’s game because it’s about plays, it’s about passing, it’s about strategy’ and I think that’s what we’re seeing right now.”