CAITLIN CLARK IS BEING ATTACKED BY MEAN GIRLS WHO WANT A PIECE OF HER

The WNBA commissioner should be ashamed for allowing dirtball tactics against the rookie star, who is struggling madly in her pro debut and is subjected to Bad Boys abuse from too many angry opponents

     Thug ball? Welcome to the first month of Caitlin Clark’s WNBA career, where she has been battered by the Draymond Green antics of opponents who are beyond resentful of her bank account. Political agendas are alive in every blast, shove and body slam. We’ve heard from players, including two-time MVP A’ja Wilson, who’ve said Clark’s rookie year is about a White superstar entering a league where Black players want her spleen.

     That is happening, amid a hideous 2-9 start for the Indiana Fever, which might have Clark taking law-enforcement training. Chicago’s Chennedy Carter body-checked her before the ball was inbounded, sending her crashing to the floor. “That’s just not a basketball play,” Clark said after Carter yelled “you bitch.” The fracas came Saturday, days after Clark shouted down Seattle’s Victoria Vivians when both picked up technical fouls. “I feel like I’m getting hammered,” said the native of West Des Moines, Iowa.

     I don’t view any sport, much less women’s pro basketball, thinking players can be railroaded by bully shots. If this is the future of the WNBA — Clark is paid more than $32 million for endorsements that position her for enemy cowardice — why are we watching? Wilson urged players to wallop Clark, saying, “A lot of people may say it’s not about Black and white, but to me, it is. You can be top-notch at what you are as a Black woman, but maybe that’s something that people don’t want to see. They don’t see it as marketable, so it doesn’t matter how hard I work. It doesn’t matter what we all do as Black women, we’re still going to be swept underneath the rug. That’s why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is.”

     Shame on league commissioner Cathy Engelbert for allowing violence. She wants TV ratings, but allowing Black players to pick on Clark is racial spinelessness. Not until Sunday did the office begin to enforce violence against Clark. The personal foul against Carter finally was reviewed as a Flagrant 1 call. That doesn’t mean the torment will end. It’s almost as if the WNBA wants to create rivalries through dirty tactics, bringing back the Bad Boys as the Mean Girls. It won’t work.

     “Unacceptable,” said Christie Sides, Clark’s head coach. “When will the consistent complaints be heard? Something has to be done! We're just going to keep sending these possessions to the league, and these plays, and hopefully they'll start, you know, taking a better look at some of the things that we see happening. Just more happy that Caitlin handled it the way she did. You know, it's tough to keep getting hammered the way she does and to not get rewarded with free throws or foul calls. She's continued to fight through that. Appreciate that from her. Really, really proud of her for doing that."

     After the game, which the Fever actually won, Carter said, “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions. I don’t know what she said. I didn’t say anything.” Later, she turned to social media and wrote under the name Kodak Black, “Beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man. … I grew up with all brothers. All we did is fight and argue. I love the hate more than the love what don’t yall understand. I’d rather you hate me (than) love me and I mean that on my dead aunt.”

     I’m sure the deceased relative appreciates it. She also wrote: “#22 clearly flopping.” No, at 152 pounds, Clark does not flop when she’s banged by heavier, taller and angrier players. “I wasn’t expecting it, but it’s just, ‘Respond, calm down and let your play do the talking,’ ’’ she said. “You know, I’ve got to play through it, that’s what basketball is about at this level.”

     The Chicago coach, Teresa Weatherspoon, wasn’t buying the hammer take. “They’re just competing,” she said. “That’s all they’re doing is competing.”

     This is how life will be as Clark keeps losing, averaging 15.6 points and 5.4 turnovers a game. During a 104-68 loss Sunday night to the New York Liberty, Clark left the game and held her injured ear after scoring three points — on 1 of 10 from the field. The defenders, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Kayla Thornton, were ruthless and held her to her lowest point total and field-goal percentage … ever? True, the Fever have been blitzed by an evil start with 11 games in 20 days. Wasn’t Clark seen by 24 million viewers in the national title game? That was only April 7. Already, her world is tarnished. Since May 2, she has traveled from Indianapolis to Dallas to Indianapolis to Connecticut to Indianapolis to Brooklyn to Indianapolis to Seattle to Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Indianapolis to Brooklyn to Indianapolis.

     Are they trying to kill her?

     “I think collectively, as a team, we understand who kind of the head of the monster is on that team, and we are trying to just make everything tough and difficult,” Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said of Clark.

     She makes her $28 million through Nike and other millions through Wilson, Gatorade and State Farm. The haters love seeing her in 11th place among 12 teams, with a league-worst 13.1-point differential. When college rival Angel Reese cheered from the Chicago bench after the Clark contact, Carter replied: “My dawg fasho.” Reese also was fined $1,000 for refusing to visit the media after a 71-70 loss. Worse, Green entered the fray as someone whose NBA season ended in April, saying the Fever “better go invest in an enforcer … fast.” Another hothead, Matt Barnes, was harsher.

     “I mean, throughout the season, she’s been getting beat up. Hard screens, elbows, knocked down. It is what it is. She’s not the first, she won’t be the last. My issue and my question is, Where the f—k are her teammates at? Where y’all at? Where are the rest of the Indiana Fever at?” Barnes said. “I’ve seen a couple of girls smirk when she’s got knocked down, half-ass to pick her up. Like, y’all supposed to protect the asset, protect the star. And although this is a team, you always protect your star. I was someone who protected the stars. You f-–k with Kobe (Bryant), (Chris Paul), Blake (Griffin), the list goes on, it’s going to be a problem.”

     Rather than knock heads, tennis legend Martina Navratilova had it right. “The players in the WNBA need to realize that Clark is helping all of them, now and in the long run,” she wrote. “She is the tide that will raise all boats! I was calling out a dirty play, which was also stupid. If you want to go after someone, do it from the front.”

     At least the Liberty coach, Sandy Brondello, realized the Carter shove was “probably inappropriate,” adding, “that’s not what we do.” So Caitlin Clark left an arena in New York, almost sold out at 17,401 fans, with a bad earache after she was bumped on a screen. A hospital stay might be next.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.