HOW MESMERIZING IS CAITLIN CLARK? THE NBA SHOULD BE WATCHING CLOSELY
As an entertainer and shotmaker, the Iowa guard is the hottest player in the college game — men’s side included — and her joyful 3-point blitzes had better interest a league filled with mope-a-dopes
Would it be outlandish to dream about Caitlin Clark in the NBA? Would it be wrong to say the Diana Taurasi comparisons actually project toward Stephen Curry — her thrillmaking, her artistry, her 28-foot jumpers, her whippet-good passes, her raging and unapologetic love affair with basketball? It is fair to wonder if she’s exactly what a league of mope-a-dopes needs?
This is a 21-year-old woman. I don’t care. She is 6 feet tall and 155 pounds. I don’t care. Clark is an entertainer and highlight machine unlike any in college sports, including every male player headed to a Final Four that requires name tags. She can make a transition three-pointer on every court in the world, her gender irrelevant. And right about now, after watching her account for 70 of Iowa’s 97 points and deliver her 11th career triple-double, you can forgive me — actually, don’t — for wondering how her skill set fits into a stop-and-pop, no-defense association of men who care more about referee-hating, Barkley-feuding and load management than embracing their livelihoods.
Thank you, Caitlin Clark, for restoring passion and magnetism to the most creative game on this Earth. “That’s when I play my best basketball, when I’m having the most fun of anyone on the court,” she said Sunday night, having led the school of her cornstalked childhood to its first Final Four in three decades. “I play this game because I love it and because it brings joy to other people. I don’t play to only hoist a trophy.”
She might do so anyway, in a women’s finale that many folks will find more compelling than the men’s obscurity convention. If transcendent showmen rule sports in the 21st century — Curry, Patrick Mahomes, Shohei Ohtani — why not Clark? She’s the first player in NCAA history, male or female, to record 900-plus points and 300-plus assists in a single season. The Caitlin Experience is a blur that might feature a head-on drive to the basket or a long-distance swagger swish, of which she says, “When I’m in the gym, I’m shooting transition 3s on the move. They’re not just shots that I get in the game and put up. They’re shots that I’m continually working on and trying to refine.”
Sounds a lot like Curry, a big fan who calls her “fearless.” I used to watch him shoot jumpers in practice, by the hundreds, and when he’d scream after a rare few misses, he’d stay another half-hour. Watching Clark at work must evoke the same perfectionist vibe. Or, if she prefers, she’ll scold herself for shooting too much and finds teammates with an inventive variety of passes. A lob or rifle pass here, or a one-bounce or behind-the-back delivery as gravy. She could have played for the Harlem Globetrotters in their barnstorming prime — except she’s too wired a competitor, having to dial down her emotion in recent seasons. Now, she smells a national championship this weekend and knows the country is beginning to watch her games in bigger numbers.
“I’m somebody that’s full of fire and passion — and that’s who I am, that’s always who I’m going to be, and I’m never going to lose that,” Clark said. “It’s just understanding the moments of when my team needs it and when I need to lock in and turn on to the next play. I think it’s something I’ve been working on, especially this year. I knew if we wanted to go far, I can’t get too hung up on other plays. I can’t get hung up on turnovers I’ve had, missed shots I’ve had.”
Does she realize she’s becoming a craze at just the right juncture? Women’s sports has lost Serena Williams to retirement and awaits a new generation of soccer stars. The Olympics happen every four years, meaning Katie Ledecky is low-key between Tokyo and Paris and Mikaela Shiffrin between Beijing and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Clark senses what’s happening, the opportunities ahead as boundless as she is.
“You kind of feel powerful,” she said. “It’s kind of cool.”
But she also wants us to know she’s “maybe a little too goofy at times” and not some hoops-obsessed automaton. As the Seattle 4 Regional was ending triumphantly, she quickly raced to grab the game ball by the baseline before an official could retrieve it. “I wanted it, so I chucked it to my dad,” she said. “I hope (my parents) got out of the arena in time, so the NCAA can’t chase them down. But I told them to run. I’ll get it later at the hotel.”
The WNBA will be blessed to have her. The NBA should be, too, if she wants the accompanying media madness. Would Gregg Popovich draft her in 2024 and give her an honest shot? Would Steve Kerr turn her loose in practice against the sport’s all-time shooter and current star of too many Subway commercials? I’ve never harbored such thoughts about a female basketball player. I’m not even sure a female coach, such as the well-qualified Becky Hammon, is ready to handle the league’s knuckleheads when the male coaches — Jason Kidd is about to buy a straitjacket, his reward for being stuck with a Luka Doncic/Kyrie Irving disaster — have enough problems. But Clark is a baller, not an authority figure. All she has to do is kill them with her jumper.
Such a training-camp journey wouldn’t be a first. In 1979, a 5-9 guard named Ann Meyers was the first woman asked to try out for an NBA team, the Indiana Pacers. She signed a $50,000 contract and promptly was advised to go home by the team’s coach, Slick Leonard, who meant well and said he was protecting her best interests. She persisted anyway, as a former four-time All-American at UCLA, with the backing of the legendary Bill Russell, who told the Indianapolis Star years before his death, “Annie was one of the best basketball players ever. I didn’t say male or female. I said ever.”
Several players were cut before Meyers. Finally, Leonard summoned her for the dreaded speech. She walked back to her hotel room and cried, tucking away a compliment from assistant coach Jack McCloskey, who would go on to put together the Bad Boys era of the Detroit Pistons. “Fundamentally,” he said, “she’s better than half the guys out there.”
The game has changed in the four decades since — faster, longer, bigger, more versatile athletes from across the globe with sublime talents. But it also was revolutionized by Curry, who opened new doors for supreme shooters … like Clark. The game also has changed for the worse, with trade demands, player entitlement, bad attitudes and Twitter fixations. Clark’s disposition would be a godsend. Of her Iowa team, she said, “We might not be the most athletic, we might not be the fastest, we might not be the best defenders, but we play for one another. That's going to take you really far. That's what it's all about. Our circle is tight and more than anything we're each other's best friends. That will carry you a long way.”
Of her mission this weekend, she said, “When I came here, I said I wanted to take this program to the Final Four, and all you've got to do is dream. And all you've got to do is believe and work your butt off to get there. That's what I did, and that's what our girls did and that's what our coaches did and we're going to Dallas, baby.”
The destination is appropriate. If each new day brings another dismal NBA headline, the latest comes from Dallas, where the Mavericks are cracking amid boos and discontent. They were headed to a wide-open Western Conference postseason until owner Mark Cuban, thinking he was on “Shark Tank,” took a wild flyer on Irving and teamed him with Doncic. The Mavs went 7-13 before a Monday victory in Indiana and might miss the playoffs after back-to-back losses to woeful Charlotte. It surprises no one that Irving, though on reasonably good behavior, has managed to sabotage his fourth team in seven years. Doncic, heretofore one of the league’s delightfully rising superstars, is visibly unhappy as he confronts unprecedented futility and unspecified personal issues. He’s constantly at war with officials who are quick to whistle technical fouls, a grudge not helped by Irving’s militant moods, and after Luka was fined $35,000 for rubbing his fingers — the universal money sign — at one such ref, he sounded like a defeatist ready for an early vacation.
“I used to have fun, smiling on the court, but it’s just frustrating,” he said.
Said Kidd of the effort in one losing performance: “Dog shit.”
Who isn’t mad? Ja Morant and his father seem to think media are to blame for his Instagram Live post, the one that cost him an eight-game ban without pay because he was brandishing a handgun at a strip club — and shame on the Memphis fans who gave him a warm standing ovation. Trae Young was ejected for throwing a ball at a ref. Everyone is taking verbal shots at the officials, with Chris Paul all but insinuating funny business in a legalized gambling culture — in a league where ref Tim Donaghy once conspired to fix games. I can’t wait for the postseason, when Draymond Green’s career in Golden State ends when he slugs a ref. No? He cold-cocked teammate Jordan Poole in practice, didn’t he?
Then there’s Kevin Durant. One of basketball’s greatest scorers ever, he should know at 34 when he’s being provoked — especially when the baiter is Charles Barkley. Trying to squeeze a headline from a “60 Minutes” appearance, Barkley succeeded Sunday night, tearing into a familiar target. How many times has he said Durant “piggybacked” his way to two NBA titles with the Warriors? Naturally, he piled on in the CBS interview, saying, “He’s very sensitive. Great player. He’s part of that generation who think he can’t be criticized. He’s never looked in the mirror and said, ‘Man, was that a fair criticism?’ ’’ Barkley said more: “He seems like a miserable person, man. I call him Mr. Miserable, he’s never going to be happy. Everybody’s given him everything on a silver platter. He was the man in Oklahoma City, they loved him, he owned the entire state. He bolts on them and wins back-to-back championships, and he’s still not happy. Then he goes to Brooklyn, they give him everything he wants and he’s still miserable.”
Durant’s sole focus should be regaining his health in Phoenix and trying to help the Suns to a winnable conference title. Nope. He bit the bait. “This ain’t gettin tiring chuck?” he responded on Twitter. “I’ll never respect the words that come out ya mouth fam just deal with it.”
Even Durant’s business partner weighed in. Tweeted Rick Kleiman: “Chuck goes on 60 minutes to talk more s–t about Kd because he won’t accept him calling him miserable? And he’s sensitive because he won’t accept him calling him miserable and a follower? Kd is top 10 ever…maybe respect this legend like we did you Chuck.”
As this was happening, Caitlin Clark was hitting more transition three-pointers on a 41-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound night. She was grinning. She was celebrating. She was vibrant. The crowd adored her. Analyst Dick Vitale, normally immersed in the men’s Final Four, tweeted out: “OMG I can’t believe what I’m watching in this 3S lady / SUPER - Sensational - Scintillating = CAITLIN CLARK! Way better than I thought. Heard so much about her from my buddy-partner Dave O’Brien & wow he was on the money/ she is as good as it gets."
She is living her dream. We are living it with her. Let’s hope she is offered the chance to expand it, for a few weeks if not much longer, in a league that needs doses of inspiration and joy and — yes, say it loud — a badass woman.
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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.