I APPRECIATE CAITLIN ALONG WITH JORDAN, CURRY AND MAHOMES — AM I A RACIST?
It’s no fun reading Black writers who resent those intrigued by Clark’s WNBA debut, thinking we support her with “Caucasian bias” as she lands a $28-million Nike deal — never mind her 35-foot jumpers
Please don’t insult my racial perceptions. I don’t have any, even if my intelligence is warped by computerized bullware known as AI. My favorite player to cover was Michael Jordan, who is Black and goes by the middle name of Jeffrey, as I wrote amid frequent jaw drops. Of late, I have enjoyed Stephen Curry, who is light-skinned and the son of an African-American basketball player.
And Patrick Mahomes, the most prominent current superstar? “I’m proud to be Black. And I'm proud to have a White mom too,” he says. “I’m just proud of who I am.”
So I’m offended as a White male columnist who doesn’t fit the notions of three Black colleagues. I know Kevin Blackistone, who writes for the Washington Post and joined me as a panelist on ESPN’s “Around The Horn.” I don’t know Jim Trotter, who columnizes for the Athletic as he sues the NFL for racial discrimination after losing a media job with the league. I wish I never knew Jason Whitlock, who is published in outer space. All three have cited Caucasian bias in advancing the legend of Caitlin Clark.
They are assuming White folks can’t love Jordan, Curry and Mahomes while embracing the charm of Clark. Does that make me a racist? How? I cannot stand Draymond Green. I happen to loathe Greg Norman, the LIV Golf lamebrain, even more. Does that make me a racist? The reasons I wrapped my senses around Clark were her 35-foot shots from logos, along with her deft passes — in fact, the reasons I savor when watching Curry.
But I’m concerned that racial prejudice among Blacks will haunt Clark’s early days in the WNBA, which opens preseason play Friday when she joins the Indiana Fever in Dallas. Already, the league is filled with outstanding players who resent she makes $28 million from Nike after attracting 18.7 million viewers for Iowa’s national-championship loss to South Carolina. In the last five years, only the NFL, the World Cup and the Olympics have drawn bigger audiences. I’d like to think people also were lured by the dynamic opposing coach, Dawn Staley, whose 38-0 history-makers shut down Clark.
Sorry. I’m White. I don’t get it, apparently.
Wrote Trotter: “(W)e should not delude ourselves into believing her appeal as an influencer is based solely on basketball, because it’s not. Arguing otherwise is an affront to history and reality. Clark’s attractiveness to local companies and national corporations is heightened by the fact that she is a White woman who has dominated a sport that’s viewed as predominately Black …”
No, she guns and relentlessly makes her shots, as Anthony Edwards and Jamal Murray have in the NBA playoffs. I like them too. Said Whitlock: “It’s a Black sport and this little White girl is dominating. It’s like the underdog or something unexpected. We haven’t seen anyone who looks like her dominate basketball to the degree that she has. … So Caitlin Clark, best I know, she’s heterosexual, has some boyfriend. She went to a Catholic school. Comes across like she believes in Jesus Christ.”
I don’t care if she’s White or Catholic or doesn’t believe in the devil like Whitlock. I care that she heats up jumpers from midcourt, same as Curry, or just as Mahomes finishes off a winning Super Bowl drive. If anything, I was bothered by her “you can’t see me” gestures at the 2023 women’s tournament, which Angel Reese repeated after LSU won a national title. Yet such a reaction didn’t make waves with Blackistone. It was time to preach.
“Clark became a bankable star, which is not surprising given the history race has always played in sports in this country when it comes to popularity or villainy. For there was Clark, an austere representative of great White Midwestern values,” he wrote. “And there was Reese, from the Baltimore area, which gave us ‘The Wire,’ as an exemplar of everything that is Black urban aesthetics, living up to her adopted and trademarked nickname of ‘Bayou Barbie,’ long ponytail flying and fashionable fake eyelashes flittering. … Only dereliction about the role of race in sport could lead anyone to downplay it in Clark’s ascendancy, no matter her accomplishments.”
Dereliction, he says. I am shamefully negligent, he says. Tyrese Maxey also made spectacular shots Tuesday night. I’m rooting for him, as well. I am.
Some White people root for Caitlin Clark for the wrong reasons. Please don’t assume every White person carries similar allegiances. She grew up in West Des Moines, learned how to shoot as a kid and galvanized us on post-football weekends. Her team lost in the finals, again, and Staley was praised as an NBA coach in waiting. I’m not sure if the three writers can be convinced about non-racists. And I’m not sure if they care what this profile is doing to Clark, who takes over a team that won 28 games the last five seasons. She is followed by a security team in Indianapolis and throughout the league. Why?
“The pressure has kind of grown on a level that's a lot different,” Clark said. “I probably still don't really go about my life in the way that I probably should. I still try to do normal things and live as a normal person. Just have a quiet presence about me. I mean, I don't really go out in public and do much.
“No matter what happens, there's going to be expectations and pressure on my shoulders and pressure on this team to be really good. We want people showing up to our games, with people expecting us to win a lot of basketball games this year, and I'm expecting myself to play really well.”
If she doesn’t play well? She’s overrated — magnified and glorified by Whites. I have a problem in life. I read too many daily stories on my devices. I must stop. “It is a nod to the reality that brand ambassadorship at her level is not simply a commentary on someone’s athletic ability,” Trotter wrote. “It’s also a reflection of society’s impact on who gets the biggest bags.”
The biggest bag of any athlete, in all-time circles, belongs to Michael Jordan. Stephen Curry will be a billionaire. Patrick Mahomes is on his way.
Bag that.
###
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.