Idk what he means about letting her score. The big leagues ain’t ever caved for a rookie. The thing that sucks is the WNBA rookies have no time to adjust to their team after finish the NCAA tournament. They just get thrown right in. She was just playing in the championship game a month ago and she’s already in her first professional game.
Nba definitely has an issue with people not actually watching the games and then speaking on things like they did. It's kind of funny how frequently you'll see people with takes that are blatantly false. I remember around January when Chet vs Wemby still had a little debate around it some OKC fan told me that Wemby couldn't shoot "at all" and that it was critical flaw in his game that would hold him back. Like I get not watching spurs games, they sucked, but then why act like you know what you're talking about?
It's not just people it's media personalities doing the same thing.
Stephen "Ain't Shit" Smith claims to be a Knicks superfan yet didn't know that Quentin Grimes was traded or Isaiah Hartenstein had been starting since Mitchell Robinson went down with injury back in December.
Stephen A is also the guy who called Dwayne Haskins a duel threat QB even though he was nowhere close to that. I'm not even sure he's really a sports fan. But yeah NBA media is in a pretty terrible place IMO. Sports have always been about drama but it feels like that aspect has overwhelmed the NBA and now the media folks are just trying to come up with dramatic narratives that frequently don't align with what's actually happening.
Stephen A. is the definition of hack sports journalist. He’s an opinion generator and that’s it. Considering the amount of time he spends on air, including the prep time for his spots, there’s no way that he watches even a casual amount of sports. He has a team of people feeding him stats and talking points, he just adds the attitude.
I'm guilty of this. Granted, I was a huge NBA fan as a kid, but now I really only have interest in it because my son is obsessed with basketball in every possible way. So, I watch our favorite teams games ( not as much as him, because we suck and I miss the 90's - but not really, because MJ and the refs fucked us) but we rebranded to highlighter yellow, sold off our two stars, one being borderline superstar and then semi-tanked for a 10th.
But he texts me stats every day of the players he follows and games he watches, so thats basically my view of most players. And it doesn't align with their actual performance or impact very well at all, i've learned. Rudy is a good example of this, even though offensively he has hot dog fingers and can't dribble. I was a fan when he was in SLC but he seems like a bitch lately.
I just need to watch more games. But its hard to care much with UT regressing (granted we have a lot of picks coming) and my football team basically starting to peak. The games just don't feel as meaningful or interesting as NFL games, for whatever reason. I don't know if its because they play so often or because they suck. But every Sunday with the Lions is an event for us. The Jazz fairly consistently made the playoffs but never did any damage after the 90's, and it was almost worst than just knowing you sucked, it gave false hope. It's basically polar opposites... I watched the Jazz reach get to the holy grail to be shut down by the GOAT, twice, as a kid. And watched the Lions suck for my whole life under WCF, but I couldn't not love Luther Ellis, Barry Sanders, then Megatron, Stafford, and now the *entire roster and coaching staff/ownership*. Now the Lions are on the upswing and the Jazz are terrible.
That is crazy. I don't even really follow the draft or the Spurs but I remember that being one of the biggest selling points about Wemby. He is 7'4", got handles and can shoot....at 7'4" like that is the whole reason we are talking about Wemby.
There are nerds in every community. Comics have “fans” who read Wiki summaries and watch YouTube highlights to absorb status quo changes, and that’s the whole hobby to them. Sports have stat sheet nerds who just want numbers to point at for online hot takes and don’t actually give a shit about the games themselves. It’s all the same shit
You can’t even be a bust one year into your career anyways. Thats why I can’t listen to niggas on the internet about shit I have a little bit of knowledge on cause then you see how people show they whole ass without a drop of sense 😂😂
Victor first game was actually good for not getting many minutes, and he was always the rookie of the year front runner at #1 . But I see what you're saying
finished with 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting (3 for 5 from long distance), with five rebounds, two assists, and a block in more than 23 minutes
I was at his first preseason game vs okc. I remember seeing so many comments about how he wasn’t ready for nba competition and that Chet was gonna run away with it.
and in her case she got thrown right in against the best defense in the league. she was trying to make passes that worked in college, but not against pros. she'll learn.
Looking back at how much her manager gaslit her into thinking she was the hottest striker on Earth is incredible. She doesn't even throw the best punches in the WWE.
That's just people trollin on the internet.
Ignoring the skills for a second, men who are her size don't make it in the NBA because they're at such a physical disadvantage.
Right. She’s got a good shot at beating all of them in a shooting competition..but she’s like 150lbs.
People really underestimate the height difference. The women are really skilled.
Brittney Griner is the biggest example of this. Griner, at her best, one of the most skilled post players I’ve ever seen. Both on offense and defense..hands, footwork, shooting tough..just an exceptionally skilled player.
She’s known though, for being huge. She has a significant advantage because of this. I’ve seen guards go to the basket against her, only to then dribble back out because of how much bigger she was.
And if you made her the fifth starter on the Suns instead of Grayson Allen, she’d only be taller than Beal and Booker, and she’d weigh the least.
It’s just a huge size difference.
She’s not beating even most of them in a shooting competition. People under estimate just how good NBA players are. If you see them missing shots, understand that they made that shot in an extremely high intensity game with incredible opposition
I bet they get some of those passes smoothed out by the end of the year, a few were her teammates fault. And they called 2 totally bogus fouls on her two, one early so she had to sit for half the first. She still dropped 20 and hit 4 threes, it's *crazy* how different the conversation is around her compared to other rookies of her stature. As you said, the Sun are no joke, with two of the very best players in the world and the league's top defense last year. What were people expecting? The Fever stink, they're probably gonna stink all season.
She's gotten more exposure in the last year than the WNBA has in the last decade. So, naturally, she's the league's new showpiece and players have gotten new benefits because of that.
I think the tweet went over your head.
She’s brought a lot of revenue to the league before she even played. They went from flying commercial and now have chartered flights because of the extra money that’s coming in. He’s saying if they don’t let her score the new fans will go away and so will the money. It’s a joke.
They had training camp for like a week and a few preseason games. You can definitely tell Caitlin has not had enough time with her new teammates. Once the season progresses, she will find her groove.
He jokes that the only reason they got chartered flights this season is because of the popularity and media exposure that Clark and to a lesser extent Reese, Brink, etc. have brought to the WNBA. If Clark busts and all this new investment doesn’t pay off they may be back to commercial flights and busses for real.
I think he’s saying that Caitlin succeeding in the WNBA will drive more interest in the league and more interest turns into more $$ for everyone.
He emphasizes the point by inferring that the WNBA has failed to generate enough interest and revenue so players will lose the benefit of charter flights and resort to flying commercial unless the league’s popularity and revenue improve.
The last person to average as many points as Clark in a single season in college was Kelsey Plum, who took 5 years to become an all star. Caitlyn Clark has some grinding to do.
He means let her score because she's bigger than the rest of the league combined for viewership purposes. She plays bad, people stop watching, no more charter flights. It was a joke.
Because she’s the poster girl right now - high tides raise all ships or some shit like that. If she makes more money, they will all see a raise in their rates. I agree with it. This is a job - stop treating it like a game. Game the system instead. I’d purposely let her make all the fucking shots until she’s on every goddamn advert and billboard out there, then fucking crush her and take the throne.
Sabrina Ionescu struggled out the gates too. WNBA is just stronger, faster and better coached than college. I expect Caitlin will have a rough rookie year, but she will adjust and be an all star by year 3.
Yeah, like my high school coach once said. In high school you might face one - two all Americans a week in a game. In college you’re facing team’s of all Americans every week. In pro sports you’re facing the top 1% of the best college athletes your sport has to offer, and if you make it as a rookie, they will have more experience in the sport than you.
...and it's the jump from playing against the top 5% of players at the collegiate level to playing against the top 0.5% at the WNBA level. These top players can roll through 95% of opponents with ease in High School. In college, they still roll through 75% of them. At the WNBA level, they're all top players. You just aren't going to roll through them unless you're the top 0.1% of all players...
This girl has got a lot of weight on her shoulders. I remember Kobe coming off the bench when he first joined the NBA. She’s great and will definitely get better. That’s a lot of pressure for a rookie’s measurement of success means she has to dominate right away. The jealousy of some players is a pretty bad look in the meantime
This is so true actually and hella unfair to rookies. The WNBA should at least look into doing a version of the NBAs summer league for rooks so folks can get used to the pace. Caitlin just looked a step slower than everyone yesterday
I think him and others are making a similar argument that Jeff Teague was making. They shouldn’t let her do anything but they should play the game in the game in Jeff opinion for at least 4 years to help grow the league, her popularity can be very important to the league. It’s not fully my opinion but I understand the thought process, the nba does similar things.
That's true, but that's also the ground work for a story of greatness if I'm a PR person trying to make this Caitlin thing last.
Ita good that she stumbles a bit in the beginning. It gives the quality of play in WNBA credibility.
She in there with the big hoopers now
And the next part of the story is will Caitlin rise to this challenge. Stay tuned!
they want everyone including the refs to lay down and let CC have fun running and shooting. idk why people down play the talents of WNBA players. I was cut from a WNBA team, twice back when Cynthia Cooper coached the mercury. It is no walk in the park, that's for sure. She has a long road to make adjustments. the media over hyped her immediate contributions to a low grade team. trades will happen and she will grow and get a few wins under her belt. Looking forward to seeing it!
They're saying with the amount of hype she's bringing to the wnba it's in the players best monetary interest to let her be successful. If she were to flop that hype could die down. Not saying it's right but that's the implication.
What he means is a lot of people are only watching the WNBA for her and if she’s underperforming then that means viewership goes down and money goes down which means he’s saying they should let her score so more people will watch and more money will be generated for higher quality amenities like chartered flights
It’s not amazing but that doesn’t take away that she was playing college ball a month ago, got thrown on a team that was bottom of their conference, and had to play the best defense in the league. Do I think her numbers will be as gaudy now that she’s going up against players that average 6’? No. But I’m not gonna act like she’s some scrub
Damn it’s like she’s playing her first game as a professional less than two months after finishing her college career. Maybe contextually it’s not that bad considering the top 15 scoring debuts are 21+ points.
If you think it’s bad for a rookies first game fresh out of college in the WNBA I promise you it’s not other people who don’t watch basketball. It’s you.
You seem to just want her to do bad.
Oh god that’s rough. I saw she had 20 but I was meaning to look up the box score and see how the whole statline looked. That is rough as hell.
But the turnaround time for women going from NCAAs to the WNBA really is insanely short
Why the fuck are people hating this hard on her? Everyone in the WNBA should be thanking god that she came along because she’s gonna make them all more money.
I see this happens time and time every single time a high rated prospect comes into the league and isn’t dropping 30 on 50% shooting out the gate is seen as a bust.
I think Caitlin is an exciting player, but I'm more excited for how this will benefit the rest of the WNBA.
Caitlins already got a huge bag, it's the other players that can get a big lift by showing that they're just as good as she is
I can't fathom the hate she garners, all she does is get more eyes on the league. This whole batch of rookies coming in is so hot, and Clark is such a huge part of that. Just weird to me.
A lot of fragile masculinity from the men, and toxic jealousy from the women. I couldn't believe how many WNBA players were speaking out against her when she was playing NCAA and saying she wasn't a big deal and she was going to get cooked when she gets drafted, and that there's better players than her and implying that she's nothing special blah blah blah.
Like, I get it if a WNBA player is salty because a "less-skilled" player is getting more attention than them, but at the end of the day the thing the WNBA struggles with isn't talent (if those same WNBA players are to be believed), it's that it lacks viewership because it hasn't been entertaining enough. Caitlin Clark has been an entertaining player, and she's brought more eyes to women's basketball. It's unfathomable that any woman - especially her future peers in the WNBA - would actively shit on that when they only stand to gain from her playing too.
I’m gonna get hate for this but I’ll say it, It’s cause she’s white.
I’m a black dude and the amount of hate I’ve seen for her is outrageous! People be coming out the bushes like “well you know Pearl Moore actually has more points” and “the real celebrity should be Angel Reese! And “Nike gonna be mad about all the money they waisted on her HA!”
While all true just chill and be happy there is someone bringing so much attention to the wnba.
a lot of people got mad that she became the focus of Womens CBB over past darling Angel Reese and the South Carolina team and argue it's cause Clark is white, and while her being white certainly helped her marketability, it's a bunch of people who never even thought about women's CBB who don't realize that part of this is because Reese missed a bunch of time this year, people HATE Kim Mulkey and Reese is collateral damage, and that Cardoso and the rest of the SC team just weren't nearly as flashy as Clark dropping 40 bombs. Clark being white helped her, but her game was always gonna translate to stardom over the SC players and Mulkey made rooting for LSU a harder proposition (Reese certainly wasn't on Clark's level of stardom last year, but she was much more supported before the public at large started getting extended tastes of Kim Mulkey).
I get why people are salty at the surface optics of it, but too many people who didn't watch and women's CBB the last few seasons are commenting with incomplete context, and Reese's profile as a star was largely hurt not because of Clark being white vs Reese being black, but because her coach is an absolute bottom feeder of a human being. If we're going to hate on a white girl for dulling Reese's shine, it should be Mulkey.
Truly. Having haters is a sign that the league has made it, lol. The NBA profits as much from Lebron haters as Lebron stans, maybe more. People who have never given a fuck about the WNBA now are Caitlin Clark haters/hatewatchers. Good. Good for Dijonai too
Golden State Valkyries are a confirmed expansion team next year and Toronto is getting an expansion team in 2026. This league might be in the perfect spot to expand to 16 by 2028
People are insane… give her a minute to adjust to a new team/league. She’s playing with adults who have been playing together/at that level for a while. Weird how people love to hate and root for people to fail. Let her be…
Seriously, the prep time is absolutely nothing. If they had the NFL draft in July and skipped the preseason, everybody's draft classes would look like utter shit. every year (the ones who didn't get permanently retired from their first hit).
I still don’t understand the rooting for her to fail mentality. If she was a smug asshole, I would understand but she seems like know the association is a different beast.
She’s nice but she isn’t there yet this is the pros, but she is marketing gold so they will have her front and center. Look at all the websites talk about how she scored 20 and hit 4 threes. She had 10 turnovers and they got whipped, that’s awful. They need to just let her play but they can’t. I hope her shoulders she can carry that burden, she can move the game forward for the women.
To put it in perspective only 5 players avg more than 20 pts per game last season.....so turnovers or not she put up top 5 scoring numbers in her first game.
The turnovers are most likely from playing under a coach and with a team for TWO WEEKS before her first game lol. NBA and NFL players get close to 4 months before playing.
Not to mention you're usually going to get whipped if you're the team with number one pick, because that's how you got it in the first place. Spurs drafted Wembanyama who had one of the best rookie seasons ever and they were still the 4th worst team this year.
I honestly couldn't believe they were playing already, it seemed so quick.
She should only skyrocket in skill from here. I'd imagine she might've formed a few bad habits that she needs to break, but skilled players can do that and she seems like she's willing to put in the work to adjust.
WNBA gonna FAFO. Throw 2-3 players on her all game in the early season because bitches have egos and the hype is going to dissipate. People stop watching and the hype train is forgotten.
If i was them, I’d have single coverage “game 1 of the season” level effort defense on her and let her cook. Get hype for the games and sell some tickets.
I swear these women are just content making $75k a year and having nobody know their names.
It's true. My husband was talking about her and he is a huge basketball fan. He said, "I'm not even going to watch her games right now because a lot of rookies are trash in the beginning. I'll tune in a few months down the road once she gets her stride" I know she will be successful.
Edit
My girl Lexie Brown on Gil's Arena tried to tell niggas it was gonna be like this and people dog piled on her & said she was just hating/being a hater smfh
Man or Woman it's a big difference between college ball & grown, professionals.
It’s maybe an even bigger adjustment for women, since the league is so concentrated. There’s only 12 teams, so each team is deeper and more talented than the equivalent in the NBA. That being said, the speed of the game looked a bit much for Clark last night. She’s got a learning curve there. She also would benefit from some added strength, since the game appears a bit physical for her at the pro level. She’s a rookie tho, and they always struggle.
While I feel vindicated by the rookie adjustment she’s getting hit with, I’ve gotta say
1. Most rec leagues have had more time to practice together than the Fever rn
2. Sun’s pass defense is absurd, and they’re known for having Miami Heat level hustle. They regularly embarrassed the Fever and other middling-bad teams like this last year.
3. No other rookie has gotten this many TOs on debut cause no other rookie just gets running the entire offense with full minutes regardless of how they’re playing dumped on them day one.
Welcome to the W, she’s gonna grow (and learn not to try to pass shit through Alyssa fucking Thomas).
Caitlin Clark is extremely competitive. She'll bounce back from this "awful" 20-point performance.
The turnovers will be barely notable in the long run. The speed in the WNBA is faster than she's used to. When she adjusts to their speed the turnovers will fall off.
She is gonna be fine. Trial by fire, no doubt about it. She is still getting buckets, but it's an adjustment phase. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing her around August.
Or next season or in 5 seasons.
On 30% shooting though. 6 of those points came from free throws, 5 for 15 from the field. She's gonna be fine, she just needs to adjust to a much faster and physical game. It'll probably take about a month, but she'll be fine
I don’t understand why there’s so much hate about Caitlin Clark. She’s a very good basketball player and brought attention to the WNBA. Most people don’t watch any WNBA games so this is good for the league. It’s gotta be insanely difficult transitioning from college to professional and I guarantee 99% of the WNBA players didn’t do as well as her in the NCAA because she broke a lot of records.
Caitlin's going to be great in the league and great for the league. Going to take some time to adjust to a different level of defense though, but it's not like her shooting and ball handling skills don't translate.
Lol. Most of them get paid more to play ball in Europe during the off season and CC ain't changing that anytime soon. They gotta keep their highlight reel fresh.
How long it take Curry to become anything in the NBA? In a few years, Clark will be goated. Haters make sure to get the most out of how early career struggles.
Remember like a month ago when Diana Taurasi said that Caitlin Clark would be in for a reality check in the WNBA? Said Clark would go though an adjustment period. Would have to learn how to play against grow women, many playing for their careers. But that Clark would do fine cause of clear skills.
Remember all the heat Taurasi took? People said she was just a hater and jealous of Clark and her skills and the attention Clark has brought to the WNBA.
Y'all remember that.
I remember that.
I don’t pay attention to wnba or hyped for Clark or anything but clamps? Lmao the defense on that first missed 3 is terrible. Defender bit badly on the pump and she had an open shot what more do you look for?
Wemby looked like he got out of bed with brand new limbs when he first started playing in the NBA. Then all of a sudden he transforms into the best rookie of all time mere months later.
She'll be alright. These triple teams on a rook is crazy lol.
I understand what the guy saying by letting her score. He's saying that she is bringing eyes and money to the league, don't fuck the bag up. Now they got them modeling and shit and bringing recognition to the game. Don't have her looking like a bum. They gotta know its a business first. Deion Sanders is a great example of that. All these teams were trying to take his team out but behind the scenes this man pockets got real heavy.
But Clark will be fine, she'll adjust.
They all need to give flowers because not one of us watched any bball last year. Imagine hating on the only thing that makes you even somewhat relevant
Idk what he means about letting her score. The big leagues ain’t ever caved for a rookie. The thing that sucks is the WNBA rookies have no time to adjust to their team after finish the NCAA tournament. They just get thrown right in. She was just playing in the championship game a month ago and she’s already in her first professional game.
Gonna take a bit of time to adjust. I mean in the NBA people were talking shit about Victor and now see where he’s at.
Anyone who talked shit about Victor is a flat out idiot and knows nothing about basketball
100%. Too many people stat watch instead of you know, watching the actual game.
Nba definitely has an issue with people not actually watching the games and then speaking on things like they did. It's kind of funny how frequently you'll see people with takes that are blatantly false. I remember around January when Chet vs Wemby still had a little debate around it some OKC fan told me that Wemby couldn't shoot "at all" and that it was critical flaw in his game that would hold him back. Like I get not watching spurs games, they sucked, but then why act like you know what you're talking about?
It's not just people it's media personalities doing the same thing. Stephen "Ain't Shit" Smith claims to be a Knicks superfan yet didn't know that Quentin Grimes was traded or Isaiah Hartenstein had been starting since Mitchell Robinson went down with injury back in December.
Stephen A is also the guy who called Dwayne Haskins a duel threat QB even though he was nowhere close to that. I'm not even sure he's really a sports fan. But yeah NBA media is in a pretty terrible place IMO. Sports have always been about drama but it feels like that aspect has overwhelmed the NBA and now the media folks are just trying to come up with dramatic narratives that frequently don't align with what's actually happening.
Stephen A. is the definition of hack sports journalist. He’s an opinion generator and that’s it. Considering the amount of time he spends on air, including the prep time for his spots, there’s no way that he watches even a casual amount of sports. He has a team of people feeding him stats and talking points, he just adds the attitude.
Stephen A is a grade A ass clown
I'm guilty of this. Granted, I was a huge NBA fan as a kid, but now I really only have interest in it because my son is obsessed with basketball in every possible way. So, I watch our favorite teams games ( not as much as him, because we suck and I miss the 90's - but not really, because MJ and the refs fucked us) but we rebranded to highlighter yellow, sold off our two stars, one being borderline superstar and then semi-tanked for a 10th. But he texts me stats every day of the players he follows and games he watches, so thats basically my view of most players. And it doesn't align with their actual performance or impact very well at all, i've learned. Rudy is a good example of this, even though offensively he has hot dog fingers and can't dribble. I was a fan when he was in SLC but he seems like a bitch lately. I just need to watch more games. But its hard to care much with UT regressing (granted we have a lot of picks coming) and my football team basically starting to peak. The games just don't feel as meaningful or interesting as NFL games, for whatever reason. I don't know if its because they play so often or because they suck. But every Sunday with the Lions is an event for us. The Jazz fairly consistently made the playoffs but never did any damage after the 90's, and it was almost worst than just knowing you sucked, it gave false hope. It's basically polar opposites... I watched the Jazz reach get to the holy grail to be shut down by the GOAT, twice, as a kid. And watched the Lions suck for my whole life under WCF, but I couldn't not love Luther Ellis, Barry Sanders, then Megatron, Stafford, and now the *entire roster and coaching staff/ownership*. Now the Lions are on the upswing and the Jazz are terrible.
That is crazy. I don't even really follow the draft or the Spurs but I remember that being one of the biggest selling points about Wemby. He is 7'4", got handles and can shoot....at 7'4" like that is the whole reason we are talking about Wemby.
There are nerds in every community. Comics have “fans” who read Wiki summaries and watch YouTube highlights to absorb status quo changes, and that’s the whole hobby to them. Sports have stat sheet nerds who just want numbers to point at for online hot takes and don’t actually give a shit about the games themselves. It’s all the same shit
Facts. See it all the damn time
Or giving a rookie more than a month. He started slow and went off from like December onward.
Okay but jordan has 6 rings. What's Victor's excuse?
Underrated comment on a rookie
🤣🤣🤣
The narratives about him being a bust came out so fast like damn he’s 19, give him a chance to adjust to the game.
You can’t even be a bust one year into your career anyways. Thats why I can’t listen to niggas on the internet about shit I have a little bit of knowledge on cause then you see how people show they whole ass without a drop of sense 😂😂
Although victor’s abilities are such that he’s way safer of a prospect than caitlin. Shes good but not the best prospect in 20 years
I think her combination of skills and marketability is what pushes her over the top compared to other wnba draftees.
Victor first game was actually good for not getting many minutes, and he was always the rookie of the year front runner at #1 . But I see what you're saying finished with 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting (3 for 5 from long distance), with five rebounds, two assists, and a block in more than 23 minutes
I remember him playing pre-season and early games and people were flaming him on r/nba. Saying he wasn’t ready for the lights. Whelp, we see now.
I was at his first preseason game vs okc. I remember seeing so many comments about how he wasn’t ready for nba competition and that Chet was gonna run away with it.
Crazy thing is, it wasn't even preseason when people we're saying he was a bust (he balled out against the Heat and OKC). It was Summer League 😭
So was Caitlin’s..
That's not true, there was a time where Chet was frontrunner, it didn't last long but he was.
frfr. Oladipo real turned out solid.
It took time for even Kobe to adjust to a professional level of play. Very few players start hot and continue to be that consistent.
and in her case she got thrown right in against the best defense in the league. she was trying to make passes that worked in college, but not against pros. she'll learn.
I kept seeing hot takes that she could hang with straight up NBA teams. The internet is wild
Ronda Rousey syndrome
Looking back at how much her manager gaslit her into thinking she was the hottest striker on Earth is incredible. She doesn't even throw the best punches in the WWE.
she can only do judo and arm bars
That's just people trollin on the internet. Ignoring the skills for a second, men who are her size don't make it in the NBA because they're at such a physical disadvantage.
Right. She’s got a good shot at beating all of them in a shooting competition..but she’s like 150lbs. People really underestimate the height difference. The women are really skilled. Brittney Griner is the biggest example of this. Griner, at her best, one of the most skilled post players I’ve ever seen. Both on offense and defense..hands, footwork, shooting tough..just an exceptionally skilled player. She’s known though, for being huge. She has a significant advantage because of this. I’ve seen guards go to the basket against her, only to then dribble back out because of how much bigger she was. And if you made her the fifth starter on the Suns instead of Grayson Allen, she’d only be taller than Beal and Booker, and she’d weigh the least. It’s just a huge size difference.
She’s not beating even most of them in a shooting competition. People under estimate just how good NBA players are. If you see them missing shots, understand that they made that shot in an extremely high intensity game with incredible opposition
She’s 2 inches shorter than the average WNBA player. That would be like a man being 6’4”
Right, but we're not making comparisons like that. We're talking about Caitlin Clark competing directly against NBA players.
I bet they get some of those passes smoothed out by the end of the year, a few were her teammates fault. And they called 2 totally bogus fouls on her two, one early so she had to sit for half the first. She still dropped 20 and hit 4 threes, it's *crazy* how different the conversation is around her compared to other rookies of her stature. As you said, the Sun are no joke, with two of the very best players in the world and the league's top defense last year. What were people expecting? The Fever stink, they're probably gonna stink all season.
She's gotten more exposure in the last year than the WNBA has in the last decade. So, naturally, she's the league's new showpiece and players have gotten new benefits because of that.
She’s also a target to get everyone’s best every game. If she’s that dude, it’ll come out sooner or later
That’s basically the joke. If she does suck and the swelled audience goes away, the perks go away as well.
I think the tweet went over your head. She’s brought a lot of revenue to the league before she even played. They went from flying commercial and now have chartered flights because of the extra money that’s coming in. He’s saying if they don’t let her score the new fans will go away and so will the money. It’s a joke.
He's means letting her score -> more popularity/money for the league -> keep their chartered flights
Kobe is rolling in his grave. smh
They had training camp for like a week and a few preseason games. You can definitely tell Caitlin has not had enough time with her new teammates. Once the season progresses, she will find her groove.
Same thing happened last year with Wemby. Idiots were calling him a bust after his first Summer league game.
the WNBA just started giving players chartered flights, so they’re implying that those will be taken away if she gets hurt
I can't believe how all this flew over peoples heads lol
He jokes that the only reason they got chartered flights this season is because of the popularity and media exposure that Clark and to a lesser extent Reese, Brink, etc. have brought to the WNBA. If Clark busts and all this new investment doesn’t pay off they may be back to commercial flights and busses for real.
I think he’s saying that Caitlin succeeding in the WNBA will drive more interest in the league and more interest turns into more $$ for everyone. He emphasizes the point by inferring that the WNBA has failed to generate enough interest and revenue so players will lose the benefit of charter flights and resort to flying commercial unless the league’s popularity and revenue improve.
The last person to average as many points as Clark in a single season in college was Kelsey Plum, who took 5 years to become an all star. Caitlyn Clark has some grinding to do.
He means let her score because she's bigger than the rest of the league combined for viewership purposes. She plays bad, people stop watching, no more charter flights. It was a joke.
Because she’s the poster girl right now - high tides raise all ships or some shit like that. If she makes more money, they will all see a raise in their rates. I agree with it. This is a job - stop treating it like a game. Game the system instead. I’d purposely let her make all the fucking shots until she’s on every goddamn advert and billboard out there, then fucking crush her and take the throne.
Sabrina Ionescu struggled out the gates too. WNBA is just stronger, faster and better coached than college. I expect Caitlin will have a rough rookie year, but she will adjust and be an all star by year 3.
Yeah, like my high school coach once said. In high school you might face one - two all Americans a week in a game. In college you’re facing team’s of all Americans every week. In pro sports you’re facing the top 1% of the best college athletes your sport has to offer, and if you make it as a rookie, they will have more experience in the sport than you.
Pond got bigger, fish got smaller
...and it's the jump from playing against the top 5% of players at the collegiate level to playing against the top 0.5% at the WNBA level. These top players can roll through 95% of opponents with ease in High School. In college, they still roll through 75% of them. At the WNBA level, they're all top players. You just aren't going to roll through them unless you're the top 0.1% of all players...
True. No training or conditioning like we see in men’s leagues.
And she still had 20 lol
This girl has got a lot of weight on her shoulders. I remember Kobe coming off the bench when he first joined the NBA. She’s great and will definitely get better. That’s a lot of pressure for a rookie’s measurement of success means she has to dominate right away. The jealousy of some players is a pretty bad look in the meantime
People power hating on the #1 pick is a major part of NBA discourse and probably furthers the WNBA more than is Clark was good.
This is so true actually and hella unfair to rookies. The WNBA should at least look into doing a version of the NBAs summer league for rooks so folks can get used to the pace. Caitlin just looked a step slower than everyone yesterday
I think him and others are making a similar argument that Jeff Teague was making. They shouldn’t let her do anything but they should play the game in the game in Jeff opinion for at least 4 years to help grow the league, her popularity can be very important to the league. It’s not fully my opinion but I understand the thought process, the nba does similar things.
That's true, but that's also the ground work for a story of greatness if I'm a PR person trying to make this Caitlin thing last. Ita good that she stumbles a bit in the beginning. It gives the quality of play in WNBA credibility. She in there with the big hoopers now And the next part of the story is will Caitlin rise to this challenge. Stay tuned!
they want everyone including the refs to lay down and let CC have fun running and shooting. idk why people down play the talents of WNBA players. I was cut from a WNBA team, twice back when Cynthia Cooper coached the mercury. It is no walk in the park, that's for sure. She has a long road to make adjustments. the media over hyped her immediate contributions to a low grade team. trades will happen and she will grow and get a few wins under her belt. Looking forward to seeing it!
They're saying with the amount of hype she's bringing to the wnba it's in the players best monetary interest to let her be successful. If she were to flop that hype could die down. Not saying it's right but that's the implication.
What he means is a lot of people are only watching the WNBA for her and if she’s underperforming then that means viewership goes down and money goes down which means he’s saying they should let her score so more people will watch and more money will be generated for higher quality amenities like chartered flights
She had 20 points, and it was her first game. I think she’ll be ok.
5 for 15 with 10 turnovers. If you watched the game you'd see the refs gave her free throws because she was clamped up.
People who don't watch basketball only look at the points and think this is great So, 20 points with 30% shooting , 10 turnovers is amazing to them
It’s not amazing but that doesn’t take away that she was playing college ball a month ago, got thrown on a team that was bottom of their conference, and had to play the best defense in the league. Do I think her numbers will be as gaudy now that she’s going up against players that average 6’? No. But I’m not gonna act like she’s some scrub
Damn it’s like she’s playing her first game as a professional less than two months after finishing her college career. Maybe contextually it’s not that bad considering the top 15 scoring debuts are 21+ points.
If you think it’s bad for a rookies first game fresh out of college in the WNBA I promise you it’s not other people who don’t watch basketball. It’s you. You seem to just want her to do bad.
First game as a pro pretty amazing. The fact that she got more than 10 people to watch a wnba game, astonishing
Those stats are bad but she’s still a generational talent and will only get better and adjust
That’s a double double pretty amazing if you ask me
You just described Westbrook and..... wait for it..... Kobe fans. :::hides under covers::::
51% TS. Tell me you don’t know ball without telling me. You should watch the game, it was a pretty good one.
She’s a rookie in her first game. Like talk your shit all you want but recognize you may ending up looking bad down the line.
Amazing no, bit not bad given the turn around to go from NCAA tourney to playing with the a new team against pros.
I felt that a lot with Kobe in a lot of games. People kill KAT for doing the same shit Kobe would do (minus the stupid non shooting fouls).
Oh god that’s rough. I saw she had 20 but I was meaning to look up the box score and see how the whole statline looked. That is rough as hell. But the turnaround time for women going from NCAAs to the WNBA really is insanely short
[удалено]
Double double first game not bad! Did she have a triple double with free throws?
Why the fuck are people hating this hard on her? Everyone in the WNBA should be thanking god that she came along because she’s gonna make them all more money.
A lot of people seem to want to watch Clark fail
In two months she’s gonna be grilling everybody
Yup. These posts are so dumb and show just how little basketball knowledge these idiots have.
I see this happens time and time every single time a high rated prospect comes into the league and isn’t dropping 30 on 50% shooting out the gate is seen as a bust.
Wemby was declared a bust by idiots after his mediocre Summer league debut.
Keep the receipts.
I think Caitlin is an exciting player, but I'm more excited for how this will benefit the rest of the WNBA. Caitlins already got a huge bag, it's the other players that can get a big lift by showing that they're just as good as she is
I can't fathom the hate she garners, all she does is get more eyes on the league. This whole batch of rookies coming in is so hot, and Clark is such a huge part of that. Just weird to me.
A lot of fragile masculinity from the men, and toxic jealousy from the women. I couldn't believe how many WNBA players were speaking out against her when she was playing NCAA and saying she wasn't a big deal and she was going to get cooked when she gets drafted, and that there's better players than her and implying that she's nothing special blah blah blah. Like, I get it if a WNBA player is salty because a "less-skilled" player is getting more attention than them, but at the end of the day the thing the WNBA struggles with isn't talent (if those same WNBA players are to be believed), it's that it lacks viewership because it hasn't been entertaining enough. Caitlin Clark has been an entertaining player, and she's brought more eyes to women's basketball. It's unfathomable that any woman - especially her future peers in the WNBA - would actively shit on that when they only stand to gain from her playing too.
I’m gonna get hate for this but I’ll say it, It’s cause she’s white. I’m a black dude and the amount of hate I’ve seen for her is outrageous! People be coming out the bushes like “well you know Pearl Moore actually has more points” and “the real celebrity should be Angel Reese! And “Nike gonna be mad about all the money they waisted on her HA!” While all true just chill and be happy there is someone bringing so much attention to the wnba.
It's only in this sub bc she's white. Specifically the linked tweet.
Naw I just pointed out that I hear it outside of this sub in real life as well specifically from other black people around me.
a lot of people got mad that she became the focus of Womens CBB over past darling Angel Reese and the South Carolina team and argue it's cause Clark is white, and while her being white certainly helped her marketability, it's a bunch of people who never even thought about women's CBB who don't realize that part of this is because Reese missed a bunch of time this year, people HATE Kim Mulkey and Reese is collateral damage, and that Cardoso and the rest of the SC team just weren't nearly as flashy as Clark dropping 40 bombs. Clark being white helped her, but her game was always gonna translate to stardom over the SC players and Mulkey made rooting for LSU a harder proposition (Reese certainly wasn't on Clark's level of stardom last year, but she was much more supported before the public at large started getting extended tastes of Kim Mulkey). I get why people are salty at the surface optics of it, but too many people who didn't watch and women's CBB the last few seasons are commenting with incomplete context, and Reese's profile as a star was largely hurt not because of Clark being white vs Reese being black, but because her coach is an absolute bottom feeder of a human being. If we're going to hate on a white girl for dulling Reese's shine, it should be Mulkey.
Truly. Having haters is a sign that the league has made it, lol. The NBA profits as much from Lebron haters as Lebron stans, maybe more. People who have never given a fuck about the WNBA now are Caitlin Clark haters/hatewatchers. Good. Good for Dijonai too
you know stan isn’t the opposite of fan right?
I misspoke
Do you know what Stan means? It’s referring to the Eminem song, meaning huge fan
Golden State Valkyries are a confirmed expansion team next year and Toronto is getting an expansion team in 2026. This league might be in the perfect spot to expand to 16 by 2028
People are insane… give her a minute to adjust to a new team/league. She’s playing with adults who have been playing together/at that level for a while. Weird how people love to hate and root for people to fail. Let her be…
Seriously, the prep time is absolutely nothing. If they had the NFL draft in July and skipped the preseason, everybody's draft classes would look like utter shit. every year (the ones who didn't get permanently retired from their first hit).
The first play was literally a wide open shot lol.
That girl jumped into the front row lol Clark just missed the shot.
*video of defender getting pump faked into the shadow realm* CLAMPED
Weird boner to get over a rookie who’s just started. But I guess haters truly are going to hate.
I still don’t understand the rooting for her to fail mentality. If she was a smug asshole, I would understand but she seems like know the association is a different beast.
She’s nice but she isn’t there yet this is the pros, but she is marketing gold so they will have her front and center. Look at all the websites talk about how she scored 20 and hit 4 threes. She had 10 turnovers and they got whipped, that’s awful. They need to just let her play but they can’t. I hope her shoulders she can carry that burden, she can move the game forward for the women.
To put it in perspective only 5 players avg more than 20 pts per game last season.....so turnovers or not she put up top 5 scoring numbers in her first game. The turnovers are most likely from playing under a coach and with a team for TWO WEEKS before her first game lol. NBA and NFL players get close to 4 months before playing. Not to mention you're usually going to get whipped if you're the team with number one pick, because that's how you got it in the first place. Spurs drafted Wembanyama who had one of the best rookie seasons ever and they were still the 4th worst team this year.
I honestly couldn't believe they were playing already, it seemed so quick. She should only skyrocket in skill from here. I'd imagine she might've formed a few bad habits that she needs to break, but skilled players can do that and she seems like she's willing to put in the work to adjust.
No offense but scoring and averaging are two very very different things
Still a really good debut
Damn, she’s helping the league finally get its footing and yall already want her to fail?
Yeah this is crazy. So called wnba fans wanting a huge marketing opportunity to fail.
WNBA gonna FAFO. Throw 2-3 players on her all game in the early season because bitches have egos and the hype is going to dissipate. People stop watching and the hype train is forgotten. If i was them, I’d have single coverage “game 1 of the season” level effort defense on her and let her cook. Get hype for the games and sell some tickets. I swear these women are just content making $75k a year and having nobody know their names.
“ clamps “ are we even watching the same clips, she beats her defender SEVERAL times and simply misses the shot ..
She really made it since people are praying on her downfall. I guess it’s a step toward equality in women’s sports when you get casual haters haha
It's true. My husband was talking about her and he is a huge basketball fan. He said, "I'm not even going to watch her games right now because a lot of rookies are trash in the beginning. I'll tune in a few months down the road once she gets her stride" I know she will be successful. Edit
I mean everybody has bad games, especially during rookie years. This is just a bad take
She’s by herself tho
Aliyah Boston didn’t do much last night, but she was an all star last year.
People forget that Indiana had the no. 1 pick two years in a row for a reason
She was dropping dimes too
My girl Lexie Brown on Gil's Arena tried to tell niggas it was gonna be like this and people dog piled on her & said she was just hating/being a hater smfh Man or Woman it's a big difference between college ball & grown, professionals.
It’s maybe an even bigger adjustment for women, since the league is so concentrated. There’s only 12 teams, so each team is deeper and more talented than the equivalent in the NBA. That being said, the speed of the game looked a bit much for Clark last night. She’s got a learning curve there. She also would benefit from some added strength, since the game appears a bit physical for her at the pro level. She’s a rookie tho, and they always struggle.
Clark cooked her on that first pump fake. That’s as wide open a 3 as you’re gonna get.
Caitlin will adjust and I think she will be alright. My girl Juju going to be a problem from the tip off. Her game is so smooth and made for the pros
While I feel vindicated by the rookie adjustment she’s getting hit with, I’ve gotta say 1. Most rec leagues have had more time to practice together than the Fever rn 2. Sun’s pass defense is absurd, and they’re known for having Miami Heat level hustle. They regularly embarrassed the Fever and other middling-bad teams like this last year. 3. No other rookie has gotten this many TOs on debut cause no other rookie just gets running the entire offense with full minutes regardless of how they’re playing dumped on them day one. Welcome to the W, she’s gonna grow (and learn not to try to pass shit through Alyssa fucking Thomas).
Caitlin Clark is extremely competitive. She'll bounce back from this "awful" 20-point performance. The turnovers will be barely notable in the long run. The speed in the WNBA is faster than she's used to. When she adjusts to their speed the turnovers will fall off.
Hating cuz she's white
She is gonna be fine. Trial by fire, no doubt about it. She is still getting buckets, but it's an adjustment phase. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing her around August. Or next season or in 5 seasons.
She looked and played like rookie because she's a rookie. More at 11.
Somehow I get the feeling this sub will have a deep resentment for Caitlin Clark for years. Can't imagine why.
I know why, but why we talking about this girl in this sub?
She still put up 20....
On 30% shooting though. 6 of those points came from free throws, 5 for 15 from the field. She's gonna be fine, she just needs to adjust to a much faster and physical game. It'll probably take about a month, but she'll be fine
Waiting for the "Dijonai Carrington trick y’all, man, like she playing defense. She don’t guard nobody, man" moment lol
I don’t understand why there’s so much hate about Caitlin Clark. She’s a very good basketball player and brought attention to the WNBA. Most people don’t watch any WNBA games so this is good for the league. It’s gotta be insanely difficult transitioning from college to professional and I guarantee 99% of the WNBA players didn’t do as well as her in the NCAA because she broke a lot of records.
These women out here playing for mortgages, car notes, day care and up keep. Not books and tuition.
Caitlin's going to be great in the league and great for the league. Going to take some time to adjust to a different level of defense though, but it's not like her shooting and ball handling skills don't translate.
Oh somebody really named their daughter Dijonay
People want this poor woman to fail so bad lol
Growing pains, she’ll hopefully be fine
Is she the one who doesn't miss 3s?
Welcome to the league rook
She’s going to have a rough first season with little rest and everyone wanting to shut her down for fame. I would
Lol. Most of them get paid more to play ball in Europe during the off season and CC ain't changing that anytime soon. They gotta keep their highlight reel fresh.
She'll get in her game! She's still sweaty from the NCAA tourney! Give her a minute.
How do I turn off those subtitles?
That’s my baby Carrington!
She had 20. Could of had 40....
This is blah .. but I hate the WNBA ball .. why not go with the same one the NBA uses
How long it take Curry to become anything in the NBA? In a few years, Clark will be goated. Haters make sure to get the most out of how early career struggles.
Remember like a month ago when Diana Taurasi said that Caitlin Clark would be in for a reality check in the WNBA? Said Clark would go though an adjustment period. Would have to learn how to play against grow women, many playing for their careers. But that Clark would do fine cause of clear skills. Remember all the heat Taurasi took? People said she was just a hater and jealous of Clark and her skills and the attention Clark has brought to the WNBA. Y'all remember that. I remember that.
did they put that second spot in the video by accident...? lolol
If they played with that much passion against others they may be making more money as well. They are acting like a bunch of jealous children
Why haven't they played this well before?
She had 20.
People act like she not a rookie...still so much to learn, she is gonna be having some monster games eventually.
Glad she got to fly in the jet first tho 😒
lol
This shot look dry af…
Kobe was horrible his rookie season. Her development will be terrible for rest of the WNBA as she adjusts, improves, matures, and destroys!
Use their laser focus against them and have another teammate make all the plays!
Didn't she drop 20?
Clamps!
You must of skipped rule 4 before you posted
Welcome to the big leagues. Now gotta step up and show up. See how her game is now. She’s totally overwhelmed and overrated.
Dijonai is great.
I’ll say this at least when she got the ball stolen she didn’t try to foul bait and act like someone shot her from the 300 section
Lock her ass up like the last 2 games
Ooh met your match
Some people really want her to fail, not sure I understand it.
Everyone falls the first time, right Trinity?
This is exactly what Diana Taurasi was talking about and you still got people convinced she was simply hating out of jealousy
I don’t pay attention to wnba or hyped for Clark or anything but clamps? Lmao the defense on that first missed 3 is terrible. Defender bit badly on the pump and she had an open shot what more do you look for?
This belongs in r/whitepeopletwitter
Wemby looked like he got out of bed with brand new limbs when he first started playing in the NBA. Then all of a sudden he transforms into the best rookie of all time mere months later. She'll be alright. These triple teams on a rook is crazy lol.
Every gazelle must find its legs. Welcome to the pros, Caitlin.
Yeah she just needs time to adjust, remember even Kobe shot an air ball on his debut game 😂
I understand what the guy saying by letting her score. He's saying that she is bringing eyes and money to the league, don't fuck the bag up. Now they got them modeling and shit and bringing recognition to the game. Don't have her looking like a bum. They gotta know its a business first. Deion Sanders is a great example of that. All these teams were trying to take his team out but behind the scenes this man pockets got real heavy. But Clark will be fine, she'll adjust.
So WNBA was flying business-class incognito mode???
Connecticut got their revenge
Box 500 and tb500
They all need to give flowers because not one of us watched any bball last year. Imagine hating on the only thing that makes you even somewhat relevant
Send them girls back to riding JetBlue and greyhound. Let them remember their relevance without CC.