Why women's basketball needs more attention and less pearl-clutching
LSU's Angel Reese reacts in front of Iowa's Caitlin Clark during the second half of the NCAA Women's Final Four championship basketball game Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Dallas. LSU won 102-85 to win the championship.You wouldn’t expect the culture wars to invade the court of women’s college basketball. But in these times, rife with shouting heads and manufactured grievance, here we are.
A brief explainer for those otherwise engaged: Caitlin Clark has been setting the sport on fire. The Iowa junior pulls up from Stephen Curry distances to swish three-pointers. She threads the needle with pinpoint passes. And she’ll let you know about it. She’s a fan of the “You can’t see me” gesture popularized by the wrestler and actor John Cena, a wave of the hand in front of the face to suggest the gesticulator is too quick, too awesome to even be spotted, much less defeated.
If you’ve ever been on a basketball court, or paid even passive attention to the game, you know trash talk is as common as missed defensive assignments. It gets players fired up. It’s a manifestation of competitive spirit. Frankly, it’s fun. But after Reese’s creative taunt you’d have thought she had disclosed the nuclear codes. “Classless” was among the most common and least offensive pearl-clutching responsesand even some sports media. The language used was thick with racial coding. Clark, widely seen as a savior of the women’s game, is white. Reese and most of her teammates are Black.Clark, to her credit, laughed off the controversy. Of course she did. She’s a stone-cold assassin on the court.
when the national champions make their traditional visit to the White House. Clark dismissed this, too. “I don’t think runner-ups usually go to the White House,” she said.wouldn't visit the White HouseRace is rarely absent from perspectives on basketball, even if the topic is more often murmured about than shouted. Recall that Celtics legend Larry Bird was once considered the great white hope of the NBA, an antidote for a league once seen as overrun by drug abuse and street culture.
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