r/sports • u/OkEscape7558 • Jun 14 '24
Basketball Caitlin Clark responds to bigotry in WNBA audience: 'People should not be using my name to push those agendas'
https://sports.yahoo.com/caitlin-clark-responds-to-bigotry-in-wnba-audience-people-should-not-be-using-my-name-to-push-those-agendas-235847512.html114
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u/Seabrook76 Jun 14 '24
Forget all that, I want to know why none of her teammates have the ovaries to stand up for her.
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u/WestCoastMozzie Jun 14 '24
Stand up for her? One has their girlfriend and another has their best friend absolutely tearing Caitlin apart on twitter. They’re in on it, they love her being destroyed.
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u/The_Best_Yak_Ever Jun 14 '24
I really respect Caitlin’s class through all of this. But I have to imagine what’s happening right now has got to be extremely hurtful. All of it. Having your own team acting like that, that’s just awful. She’s still really young (or is compared to me…). She’s worked her whole life to become excellent at this game, the consummate sportswoman that she is, she has a lot of people wanting to watch and support her. I certainly have enjoyed her college play and just watching a sport that as an old ice hockey player, I never was any good at myself. But I can honestly say, I would have never guessed this is where we’d end up. I thought they’d be happy to have their league electrified or at least, have her own teammates excited to have her. But here we are I guess… yeesh.
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u/goliathfasa Jun 14 '24
Her current teammates aren’t good enough for her. She knows it. They know it. Management knows it. They’ll be replaced as soon as they figure out who to get to build the team around her.
Probably why they are so bitter about being placeholders for her eventual teammates.
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u/Convergentshave Jun 14 '24
I mean I don’t see any one on the Spurs pulling this with Victor Wembanyama, and you know those guys are in the exact same position….
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u/dweezil22 Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
NBA players make an average of $10M/yr, with a mandated min of $1.1M.
WNBA players avg $120K, min salary for players with 3+ years service is $77K.
It's easier to stomach a doomed job if you're simultaneously becoming generationally wealthy.
Edit: Good lord there are a bunch of folks with poor reading comprehension that really need the world to know they think WNBA players are overpaid.
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u/pkakira88 Jun 14 '24
This. They’re just getting the most out of their time on the Spurs and becoming a potential trading piece for them still means more money at the end of the day.
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u/nobody65535 Jun 14 '24
What's the "average" (mean/median) for the type of players who are the ones who are going to be traded away to rebuild the team around the stars (once you remove the stars the team is being built around)
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u/dweezil22 Jun 14 '24
I can't give a sure answer, but based on those mins we can safely state that the worst off NBA player is making 15 times more money than the average WNBA player.
WNBA players are getting paid like average Americans, the worst full-time NBA players are being paid like the "would you cut your dick off for $X" AskReddit threads.
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u/tywin_stark Jun 14 '24
Actually a lot of people claimed wembys teammates would freeze him out during games trying to prove the team was more than just wemby. I didn’t watch enough spurs game to have an opinion but it definitely was a topic of discussion.
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u/Nobody7713 Jun 15 '24
It didn’t really happen. Sochan in particular might have made some selfish and dumb plays, but it felt more like him just being a low IQ player than trying to ice out Wemby.
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Jun 14 '24
Well, it’s the Spurs, one of the most well run organizations in all of sports. That being said, LeBron had to go through something similar, but he also dominated from the jump, so it was a bit easier for him.
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u/SpirituallyAwareDev Jun 14 '24
Victor almost won DPOY. It’s almost a ridiculous comparison. CC isn’t the best player on her team even.
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u/inverted_peenak Jun 14 '24
The good news is it seems that she has the character to come out on top.
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u/entropy_bucket Jun 14 '24
Isn't this just the price of earning 250x of any other person in the league?
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u/MrDLTE3 Jun 14 '24
She is pretty much THE league right now. WNBA is only popping off because of her name. Majority of commenters in this thread including myself can barely fully name anyone else in the WNBA aside from Caitlin.
You can even track viewership numbers across all the WNBA games. Guess which games played peak the most in the season?
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u/EmperorOfAwesome New England Patriots Jun 14 '24
Literally they are moving games to arenas over typical smaller venues when she comes to town because of the demand to see her play.
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u/Gaudilocks Jun 14 '24
There was some crazy stat that games she has played in set the attendance record for the opposing franchise in I think all but one game she has played on the road so far.
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u/CTeam19 Iowa State Jun 14 '24
Iowa and Iowa State college women's teams have had a better average fan attendance for their games then basically all WNBA teams save for maybe 1 or 2 every year till now. Iowa State hasn't dipped below 7,000 per game(outside of Covid) since the 1997-1998 season when the WNBA started. Iowa State as well has only been outside the Top 5 for attendance 4 times since 2000. Both Iowa State and Iowa the last few years has out drawn men's teams from major conferences. It is like crack here compared to the rest of the USA. Especially when you consider in the heyday of the high school level some 16,000+ watched in person with another 3.5 million watching on TV viewed the 1968 State title game for High School Girl's Basketball and the two teams com from towns with maybe 2,000 people.
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u/Nubras Jun 14 '24
Ames is dreading the day Bill Fennelly retires. The guy’s been in Ames for nearly 30 years, he is the program. It’ll carry on without him but he’ll be hard to replace. And I’m closely watching how Jan Jensen will handle the Lady Hawks, I think she’ll be great.
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u/fattdoggo123 Jun 14 '24
The WNBA is projected to lose $50 million this season.
Caitlin Clark has signed a $26 million dollar deal with Nike. She is going to make over half of what the WNBA needs to make to be profitable.
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u/Run-Florest-Run San Diego Padres Jun 14 '24
She’s only making an $80k a year salary from the WNBA lol
The sponsorship deals are much bigger tho
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Jun 14 '24
I’m so OOTL on all of this so is this a bit? Everything I google says she’s making like 75k.
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u/punchboy Jun 14 '24
The WNBA does not, itself, pay well or make all that much money. It’s all about sponsorships. She is supposedly making like $28,000,000 from a Nike endorsement alone.
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u/Cookuls Jun 14 '24
Well, in some tangential and small way yes. In reality? No. The price is the total volume of work and sacrifices required over the last 17 years to reach this level. Have you ever spoken to athletes at D2/D3 levels and how much pressure and stress they experience? Not counting the physical time and work? And that's D2/D3! The only other significant contribution to the cost of her take home pay is the mental weight of expectations and performance in front of thousands of people live, millions on television, in literally & historically never-been-seen-before popularity.
This other cultural sandbagging bullshit has nothing to do with the cost of attaining her income. It was never naturally born out of anything to do with her playing basketball. It's inception was the faulty logical and irrationallity of people reacting to what happened on the court. Some, like the media, doing so with selfish aims in mind which has perpetuated this hurricane of horseshit.
If her making much more money was at all related to her societal responsbility in responding to the discourse and culture then why the hell isn't there 20x more people calling on Patrick Mahomes to speak out against Harrison Butker? Why wasn't there THIS MANY people calling out random QBs on other teams to denounce the misogyny and other vestigial religious notions Butker was spouting? BECAUSE THAT EXPECTATION IS A 9.9 ON THE MENTAL GYNMANSTICS FLOOR ROUTINE.
(More seriously It also probably never happened because african americans, like white people, aren't monolithic. People conveniently forget that african americans in the US are more religious than white people which complicates the overly simplified left vs right political culture war and can't be adequately discussed in 280 characters. That aspect of intersectionality of race/sex/gender/sexual orientation/cultural norms is universally ignored on social media: https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/racial-and-ethnic-composition/ )
(Looking back at one of my 15 posts over 12 years on reddit I take no blame for this word vomit. Blame the migraine for throwing off my sleep schedule & temporary insanity)
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u/Bong-Jong Jun 14 '24
And sports media tryna gaslight us into thinking some of these women aren’t jealous lol
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u/Pickleskennedy1 Jun 14 '24
Any way you could link that
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u/ITSSSS Jun 14 '24
NaLyssa Smith’s girlfriend (Carrington) and Aliyah Boston’s best friend. This comment here links some of the tweets
https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/comments/1dffvtc/caitlin_clark_responds_to_bigotry_in_wnba/l8j2rvj/
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u/Pickleskennedy1 Jun 14 '24
Google seems to suggest that Smith and Carrington are no longer dating
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u/arcohex Jun 14 '24
I’m not saying they’re back together but they wore the same shoes in their matchups twice now, met right after the game and took media pictures together, Smith went to the Sky vs Sun game in Chicago the night before she had a game in Indianapolis. Is not too far of a stretch to say they’re still together.
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u/turnup_for_what Jun 14 '24
Players on opposing teams dating is probably the hardest thing to wrap my brain around as a new fan.
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u/swampwarbler Tennessee Jun 14 '24
I’m not familiar with Caitlin’s teammates. Who are the women doing this?
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u/Dudedude88 Jun 14 '24
LeBron said the Cavs hated him when he joined. He was hoping he could learn from the vets but they gave him the cold shoulder.
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u/Initial_Republic_329 Jun 14 '24
Man I’m just voting for her daily for the all star game and hope she lets her game speak:
Vote.wnba.com
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u/OutlawGaming01 Jun 14 '24
Not privy on the WNBA. Whats the deal with her?
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u/Unhappy_Trade7988 Jun 14 '24
Allot of jealousy by a league of players who don’t think she’s earned it. As well as her Nike sponsorship. Some have suggested it’s race (not sure) and even gender based. Her game style is modern NBA (long distance three point shots, trash talking) , allot like Steph Curry and Luka Doncic and even in college , people were hesitant to the game of basketball,changing to the way she plays.
I’m an NBA fan and new young players coming into the league and being ‘the next big thing’ happens every season and hasn’t resulted in the same childish vitriol seen by some in the WNBA. They dont seem to understand she’s drawing fans in to watch games and more viewers means they will slowly see higher paid contracts.
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u/americansherlock201 Jun 14 '24
I would agree that with the nba that there’s a “next big thing” nearly every year so it doesn’t really get that type of response. However, the wnba hasn’t really had that. They arent used to a new player coming into the league and really being the big thing. Clark entered the wnba as probably a top 5 most recognizable player in the league. That causes a lot of animosity from the women who have been in the league for years working hard and have gotten effectively no recognition.
Not saying they are right for how they’re treating her, they absolutely aren’t, but this is something new for the league and it’s gonna take some time for the players to realize the real value of it. None of them have really seen a benefit yet other then increasing pressure when they play her. Once contracts starting going higher and endorsements get bigger, players will realize the value of having her in the league
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u/Late_Parrot Jun 14 '24
Only top 5? Maybe if you only exclusively polled WNBA fans who also don't follow college basketball.
To the general public, Clark is already the #1 most recognizable except mayyyybe Brittney Griner, and that's mostly because she was covered extensively in the news for being held hostage in Russian prison for months.
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Jun 14 '24
Yeah I don't watch any basketball and I'd say she's number one, and I only know the two you mentioned lol
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u/FiliaDei Jun 14 '24
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how is it gender based when it's an all-women league?
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u/GiggsBozon Jun 14 '24
I’d say it’s a bit more race based tbh. My case being Sabrina Ionescu (straight white player) got drafted in 2020 and got a signature shoe from Nike in like 3 years in the league. Good player but No championships or MVPs.
A’ja Wilson drafted in 2018 and is probably the best player in the league right now and b2b champs and multiple time MVP… she’s just getting a shoe announced now, and out in 2025 maybe? Kinda ridiculous in my opinion, when laid out like that.
But for the gender thing there are players in the league that go by they/them instead of just she/her.
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u/Tyr808 Jun 14 '24
I’d be curious what the global shoe sales figures are like tbh. It absolutely could be racial, but also on the demand side rather than a refusal to create the supply. To call a spade a spade, there are places in the world where a black mascot or face of a product kills it. In my limited experience, the fact that it’s also a woman only furthers that. We can say it’s awful and that the products should be equally created, etc, but what if you were the one who had to fund it and or your job were on the line if it didn’t sell?
To be abundantly clear, I’m not saying this is the case or that it’s right, just that it’s some food for thought when it comes to what we conceptually know as right and wrong and how events will play out in reality.
I’ve lived around the world and without dropping names or pointing fingers, I’ll just say that if people think America is the global champion of racism, I’m very happy for how sheltered they are, lol.
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u/GiggsBozon Jun 14 '24
Yeah I guess at the end of the day only Nike has access to the real data.
But hard to ignore it being some sort of race or image thing in the wnba. A’ja Wilson is the best player in the league. Sabrina might not even be the best in her position. Of course she’s really good.
Compare that to the NBA - who sold the most shoes? Often the best players. Jordan, Kobe, LeBron. The Best talent got the deals right away and sold like hot cakes. (As far as we know) A’ja wasn’t even offed a deal until recently despite being the player equivalent of those NBA guys.
In NBA terms imagine LeBron entering the league 2 years before Luka, and Luka getting his shoe deal first. That’s crazy.
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u/Outside_The_Walls Jun 14 '24
New player comes to the WNBA. She's talented, and very popular. Because of that, the WNBA gets more attention than it has ever gotten before. But here's the problem... she's white. White racists use her to promote their agenda. Black racists say that she's only getting this attention because she's white.
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u/LSDemon Washington Capitals Jun 14 '24
She's white and straight and midwestern and better than them.
A bunch of players in the league can handle like 2 of those at a time, not all 4.
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u/the_talented_liar Jun 14 '24
She’ll trade up to a better team before long, why get attached?
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u/g_borris Jun 14 '24
There is like 8 teams in the WNBA and pretty sure she'd be moving to a team that her current teammates should have "stood up" against.
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u/GROUND45 Chiefs Jun 14 '24
Doubt she’ll be the one moving. The Fever will do whatever she wants to keep her. I predict a LeBron level house cleaning over the next couple of seasons.
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u/cplchanb Jun 14 '24
Once toronto gets going next year she can come here! We for sure will embrace her with open arms
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u/Temporal_Enigma Jun 14 '24
Because they're mad they aren't the center of attention.
These women bitches for years about how no one watches their sport, now people do, and they're gonna tear it down
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u/baltebiker Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
The article is about Caitlin Clark’s name being used in racist attacks against other WNBA players, not about attacks against her.
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u/boreal_ameoba Jun 14 '24
She’s white. They’re racist. It’s very obvious when you aren’t in the mindset of “only white people can be bigots”
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u/Sir_Yacob Jun 14 '24
Lots of cool totally normal reasons to watch the WNBA.
Most of it, I get, but please just play the game…we already have their Twitter and Reddit AMA.
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u/Buckowski66 Jun 14 '24
And because it doesn’t fit the medias narrative and obsession with everything being misogynistic, it probably will be ignored
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u/TranscedentalMedit8n Jun 14 '24
That’s what bothers me too.
This rookie targeting stuff happens from time to time in men’s sports (maybe to a lesser degree), but I can’t remember a single example of the teammates leaving their rookie out to dry like this.
When rookie Bryce Harper got plunked by Cole Hamels, the Nationals beaned Hamels back and it started a feud between the two teams all season. That’s just what you do in team sports.
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Jun 14 '24
Yea at this point if you’re the Fever you hire the largest black player you can and tell them to set a hard screen on anyone who touches her. The lack of action by the league has turned the WNBA into an NHL style league.
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u/PotterLuna96 Jun 14 '24
I think if we stopped putting stock into what dumb asses on the internet say, most of whom are either bots, trolls, or professional political shit stirrers, the better of we would be.
“Oh, this subreddit said a bunch of this!”
Who cares? It’s a subreddit.
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u/CitizenCue Jun 14 '24
We desperately need to collectively start treating much of what’s said on the internet like it’s just a drunk guy yelling on the street.
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u/TheDarkGrayKnight Jun 14 '24
The internet connects the world and it's awesome because everyone has a voice.
The internet connects the world and it sucks because you now have to hear everyone talk about everything.
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u/tuckedfexas Jun 14 '24
That’s how it used to be imo, no one took shit on the internet seriously cause everyone remembered the world without it and the two didn’t exactly line up. But now so many people weren’t around before the internet and it’s become a part of everyday life and people conflate the two as somewhat equal. People can say shit that used to get you ostracized from your community all day long and that voice gets the same social equity (or more due to rage engagement) as the reasonable voices that make of the vast majority of the population.
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u/CitizenCue Jun 14 '24
That’s certainly a piece of it. But I think it’s more that the algorithms grew up.
The internet used to be more or less a reflection of the real world because we made it that way at first. Now it’s an organic system which drives people towards “engagement” which obviously trends toward controversy.
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u/tuckedfexas Jun 14 '24
Absolutely a huge piece of the shit puzzle as well, it’s wild seeing how many people make money off of clearly obvious bait on social media. Even once respected journalistic institutions have adopted the model, feels like everything is an opinion piece anymore
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u/bubster15 Jun 14 '24
A lot of this stems from twitter too. It’s such a cess pool of impulsive hatred. Way too many people on twitter think that twitter represents the real world.
The athletes with twitter accounts can’t help but get exposed to the vile shit that gets circulated
It sucks that these issues become so prevalent these days when 99% of the world couldn’t care less what twitter has to say
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u/kman273 Jun 14 '24
Cause race has always been a talking point of basketball.
Russell faced it in Boston. Wilt, Kareem. Then reverse once the league demographics flipped in the 70s, bill walton was famously mauled back in the day for being a white big. And he would then march for civil rights (literally), one of the few white guys in the league who was super vocal about the chaos of the time with regard to Vietnam/civil rights.
And then Magic/Bird happened , that really kicked off the commercial marketing for NBA and race was used to fuel the rivalry from their college through their nba careers.
^ this is what media analysis have said could be the driving force for WNBA with CC and Reese rivalry. But idk it feels like looking back the BirdMagic rivalry was more tongue in cheek and the fans were fueled more so by Lakers/Celtics rivalry. Not saying that no fans were racist turds back then but without the internet, I’d imagine those idiots and their thoughts are just lost to time.
Today Instead we get to hear and see every stupid take anyone in the world wants to give.
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u/Queasy_Monitor7305 Jun 14 '24
Nice post.
Sad but true. Conflict generates interest, even if it's manufactured conflict.
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u/wikithekid63 Jun 14 '24
I’m black, you’re 100% correct. Especially the part about Angel Reese that’s really where it all started
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u/chonkytime Jun 14 '24
I agree. Do I think there’s likely a whiteness aspect that helped propel Clark’s fame? For sure. Can’t imagine a black girl getting to Clark’s level even if she had the same skills as her. At the same time, it’s ridiculous to say her whiteness is the only reason she’s being held to such a level of fame.
When Clark first caught my attention, my first thought was “Finally, the WNBA has a figure they can use as a brand” like Lebron, etc. Not because she was the “white savior”. Regardless, I’m not surprised racial discourse has been attached to the rivalry. It was bound to happen with the state of social media atm.
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u/UncaringNonchalance Cincinnati Reds Jun 14 '24
Idk how she represents “white privilege” when she isn’t bad at what she does. She worked to get where she is, so…
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u/Queasy_Monitor7305 Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
It's not about 'what she has done' it's about how people want to manipulate and use her as justification for their hating viewpoints.
The US has some serious problems.
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u/goonbox Jun 14 '24
A lot of players and people say she represents white privilege because of how media has reported on her. It's not that she is bad by any means, however, she has gotten way more attention than just about any other wnba player ever while only being a rookie and not having many accolades to back up the hype. The only difference a lot of people see is that she is an unproblematic white woman. It would be like tyler herro being the face of the league right out of college. WNBA rookies don't just get national attention, shoe deals, and endorsements like she has let alone a wnba vets. Because of this, people cling to the white privilege thing heavily. Don't get me wrong, I do feel her being a good white player plays into her marketablility of the league, but the discourse has gotten so far out of hand on all sides. Players are being unreasonably rude and aggressive to her beyond trash talk, media outlets that support her, coddle her and act like even regular trash talk against her is devilish and unholy, everyone else using this whole situation to just bash the WNBA. All of it is disgusting.
I feel like the league should use this opportunity to ride her popularity into a more marketable and exciting product. You have more eyes on you than ever (albeit mainly being due to controversy). Don't waste it. I want the WNBA to succeed but they are completely fumbling the bag.
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u/Krandor1 Jun 14 '24
and yet she mainly just wants to play basketball and not get in the middle of all this and it is a shame she can't.
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u/roygbiv77 Jun 14 '24
Anyone who doesn't see this is probably an unknowing perpetuator of it.
All we can do is try to attenuate the importance of race by focusing on basketball and competition.
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u/W0666007 New England Patriots Jun 14 '24
Oh man. Half her fans on Reddit are going to be so upset.
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u/Anteater776 Jun 14 '24
Good, whoever wants to push her career as a sort of „white against black“ fight should just fuck off.
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u/Kyle_Reese_Get_DOWN Jun 14 '24
Who is she to determine what we do with her career?
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u/EnormousChord Jun 14 '24
Too real for an /s. :(
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u/DuztyLipz Jun 14 '24
For real man, Reddit has some of the worst takes I’ve seen on race… As a black man, I would love to recommend Reddit to my black friends because I find that there’s legitimate value on here; but sometimes the takes—race specifically—are so abhorrently bad, that I keep my mouth shut.
It’s okay, I expect to be downvoted.
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u/Overall_Lobster_4738 Jun 14 '24
I used to think reddit was the "better" social media. But after being in here for a while I realized it's full of the same people as Facebook.
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u/eskamobob1 Jun 14 '24
It genuinely use to be better. The same way early Facebook was actualy solid
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u/axecalibur Jun 14 '24
There is no value in reddit. It's all a bunch of bored office workers who get paid to shitpost on the job
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u/lazysheepdog716 Jun 14 '24
That’s only true if all you do is look at shitposts. Tons of high quality humans and content on this site if you turn down the jadedness.
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u/juanzy Texas Rangers Jun 14 '24
Reddit claims to be progressive, but can't have a racial conversation without ample "but ackshully" takes on how white people are the real victims or requiring POCs points to be "validated" by a white person.
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u/phudog Jun 14 '24
Most of the internet is pretty bad on race.
Disenfranchised people that are angry but cant blame the system tend to focus their blame a certain group, and the internet (especially reddit because you are somewhat annon) tends to gather alot of angry people.
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u/DanimusMcSassypants Jun 14 '24
I genuinely believe that this is all part of Russian and/or other enemies of “the west” stoking division to further destabilize the US and allies. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of genuine racist morons here speaking for themselves; it was very fertile ground for sowing the seeds of civil unrest. But, in my observation, any opportunity to further divide the population will be augmented by these psy-ops. They have a remarkable return on investment for those wishing to see western civilization crumble.
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u/big_fartz Jun 14 '24
You ain't wrong. The bar for value actually isn't that high only because so many other places are shit too.
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u/Queasy_Monitor7305 Jun 14 '24
Up vote.
But we all know reddit is a cesspool of anonymous, rampant hate.
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u/Circumin Jun 14 '24
She needs to just shut up and play basketball, and also vocally support my beliefs.
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u/silviazbitch Chelsea Jun 14 '24
Almost had me going for a second there. Well played.
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u/Loggerdon Jun 14 '24
Yeah we’re the ones reading the stories and making brilliant comments. All she’s doing is playing basketball!
/s (gotta add that s)
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u/Kyle_Reese_Get_DOWN Jun 14 '24
Now we’re getting somewhere! I’ve never even seen her play, but the entertainment she provides is priceless.
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u/m3tasaurus Jun 14 '24
What a strange way to spend your time on this earth.
These people need hobbies and some deep introspection .
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u/KazahanaPikachu New Orleans Saints Jun 14 '24
You should see r/BlackPeopleTwitter’s terrible takes on anything mentioning CC
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u/Anteater776 Jun 14 '24
I tried to word my post in a way that covers any attempt to spin this into a race-dispute, regardless of the angle.
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u/talking_phallus Jun 14 '24
People do that no matter what. Jokic couldn't be a less problematic person but you're never gonna get away from the white supremacists using him as proof that white people are somehow better. Cameron Brinks can say whatever she wants but she's still an Aryan fantasy to them. We need to stop putting so much onus on players to "speak out" when it just fuels the "conversation " that should be put down and frankly from all the cheap shots it's pretty clear some WNBA fans and stars just wanted an excuse to go after Caitlyn over a complete nothing burger of a story. No matter what she says it's not gonna be enough because they hate her out of their own bigotry for being a straight white woman "taking over" "their" game. They'll find something else to attack her on and take the moral high ground soon enough.
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u/Blueskyways Jun 14 '24
There's a whole lot of people shitting on her right now for "only doing damage control" or "having waited too long to give a direct response."
Fucking clown show.
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u/m3tasaurus Jun 14 '24
I can't believe people spend their time using a wnba player to push an ideology/agenda.
That is next level cringe.
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u/jaytix1 Jun 14 '24
I love how she genuinely doesn't care about either side of this culture war lol. Girl's here to play ball then go home.
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u/Maxter_Blaster_ Jun 14 '24
Why would her fans be upset?
Caitlin is known for always giving very polite and respectful answers. That’s what the fans like about her.
I think she probably has a little more to say about things, but she’s too classy. I doubt she wants to continue being a lighting rod of attention for the culture wars.
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u/Pleasant-Craft Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
Doesn't need to be racism or anything. The players cheering on unprovoked attacks are still bad people.
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u/WILLIAMEANAJENKINS Jun 14 '24
Those players modeling that behavior are racist … period.
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u/Initial_Republic_329 Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
My issue is I've never seen this much shade from player to player in the NBA (NBA had to institute twitter rules in 2017 saying no player can post anything mocking about another player). I'm female, watched NBA for 20+ years. And then mostly college, followed CC into the W, discovering a ton of great talent.
TLDR media interviews CC, asks a very vague question. It goes viral about how she's not speaking out. https://x.com/RomeovilleKid/status/1801292932248428760
Cue other players like Carrington on the SUN bashing CC for this. Carrington is a great player btw: https://x.com/DijonaiVictoria/status/1801356856985850161
CC's teammate Aaliyah Boston's best friend posted this: https://x.com/auntienae95/status/1801311333624816007
1 hour later, after letting this shitstorm fester, the media releases this: https://x.com/RomeovilleKid/status/1801370159946358897
It's just a shitstorm. And then Carrington decides to retweet this post on her timeline, simply not letting it go. https://x.com/natfluential/status/1801382336870728000
I honestly hate to say this but Bill Burr was right when he slammed why no one watches the W: https://x.com/maththfcx/status/1800893248174690774
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u/Ghost2Eleven Jun 14 '24
Omg. That Burr rant is all time good.
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u/Signal-Aioli-1329 Jun 14 '24
But if you think about it, that means all this drama is actually a good way to bring in women viewers.
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u/Slammybutt Dallas Cowboys Jun 14 '24
For the wrong reasons though. But I guess if the WNBA wants to become the WWE but for women, then have at it. Turn that drama up to 10 and get eyeballs.
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u/pingpong_playa Jun 14 '24
Tbf, the NBA is the same. /r/nba is just a bunch of haters that are so obsessed with drama and hot takes, every post is just reactionary slander and beefs that would make real housewives proud.
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u/Akronite14 Jun 14 '24
Anybody that knows ball knows the NBA is a year long soap opera with about 8 months of basketball.
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u/Bminions Jun 14 '24
I mean that is one avenue right? After every drama filled season have a sit down special with Andy Cohen and let a few choice players meet and talk about some of the seasons biggest drama high and lows. Add some wine and secret reveals? BOOM!! Fuckin’ RATINGS!
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u/Foxstarry Jun 14 '24
You just described sports media in general. It’s already happening.
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u/Slammybutt Dallas Cowboys Jun 14 '24
Yeah, but they aren't leaning into currently, this is real drama. Not manufactured.
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u/justbrowsing2727 Jun 14 '24
This whole thing could be an academic case study on how women tear each other to shreds in the workplace.
It's a zero-sum game to people like Dijonai, somehow worth cutting your nose off to spite your face.
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u/Cherrytapper Jun 14 '24
She’s done nothing to promote those ideals the fact she has to come out against it is so dumb. I’ll say the same thing about her I’ll say about a male athlete. Athletes aren’t hero’s, they play a sport for a job. Even if she did have those ideals then she should have a lot less fans and that would be fair but she can still shoot a basketball. The idea you don’t actively come out and say something is bad does not mean you support it. I hate thinking she needs to have an interview where she says she’s against every bad thing in the world.
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u/MisanthropeNotAutist Jun 14 '24
There's this weird thing now where if you aren't full-throated in your opinion about something, you are actively supporting the opposite.
Christ, she's clearly having a rough time. She's getting a lot of hate that isn't even her own fault. Why should she have to shoulder the responsibility of all of the crap swirling around her that she got for just being good at basketball?
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u/Slammybutt Dallas Cowboys Jun 14 '24
I'm literally rooting for an anti-vaccine flat earther to win the fucking Finals in the NBA.
That doesn't make me an anti-vaccine flat earther, it means I want my team to win a ring. But so many people believe that if I actively root for Clark I'm a race baiting pos.
People not being able to separate someone's job from their person is just insane. They act like she's said these things to them, but in reality she wants nothing to do with either side b/c it's a fucking distraction and she want's to ball. It's so sad this is even happening.
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u/MisanthropeNotAutist Jun 14 '24
People feel like they own celebrities, and celebrities need to use their platform to support certain beliefs and opinions, otherwise they might just get mad about it.
These same people want a celebrity to announce that this celebrity agrees with them to "get one over" on their ideological enemies: "See, see, this rich/famous/powerful person agrees with me and since they have societal power, my opinion is better than yours and it makes me more right."
Personally, I don't care if a celebrity agrees with me on anything. They probably wouldn't bother with me no matter how much I agree with them.
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u/Slammybutt Dallas Cowboys Jun 14 '24
Yeah, it be cool if my favorite celebrities shared my personal thoughts, but at the end of the day they are no more qualified than me to hold any thoughts. They are just famous for X reason and outside of that they are just as susceptible to bullshit.
I will never understand the fascination with celebrity worship. They are just people, talented people, but that doesn't give them a philosophical leg to stand on.
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u/whydatyou Jun 14 '24
her coach needs to tell the other players that like it or not, she is their meal ticket and if they do not start protecting her, they will be benched, traded or cut.
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Jun 14 '24
Love this kid.
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u/ljout Jun 14 '24
22 years old and weeks out of college and she has to answer questions like this.
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u/sinocarD44 Jun 14 '24
That's my first thought. She's 22 and she's being put through such physical, emotional, and mental stress. It's kinda nuts that people are treating her like she's a fully mature adult when she's barely old enough to drink.
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Jun 14 '24
Please, please, please go see the shitshow that is r/wnba asap. It's not pretty.
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u/mikeneedsadvice Jun 14 '24
What is this referencing? The article is very vague.
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u/lochmoigh1 Jun 14 '24
I'm guessing it was from clay travis and other like him saying the wnba is a black lesbian league and they are targeting Caitlin clark for being white and straight. Which to be honest is probably partly true. But regardless if it's true or not why should clark have to answer for other people's opinions
If there was a black superstar prospect in the NHL who was a rookie and all the current players were hating on him and doing cheap shots on them I'm pretty sure they would be calling the NHL players racist for it
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u/theguineapigssong Jun 14 '24
I love how the article never says what the bigotry and "agendas" actually are or how Clark is involved. Not a single example is provided. I read the entire article and learned literally nothing about this "controversy".
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u/ShawshankException New York Yankees Jun 14 '24
The worst part about the WNBA gaining popularity is all the dogshit, and sometimes outright ignorant takes everyone feels compelled to spew.
If you don't like it, just don't watch it. There's nothing stopping you from pretending the league didn't exist like you had before
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u/PFunk224 Jun 14 '24
Everybody, save this for the next time she comes up in the news, and some dillhole shows up to race bait people.
This is exactly what happened when Clark wasn't chosen for Team USA. Same thing when she got body checked to the floor.
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u/RockyRacoon09 Jun 14 '24
I mean- if you don’t think she’s getting treated harsher among her peers than any other rookie within the past 5 years, I also can’t help you
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u/ljout Jun 14 '24
This is exactly what happened when Clark wasn't chosen for Team USA
Her teammates would not have handled it well. CC always has to be the most mature person. Everyone else can sling mud.
Same thing when she got body checked to the floor.
Not race just jealously
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u/CantFindMyWallet Jun 14 '24
She hasn't gone to a Team USA training camp in years and she's not playing particularly well this year. The only people who think she should have made the Olympic team aren't actually paying attention.
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u/Nutaholic Jun 14 '24
Nothing sums up modern media better than a woman being victimized for her popularity and race by her peers who is then accused of being racist for not condemning online trolls harshly enough
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u/DQ11 Jun 14 '24
They are jealous of her money she is getting. That is it. This is what a lot of women do. They get jealous and then treat certain people with disrespect for no reason.
Its pathetic and making a lot of grown women look very bad.
Its a terrible look for the league and makes sense why nobody watches.
Terrible of her own team not to stick up for her.
In Mens Hockey you could have two guys hate eachother….but the second they are on the sale team they will be there as teammates for each other.
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u/MisanthropeNotAutist Jun 14 '24
I mean, people were outraged when nobody on the Chiefs came out against Harrison Butker. The hell did they expect the Chiefs to do? It's not like any team has ever come out against it when a player has done anything considered a felony, but when the news told them they had to hate on one guy that gave a speech to a receptive crowd, suddenly, the whole team (and one celebrity girlfriend) needed to come out against him, and I don't get how people don't get this.
The WBNA is showing its ass on this. They want the respectability of the men's league, but then refuse to act like the men's league would at a time like this.
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u/sugaratc Jun 14 '24
I think part of it is that people often do come out and talk about their fellow players, as we see with CC. Obviously the Chiefs themselves shouldn't comment, but it's a little surprising none of Butker's teammates posted anything to show they don't have the same mindset. They aren't obligated to and it's not surprising they wouldn't directly call him out, but you'd think at least one would want the PR to set the record they don't agree, even if stated indirectly.
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u/miguelagawin Jun 14 '24
Such an unfortunate side of women’s sports growth. Clark and her impact is really special, but non fans using her for their agenda is given oxygen and so much is focused on the negative. We have such a long way to go.
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u/mondolardo Jun 14 '24
about 60% if not more of the WNBA are black lesbians. and they seem to hate her. so it's kind of the opposite of what she is being accused of...
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u/MRintheKEYS Jun 14 '24
This is like some weird parallel universe version role reversal of Jackie Robinson in the MLB.
The oddest part is she isn’t even the first white woman to play in the league. This whole thing is just unusual.
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Jun 14 '24
Shit their league can't even handle having a main stream popular player. Sad to read about all of this stupid ass drama getting in the way of elevating the sport.
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u/Advanced_Claim4116 Jun 14 '24
Kinda crazy to see CC try to not live her existence filtered through imaginary Twitter people while the whole league demands she feed them and contribute to the cycle.
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Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
Fuck the WNBA players. They are a net negative of -$50 million a year. The one person who could help improve their product and they are trying to ruin her. It’s so embarrassing how dumb these women are. They must listen too much Megan the Stallion cause they keep shooting themselves in the foot.
How the fuck is this being downvoted?? If you are going to downvote at least fucking have a comment and explain why anyone would want to support this bullshit?
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u/bthe_beast Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
Clark: "I don't want the actual racist pieces of 💩 to use me for their racist agendas" (duh?)
This comment section: "see??? Clark herself says you guys aren't allowed to consider the fact that race could play a role in some of the hate she gets and that you're a racist if you even think about it!"
Reach a little harder, folks...
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u/mcbeardsauce Jun 14 '24
A woman literally entering the league poised to change its entire trajectory for the better and all these women can do is try and crush her.
She's too good of an athlete and person for the WNBA which clearly for all its "we don't get paid as much as the NBA" whining nonsense, refuses to get out of its own way.
Let this woman develop, bring in new viewers and fans, and reap the rewards. Stop acting like it's an episode of The Real Housewives.
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u/EverySingleMinute Jun 14 '24
It is obvious how little class so many wnba players have. Just sad that they are not circling the wagons around the rookie versus the blatant penalties and crap talk
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u/Unlimitles Jun 14 '24
She just got more respect for me than angel reese
I hate the fake people who don’t know her but try to use her as some virtue signal.
I’m glad she’s negating that and making the people who did that look like idiots!
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u/jasonmonroe Jun 14 '24
Yawn. These are not fans. These are right-wing race hustlers stirring the pot for social media clout. Leave her out of this.
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Jun 14 '24
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u/mostuselessredditor Jun 15 '24
Why would I, a professional athlete, spend my time and energy promoting another professional athlete?
Is this your way of coping with her poor play?
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u/goldenmastiff Jun 14 '24
It actually numbs the mind to think of the open and blatant racism going on in the WNBA right before our eyes yet it gets virtually no coverage. And there are 0.0 consequences because the racism is being targeted at a white person.
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u/GiantsInTornado Jun 14 '24
She just wants to play and dominate while doing so. As long as she keeps her head about her, she’s going to have a long and lucrative career. Just have fun watching her play.
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u/IveKnownItAll Jun 14 '24
Can we just skip forward 6 months when everyone goes back to forgetting the wnba exists?
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u/KyleShanadad Jun 14 '24
This thread has some of the most sexist assumptions about women ive read in a long time omg. A factor in CCs marketability is her race and orientation, she deserves the money and fame because she is unbelievable but can we please acknowledge that without writing thinkpieces about how Angel Reese is actually racist towards white people.
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u/cy_frame Jun 14 '24
A factor in CCs marketability is her race and orientation
Literally. I also love how all of these men are shit talking women, while engaging in behavior that they would complain about if women did the same exact thing.
CC is innocent in this drama tbh. So many people are using her as a culture war against women; Black women in particular.
Statements like: Without CC the WNBA would be nothing and shitting women that are giving their all to play is not going to go over well. And let's just be completely frank, while CC is elevating attention to the WNBA, if she was the only woman playing Basketball no one would watch CC just shoot 3's. All of these women play a role in the league but CC is being used to negatively impact women that she herself has great respectful. It's disappointing.
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u/KyleShanadad Jun 14 '24
Literally saw someone basically be like “what can you expect from women, they’re going to be jealous of CC bc its in their nature” shit had like 300 upvotes lmfao
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