(Header Picture – Jerod Ringwald/hawkeyesports.com)
I had a front row seat to the seeds of greatness my senior year of college at Iowa. Despite a worldwide pandemic, I covered a lot of Iowa basketball in the winter of 2020-21, men’s and women’s, with KRUI. On a cold December night, I got my first introduction into the Caitlin Clark Experience, when Iowa went down by 19 points to Iowa State in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. What I saw next was a sequence the country has now seen time and time again: the logo threes flew, and flew, and flew; the final one gave Iowa the lead for good and capped an 82-80 comeback to stun their rivals from Ames.
I had never seen anything like it, my broadcast partner (current voice of Iowa baseball John Leo) and I looked at each other as we went to a break without saying a word, just staring at one another as if to say “was this reality?”.
Little did we know, it was just a sample of the next 3 1/2 years to come.
Caitlin Clark, in this moment in time, is the face of the game of basketball. You can’t turn on any sports-highlight show for more than an hour and not see her face or hear her name in some capacity in that time frame. From the logo 3’s, the Patrick Mahomes-like passing, to commercials from State Farm, Nike and HyVee, she is the next big thing in the game.
When you look at the history of the superstars in basketball, you look at the commercial rise of Magic and Bird, then Nike unveiled “Be Like Mike” for Michael Jordan, LeBron James was “The Chosen One”. Women’s basketball has had it’s moments in the sun with the Candace Parker’s, the Maya Moore’s, the Britney Griner’s and most recently, the incomparable Sabrina Ionescu.
Somehow, someway, Caitlin Clark has found a way to rise above the popularity of the women who came before her. She has reached an audience that is closer in comparison to the legends of NBA past and present, than the legends of the women’s game.
But with that popularity and superstardom, it comes with a price.
Wright Thompson of ESPN, who for all intensive purposes, is this generations Grantland Rice, released a wonderful, emotion-moving profile on Caitlin Clark prior to the women’s first-round game on Friday. A large topic of discussion is dealing with the life being a national superstar, with an international tag soon-looming once she reaches the WNBA, if not already.
The life of a transcendent athlete is far from the easiest thing in the world; anyone who’s watched The Last Dance on the Michael Jordan Bulls has seen and heard Jordan’s description of his chaotic day-to-day life. But, when the world is seemingly putting you on that kind of a pedestal, there is a small, vocal fraction that is ready to tear you down.
For Caitlin Clark, their method of attack is her on-court demeanor. She is not afraid to tell a referee what she thinks should’ve been a foul and do so consistently. She’s also not afraid to show frustration, whether with herself or her teammate, on a turnover or a missed shot or a missed read. We’re human, these are all reaction we’ve had while competing in anything.
Clark is the athlete that wears her emotion on her sleeve, you can tell what she’s thinking or how she’s feeling at nearly any given time. When she’s fired up after a big play, she’s not afraid to let an expletive or few fly, we all have in our athletic careers. But when she does it, she suddenly becomes a poor role model, according to some.
Many basketball fans of my generation and of older generations have watched the likes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, Michael Jordan and athletes further back, be involved in altercations, manipulate officials and show emotion while letting expletives fly.
Why is it bad when Caitlin does it? A short answer: America loves to expose the 5% flaw, compared the excellence of the other 95%. With Michael Jordan, it was his enjoyment of gambling, LeBron James has been criticized for his politics, Kobe Bryant was criticized for his recurring iciness to teammates.
With Caitlin Clark, it’s her tendency in attempting to manipulate officials, and her fiery, passionate, cup-runneth-over demeanor. It turns a select group off, and you know what? We can all live with people who feel that way, while also noting the personal attacks because of it have become a bit far-fetched.
What does the other 95% of Caitlin Clark entail, you ask? I think everyone has seen it. She has so many kids lined up to sign autographs, if security allowed, she could be there until the sun comes up…ok, I might by embellishing. However, listening to her talk to the media, do interviews and be as concise and thoughtful as she is, it’s truly a special combination of qualities in a 22-year old kid from West Des Moines.
Society wants to and loves to find the flaws and imperfection in those thought of as perfect. In the case of Caitlin Clark, the flaws and imperfections are there, but don’t deserve the type of biting remarks and quips that have been elicited on social media. In the world where the vocal minority seemingly reigns supreme, the silent majority is doing it’s job in setting the record straight.
Caitlin Clark is the role model this sports guy wants his future daughter or daughters to be like, and I hope they view her in the same light I do: an athlete that transcends just as much off-the-court as she does on-the-court.