Ahead of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year announcement on Thursday, they’re releasing their other POTY titles, like CEO of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, and Athlete of the Year. Athlete of the Year went to none other than Caitlin Clark, arguably one of the most controversial and discussed athletes in America in the past two years. People – specifically white people – go absolutely feral when it comes to Caitlin Clark. She became a huge college basketball star, and she is currently the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. Clark’s teams never won an NCAA title, nor a WNBA title, but her fame and race have brought a crazy amount of attention to women’s basketball.
While I understand why Clark was chosen – she really was one of the most-discussed athletes of the year – I also think it’s weird that the AOTY wasn’t someone who played in the Olympics? It’s an Olympic year – hello, LeBron James won his third gold medal at 39! Steph Curry played in the Olympics for the first time and won gold! Diana Taurasi won her SIXTH gold medal at the age of 42! Leon Marchand became a French national hero! Simone Biles exists! But yeah, Caitlin has become a phenomenon and her presence in the WNBA has changed women’s basketball really quickly. Some highlights from Caitlin’s Time AOTY profile:
What she’s doing for the sport: She signed a reported $28 million endorsement deal with Nike, the largest ever for a women’s basketball player. Clark’s Fever appeared in the most watched WNBA games ever on ABC, CBS, ESPN, and ESPN2. The WNBA attracted an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers across all its national broadcasting platforms during the regular season, and the league’s overall attendance jumped 48% year over year to its highest level in more than two decades. The Fever broke the WNBA record for home attendance by a single franchise, and Fever games were moved to NBA and NHL arenas in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., to accommodate the hordes of fans, many donning Clark’s No. 22 jersey. The Washington Mystics-Fever regular-season finale set a new WNBA single-game attendance record of 20,711.
Clark on bringing more fans to the sport: “I’ve been able to captivate so many people that have never watched women’s sports, let alone women’s basketball, and turn them into fans.”
She often finds herself surrounded by controversy: “I tell people I feel like the most controversial person. But I am not. It’s just because of all the storylines that surround me. I literally try to live and treat everybody in the same exact respectful, kind way. It just confuses me at times.”
Her defenders have pushedracist, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ narratives: She calls this toxicity “upsetting” and “gross,” but during the season she addressed the discourse mostly when asked about it in courtside interviews or at press conferences rather than proactively engaging with it.
On her rivalry with Angel Reese, which began during the NCAA championship game last year: “I don’t get that at all… We’re not best friends, by any means, but we’re very respectful of one another. Yes, we have had tremendous battles. But when have I ever guarded her? And when has she guarded me?” She downplays Reese’s ring gesture. “I didn’t think it was taunting. It really didn’t bother me. It’s just like, ‘Why don’t you talk about them winning? Or the incredible run that we went on that nobody would have thought we would have ever gone on?’ The only thing people cared about was this controversy that was really fabricated and made up, and then that has continued to be the case ever since.”
Her white privilege. “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”
She wasn’t chosen for the Olympic team: “I don’t want to be there because I’m somebody that can bring attention. I love that for the game of women’s basketball. But at the same time, I want to be there because they think I’m good enough. I don’t want to be some little person that is kind of dragged around for people to cheer about and only watch because I’m sitting on the bench. That whole narrative kind of upset me. Because that is not fair. It’s disrespectful to the people that were on the team, that had earned it and were really good. And it’s also disrespectful to myself. ”
Whether she thinks she’ll speak out against the racist storylines: “It’s something I’m trying to navigate. I’m trying to find a balance while being a rookie.” But she hears the calls imploring her to step up for her colleagues, particularly in a league known for its outspokenness on social-justice issues. “I’m probably the most popular player in the league at the moment, and somebody a lot of people turn to to have a voice on this type of stuff. I hope we can do a better job as a league of protecting our players and putting better resources around them to make it a safer environment. And obviously, there’s only so much you can police on social media, because we don’t have full control over social media. But there is real responsibility. I understand that, and I acknowledge that.” So what’s her message to bad-faith actors harassing others in her name? “Just stop,” says Clark. “Because that’s not who I am.”
There are some quotes from WNBA coaches and former players who defend Clark even as they acknowledge that she could speak out against the racist narratives playing out among her growing fanbase. Most of the defenses are like – Clark has a lot on her plate, she’s focused on the sport, not on cultural issues. And she’s doing all of this at 22 years old, when really, she’s only had to confront race issues head on for less than two years. I don’t have an answer – I think she could do better, but I also acknowledge that she’s like a lot of 22-year-old white women, in that she doesn’t have the language or experience to really speak out in a helpful or authentic way. I think it’s a positive thing that she addresses some of the narratives head on in this piece and doesn’t shy away from telling her fans to cool it. She’s genuinely trying to tamp down a lot of the hateful rhetoric being thrown at Angel Reese and other women of color.
Cover & IG courtesy of Time.