Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
The magic of social media wore off long ago, at least for me it did. I spend more time blocking the Woke Warriors and the MAGA Crusaders than any other activity. The latest threads I block revolve around the insanity being created with Caitlin Clark and her rookie year in the WNBA.
To be honest, I’ve never watched more than a few minutes of any WNBA game. The same holds true for the NBA. I just don’t want to waste my time listening to announcers salivate over a move by some overpaid giant in short pants, especially when he takes eight steps with nary a dribble in doing it.
For me, basketball ends in March Madness during the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tournaments and in the entertaining play in the NIT and WNIT.
If you haven’t noticed, the sudden hoopla over Caitlin Clark has very little to do with her prodigious talent on the court. She is amazing, but she’s too amazing for the rest of the WNBA, and to make matters worse, she’s straight and White.
The WNBA is a Black venue, more than the men’s game, and it’s a sport dominated by lesbians. Go ahead, yell foul, claim I’m some sort of Cro-Magnon, knuckle dragger, but it’s the truth.
Clark just doesn’t fit the image of the ever-failing, always-faltering, handout-dependent league that is the WNBA.
None of this background matters at all, what matters is how Clark is being managed by the media moguls. The same clowns on Madison Avenue that will feature three weeks of gymnastics, swimming, synchronized swimming, and the mind-numbing, “Rhythmic Gymnastics” while ignoring boxing, judo, karate, weightlifting and only offer snippets of track and field have discovered women’s basketball.
Who is the marketing genius that will show three full hours of the marathon, but only one or two throws in the shot or discus, and just the finals in the sprints and hurdles?
They’re marketing Clark and the Olympics the same way, for a fantasy audience that doesn’t exist. Like it or not, sports are still a masculine realm. That doesn’t mean women can’t enjoy football, basketball, or baseball, some are real fans. It also doesn’t mean that women shouldn’t compete. They absolutely should, but only against other women, not some deranged guy thinking he’s a woman.
The gender identity movement needs to go away from women’s sports. I don’t care if you want to dress up and pretend you’re a girl, more power to you, but don’t try to race or compete against biological women. They’ve worked too hard to get the grudging status they now have. Don’t let some politically correct hack destroy all they’ve worked so long to achieve.
Clark is an interesting case, an outlier, a surprise on the sports radar that no one anticipated.
She brings to light an all too real aspect of women’s athletics that we’re not supposed to talk about. Many women don’t like other women and actively seek to undermine any progress they make.
Men and women, thank God, are not the same. Each has a predominant role, yes equal roles, but they look at the world through different filters.
My first practice as a head track coach a long time ago had my phone ringing with angry fathers. I was the boys and girls head track coach at Lusk and in a final team meeting at the end of a late March practice I talked about competition, how there is always someone better than you waiting out there, and that only hard work, dedication, and preparation will give you a chance to win. Pretty standard stuff. The boys had already heard my views in football and basketball, but several of the girls broke into tears thinking I was telling them they were worthless and had no talent.
It was far from the message intended, but it’s what they took home.
TV execs, talking heads, media specialists, and that clueless group of freeloaders known as “influencers” have all jumped on “Team Clark” and are offering her up to the wolves.
The same brilliant minds that create classics like “Housewives of Beverly Hills” or perhaps a better name, “The Pampered Witches Down the Street” are working their insidious black magic on the courts of the WNBA.
It’s not sport, it’s Oprah, and The View with all those inane viewpoints wrapped up into a tight little media package with the goal of constant outrage, and knee-jerk reactions.
Get a clue, it’s not working. It’s the swirling cesspool of the celebrity cult on steroids and has nothing to do with Caitlin Clark’s amazing long-range shooting or her deft passing.
Not recruiting her for the US Women’s Olympic Basketball team is another marketing faux pas. Clark jerseys have outsold all the t-shirts, hoodies, and autographed jerseys marketed by the Dallas Cowboys, “America’s Team” in the last year.
Pay attention. She is a phenomenon, a once-in-a-lifetime talent that is changing not just women’s basketball but all of basketball.
Friends who teach elementary and middle school physical education tell me both the boys and girls yell, “Caitlin Clark” when they hit a long-range shot in class. None of them ever yell “Brittney Griner” or “Diana Taurasi.” That tells you something about the impact Clark has had on the game
When Larry Bird and Earvin Johnson hit the NBA for the first time in 1979 they changed the game almost overnight. Earvin Johnson is “Magic Johnson” for those who don’t know his true name.
They took their lumps as rookies, but the petty jealousy perpetrated against Caitlin Clark by the unknown players, competing in largely empty arenas and surviving on funding from the NBA didn’t happen.
Bird and Magic raised the game, and Michael Jordan sent it into the stratosphere. Can Caitlin Clark accomplish that?
Maybe, but it will be tougher for her since she doesn’t fit the image created by the financially failing WNBA.
There is a new sheriff in town, and it’s the skinny shooting guard from Iowa who passes like John Stockton, hits clutch jumpers like Michael Jordan, and intercepts passes and rebounds like Larry Bird.
She is the future. If the present players can get by their petty resentment, and if the geniuses in the broadcast booth can focus on the court and not their cell phones she might just elevate the game.
As economics enjoying saying, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”
Just let her play and get rid of the bling.