Watch: ESPN Host Rages Over 'Race' Culture Around Caitlin Clark - 'She's White in a Sport of Black People!'
The talking heads in the establishment sports media love talking about race. But they really love talking about why everyone should be talking about race.
On Monday’s episode of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” veteran sports writer and co-host Michael Wilbon vented anger over what he regarded as the national sports media’s inadequate, simplistic and dishonest coverage of WNBA rookie and women’s basketball superstar Caitlin Clark.
In a conversation with longtime co-host Tony Kornheiser, Wilbon insisted that the discussion around Clark must “deal with, and I mean initially and loudly, race — race and culture in America” because Clark is “white in a sport of black people.”
Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon on Caitlin Clark.
(via @PTI) pic.twitter.com/J0yegXV00d
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 4, 2024
On Saturday, Clark found herself at the center of that very discussion when Chennedy Carter of the Chicago Sky blindsided her and shoved her to the ground in a cheap shot that didn’t even resemble a legitimate basketball play. Sky rookie Angel Reese, Carter’s teammate and Clark’s rival from their college playing days, visibly applauded the move. Clark’s Indiana Fever won the game, 71-70.
Afterward, Carter expressed no remorse. Reese, too, has embraced her role as villain — the same role she once cried about at a post-game press conference.
In sports media and elsewhere, the Carter-Reese-Clark brouhaha sparked conversation — much of it inane — about whether black WNBA players resent the attention Clark receives and attribute it to her skin color.
And that conversation came on the heels of many similar and equally nauseating discussions over the last few months. Race-mongers have bemoaned Clark’s various forms of alleged “privilege.” They have shamed black journalists for giving her too much positive coverage. They have complained about black players not receiving shoe deals like the one Clark received. And they have whined about an imaginary race-based double-standard.
Despite the incessant conversation about race, Wilbon demanded more conversation about race.
“The discussion about Caitlin Clark needs to be much larger” than it has been thus far, he said, insisting against all evidence that too much of that discussion has focused on particular games or how many points Clark scored.
“And it needs to be much more nuanced, and it needs to be honest, and it’s not honest,” he added.
Wilbon blamed his fellow journalists.
“On your podcast this morning I talked about how angry I am about national media,” he said to Kornheiser.
Remarkably, Wilbon argued that the media has effectively ignored the race angle. And that must change.
Then, Wilbon cited the legendary rivalry between Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers as proof that basketball has historically presented a useful setting for this race-centered discussion. Bird, who is white, and Johnson, who is black, developed a deep respect and eventual friendship.
Clark, meanwhile, has filled a void left empty since Bird’s retirement, at least according to Wilbon.
“You’re not gonna find that white American star in men’s basketball. Caitlin Clark is that. And she brings people into the tent because she’s great and she’s unique,” Wilbon said.
To his credit, Wilbon did not attempt to shame anyone other than his fellow journalists.
“And it’s OK for people to admit that they identify” with Clark, he said.
Nonetheless, the argument had an obvious internal contradiction.
Wilbon claimed that Clark appeals to white fans because the NBA lacks a “white American star.” He knows, of course, that three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and 2023-24 scoring champion Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks rank among the league’s elite players, and both happen to be white.
But Jokic hails from Serbia and Doncic from Slovenia. Hence, Wilbon clearly sees Clark as the white American star basketball fans crave.
Ironically, if Wilbon is right about that, then his entire argument about race falls apart. In that case, Clark would appeal to fans because of her nationality, not her skin color. If fans wanted white heroes simply because of their skin color, they would follow Jokic and Doncic for that reason.
The problem, of course, is that Wilbon and others who harp on race are almost certainly wrong. After all, as a star guard with the Iowa Hawkeyes, Clark set the all-time NCAA Division I scoring record. She appeared in two consecutive national championship games. Her playing style, which combines long-range shooting with pinpoint passing, is something young girls rightly believe they have a chance to imitate.
Perhaps those factors account for her popularity.
We can never know, of course, why other people are drawn to certain celebrities. Most of us would probably struggle to explain that about ourselves. But whatever role skin color has played in the Clark phenomenon, it is far less than Wilbon and the race-mongers have suggested.
Unfortunately, those media talking heads tend to have a very low opinion of their audiences. Thus, they will keep talking about race while demanding that you do the same.
In the meantime, one hopes that Clark and Reese someday will follow in the footsteps of Bird and Magic. May those young women be great, and may they become friends because of it.
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