Time for a Real Discussion About Caitlin Clark

[HFCS]

Sheryll Miller anyone? Sheryll Swoops? Lisa Leslie? Any number of national champion UCONN women stars? Clark is benefiting from social media and the ESPN hype machine. Before Miller, Swoops and Leslie I don't even remember knowing that women's basketball even existed. Not taking away from how good she is, but not sure what she is changing about the game other than shooting long threes. If anything she is showing how big of a gap there is between men's and women's basketball. She makes great plays, but those are pretty routine in the men's game. When she does it the announcers are like "Oh my God!! Did you see that play? That was amazing!!" Yeah, it was a bounce pass on a fast break that led her teammate for a layup. A step back three? Never seen that before. . Clark is a generational player, but I still don't get how she's changing the game itself. If they move the three point line back because of her or if you start seeing every star player chucking long range threes, then we can talk. I don't see that happening though.

I definitely think the longer 3s will happen and probably already is happening.

Have you seen the different zip code shots Haliburton takes and makes vs what he shot at ISU? It can change fast. Haliburton and a few others are basically not that different than Steph Curry now draining crazy long threes where 12 years ago it was just him.

I don't see why Clark will be some unicorn outlier for women when Steph wasn't for men.

 

[CyorDy]

Sheryll Miller anyone? Sheryll Swoops? Lisa Leslie? Any number of national champion UCONN women stars? Clark is benefiting from social media and the ESPN hype machine. Before Miller, Swoops and Leslie I don't even remember knowing that women's basketball even existed. Not taking away from how good she is, but not sure what she is changing about the game other than shooting long threes. If anything she is showing how big of a gap there is between men's and women's basketball. She makes great plays, but those are pretty routine in the men's game. When she does it the announcers are like "Oh my God!! Did you see that play? That was amazing!!" Yeah, it was a bounce pass on a fast break that led her teammate for a layup. A step back three? Never seen that before. . Clark is a generational player, but I still don't get how she's changing the game itself. If they move the three point line back because of her or if you start seeing every star player chucking long range threes, then we can talk. I don't see that happening though.

 

[Turn2]

Sounds about white.

After big loss against Iowa, LSU's Angel Reese says she's been getting death threats for a year

“I’ve been through so much,” Reese told reporters. “I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. … I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time.”

www.nbcnews.com

 

[cycloner29]

Most hawk fans will have been given their meds and put to bed a couple hours before the game this Friday. Gonna be some grumpy fans at the retirement homes come Friday.

 

[Gonzo]

Sheryll Miller anyone? Sheryll Swoops? Lisa Leslie? Any number of national champion UCONN women stars? Clark is benefiting from social media and the ESPN hype machine. Before Miller, Swoops and Leslie I don't even remember knowing that women's basketball even existed. Not taking away from how good she is, but not sure what she is changing about the game other than shooting long threes. If anything she is showing how big of a gap there is between men's and women's basketball. She makes great plays, but those are pretty routine in the men's game. When she does it the announcers are like "Oh my God!! Did you see that play? That was amazing!!" Yeah, it was a bounce pass on a fast break that led her teammate for a layup. A step back three? Never seen that before. . Clark is a generational player, but I still don't get how she's changing the game itself. If they move the three point line back because of her or if you start seeing every star player chucking long range threes, then we can talk. I don't see that happening though.

I don't know if it's "changing the game" but I think her scoring ability along with her court vision and passing does kind of make her a unicorn. Who else has brought that elite level of skill in both of those areas?

 

[CyorDy]

Sounds about white.

After big loss against Iowa, LSU's Angel Reese says she's been getting death threats for a year

“I’ve been through so much,” Reese told reporters. “I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. … I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time.”

www.nbcnews.com

Hock troll

 

[Turn2]

Hock troll

I'm pretty sure she's talking about far more than one.

 

[ClubCy]

Sounds about white.

After big loss against Iowa, LSU's Angel Reese says she's been getting death threats for a year

“I’ve been through so much,” Reese told reporters. “I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. … I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time.”

www.nbcnews.com

I’m not sure you know what that saying means.

 

[CRcyclone6]

Their

Death Taxes and Iowa fans referring to black athletes as "thugs".

It's why I will never cheer for that ******* program in anything. The amount of openly racist dumb **** that comes out of their fans is wild.

Then we have the anthem issue...them dipshits don't watch a lot of sports from the McDonalds breakroom or something? It happens all the time when teams aren't out there for it. Oh that's right Stanzi at one point said something about loving it or leaving it so now they invented being a true red white and blue American

They all wake up to Hulk Hogan's "I Am a Real American" theme.

 

[Turn2]

I’m not sure you know what that saying means.

I believe it means that AR has been dealing with similar behavior that the ISR board sees from hok trolls, only in her case they make sure to inject plenty of extra KKK and misogynist behavior to the mix. It's all okay though, in defense of the great CC.

 

[qwerty]

Most hawk fans will have been given their meds and put to bed a couple hours before the game this Friday. Gonna be some grumpy fans at the retirement homes come Friday.

Is the game on Peacock?

 

[Gonzo]

I believe it means that AR has been dealing with similar behavior that the ISR board sees from hok trolls, only in her case they make sure to inject plenty of extra KKK and misogynist behavior to the mix. It's all okay though, in defense of the great CC.

Not downplaying what AR has dealt with, but CC has dealt with her share of garbage from LSU fans since last year. Really gross stuff.

 

[BCClone]

Yep and Bluder on other end made great decision to put O'Grady on Reese. O'Grady was the unsung hero. She slowed Reese enough and stopped the easy stuff LSU was getting. She played much longer stretch than she normally gets and that's when Iowa pulled away.

That 44 changed the game from I saw in the half quarter I watched. She was hacking and freight training people on rebounds. In the men’s game she would have fouled out in the 1/2 quarter I saw. If they aren’t calling it, keep doing it.

 

[Cyrealist]

Not downplaying what AR has dealt with, but CC has dealt with her share of garbage from LSU fans since last year. Really gross stuff.

Racist or sexist taunting is never right, but if you want to be big-time athletes, you have to realize not everyone is going to be an adoring fan - especially the fan bases of opposing teams. Best to stay off social media. On the other hand, 3 mil NIL money ...

 

[BCClone]

I'm pretty sure she's talking about far more than one.

Well, that Iowa loud moron is usually good for 8-10 on her own.

 

[iahawks]

Not downplaying what AR has dealt with, but CC has dealt with her share of garbage from LSU fans since last year. Really gross stuff.

You should hear what a lot of LSU fans say about Angel. A lot of is awful and that is her own fanbase.

 

[Saul_T]

Sheryll Miller anyone? Sheryll Swoops? Lisa Leslie? Any number of national champion UCONN women stars? Clark is benefiting from social media and the ESPN hype machine. Before Miller, Swoops and Leslie I don't even remember knowing that women's basketball even existed. Not taking away from how good she is, but not sure what she is changing about the game other than shooting long threes. If anything she is showing how big of a gap there is between men's and women's basketball. She makes great plays, but those are pretty routine in the men's game. When she does it the announcers are like "Oh my God!! Did you see that play? That was amazing!!" Yeah, it was a bounce pass on a fast break that led her teammate for a layup. A step back three? Never seen that before. . Clark is a generational player, but I still don't get how she's changing the game itself. If they move the three point line back because of her or if you start seeing every star player chucking long range threes, then we can talk. I don't see that happening though.

You're really going through it, pal, and I'm not sure if actually talking/typing out loud is the best thing for you right now. If you're unable to see the impact CC has had on the game/building excitement for women's basketball, I really can't help your broken brain.

 

[Cyrealist]

Never seen that before. . Clark is a generational player, but I still don't get how she's changing the game itself. If they move the three point line back because of her or if you start seeing every star player chucking long range threes, then we can talk. I don't see that happening though.

They won't move the line back because she shoots from 4 feet behind the line. I think what people are saying is that she is helping to change the game because of the fan interest, TV ratings, and attendance. Supporters of the game hope that will usher in a new era of broader appeal for the women's game. That's yet to be seen Interest in any sport is driven by story lines, which women's basketball has in droves this year.

 

[jcyclonee]

Not college but Tiger and golf as a spectator sport is the best comp. You look at a tv golf viewer in the middle of his dominance and probably 75% of them didn't care before Tiger. The Tiger comparison has everything almost exact. Niche sport, a massive change in the sport's popularity involving race/gender, most viewers following for one individual, the individual is generally likable off court/course but often makes you cringe with boorish behavior while playing the game, that same nasty edge is probably part of why they are great.

The next closest would be Magic/Bird taking pro basketball to drastically higher levels of popularity and tv interest. They also elevated the popularity of the college game quite a bit. It's been pointed out frequently, but it's true that the NBA Finals wasn't even being broadcast live before Magic/Bird came in.

A lot of the massive icons of sports can't be compared because their sport was already incredibly popular when they started. If women's tennis had been less popular with less of a history of super stars I'm guessing Serena Williams would have been a similar ratings driver. Yeah Muhammad Ali was a phenomenon but he was following other massive stars of a sport that was popular at the time, same for MJ.

Way before my time and even before TV but I'm sure certain baseball and football players did something similar for those games at some time or they would never have become so popular.

Wayne Gretzky is probably a bit underrated for how much he increased the popularity of the NHL.

Sugar Ray Leonard made lighter-weight boxing much more popular than it had ever been before.

If you count it as a sport, Hulk Hogan was the personality that made professional wrestling huge for a while.

 

[jcyclonee]

I do feel that a lot of us are underrating Clark as an athlete. She's not super-strong or a great leaper but she is tremendously fast.