Caitlin Clark made the WNBA rich, but its players seem determined to destroy the league by turning women’s basketball into a violent spectacle.
"Two ex-NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, took the WNBA at its word, nobly identifying as women and declaring themselves for the WNBA draft. Yet their declaration of their preferred gender identities—which are usually affirmed as brave and stunning by the WNBA and other forms of officialdom—only elicited furor from the league."
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| "The WWE is getting rich not so much by just playing basketball as by waging a veritable physical and cultural war on Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham." |
"A better name for the current Women’s National Basketball League (WNBA) might be Women’s Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), given the growing performance-art violence that is now endemic in the league.
"Prior to the 2024 arrival of then-22-year-old Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark, very few people watched the WNBA.
"Team franchises were worth less than $20 million. The league ran chronic deficits and was subsidized by the men’s professional basketball league, the National Basketball Association (NBA).
"An unspoken subtext of the WNBA was that the owners and coaches were left-wing and made little effort to hide their political biases.
"Despite talk of diversity, the league was—and remains—about 83 percent nonwhite and about 70 percent black.
"Some media outlets have suggested that about 50 percent of the players are gay.
"By Clark’s third year, her level of play had revolutionized the WNBA—or rather, saved it from financial collapse and cultural obscurity.
"Economists have concluded that she has already infused $1 billion into the league through increased attendance, new media contracts, endorsements and sponsorships, and sports tourism.
"Once-obscure players are now pampered and highly compensated.
"Team franchises are now more than 20 times as valuable. In Caitlin Clark’s mere three years, the average team market value has soared to nearly $500 million.
"Caitlin Clark did not revolutionize the WNBA by belonging to a white and heterosexual minority. Indeed, there are plenty of such players in the league.
"Rather, in less than three years, she has proven to be arguably the greatest and most exciting female basketball player in history—hence the strange envy and hatred of her competitors." . . . More.
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