Latest news with #CaitlinClarkandtheRevolutioninWomen'sSports
USA Today
14-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Caitlin Clark has changed women's sports forever
On Sunday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: WNBA player Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon. She? It has changed women's basketball, women's sports and sports, period. But what makes her tick? How did a kid from Iowa become one of the most recognizable athletes in the world? And what does her presence mean for the future of the WNBA and how we talk about it? USA today sports columnist Christine Brennan has covered the beginning of Clark's career, and recently took a step back to write about this superstar in a new book "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports." Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Hello, and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson. Today is Sunday July 13, 2025. Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon who has changed women's basketball, women's sports, and sports period. But what makes her tick? How did a kid from Iowa become one of the most recognizable athletes in the world? And what does her presence mean for the future of the WNBA and how we talk about it? USA TODAY sports columnist Christine Brennan has covered the beginning of Clark's career, and recently took a step back to write about this superstar in a new book On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports. Christine joins me now to discuss. Thanks for hopping on, Christine. Christine Brennan: Oh Taylor, my pleasure. Thank you. So just starting here, what inspired you to step back and write this book in this moment? I'd written a few columns on Caitlin Clark. I had not met her. The fascination with her, the crowds, the capacity crowds … Of course the big news, Taylor, was the women's and the men's final game, the NCAA final in 2024, where there were four million more viewers for the women than the men. Even now, I cannot believe I said that sentence. This is NCAA men's and women's basketball. Four million more people watched the women than the men because of Caitlin Clark. So this fascination was crystal clear. Why? I've covered women's sports and men's sports for more than four decades, hard to believe, and while I was covering the NFL and Super Bowls and Wimbledons and Tiger Woods, I've also done a lot with women's sports, and I've never seen women's sports explode in this way, and the nation absolutely fall in love with a women's team sport athlete. Yes, tennis. Serena, Venus, what have you. But not to this extent in women's team sports ever. And so I started to write a few columns for USA TODAY, I was doing some TV work on this Caitlin Clark phenomenon, and really just wanted to tell the story of this phenomenal athlete, but also place it in history, American culture, Title IX. All of that comes to play in where we are, with the girl next door all grown up and selling out arenas and having millions watch her on TV. Well Christine, I think a lot of us were introduced to Caitlin back during that 2023 tournament, just incredibly exciting, that Iowa run to the final four. How and when were you introduced to Caitlin? So the big one for me – on my iPad in my kitchen, not on press row – I happened to be watching the Iowa-Indiana women's game in February of 2023. And I was watching from an Indiana perspective, because all my siblings and a niece and a brother-in-law all went to Indiana. I went to Northwestern. But it was more like, "Can Indiana, a really good team, beat Iowa?" And I knew Caitlin Clark was on the team. Well, the ending. Buzzer beater, Caitlin Clark's flinging it from the parking lot. She's sideways, her legs are askew, and the ball goes in and she wins the game. And it's one of those things, you watch it two or three times. My family, as much as they wanted to see Indiana win, couldn't believe what they watched, and saw everyone was having this reaction. And I think it actually was probably better that I wasn't on press row, that I wasn't at the game, that I was in my kitchen in Washington, D.C., looking at it like an observer as opposed to a journalist. And I think it helped me understand how fascinating she was, and that she's really, yes, a basketball player, but really an entertainer. She's the high-wire act, and I think once you understand that, you can begin to understand the fascination that the nation has with her. Well, as a journalist, Christine, you've covered so much of the beginning of Caitlin's career here in college and now in the pros. And I do think we have to talk about what happened with you and the WNBA Player's Association last year, if you don't mind. The WNBPA called for your press credentials to be revoked after an interview with another one of the league stars, DiJonai Carrington. What happened here, Christine, and how do you look back on how the Player's Association dealt with all that? I do deal with it in the book, because I could not not deal with it, and I wanted to deal with it and tell the story, and also the backlash and what happened afterward. As I think many remember, in the first game of the playoffs, DiJonai Carrington was defending Caitlin Clark, and as Caitlin passed the ball, DiJonai's hand kind of swatted at the ball, and then her fingers ended up hitting Caitlin Clark in the eye. And over the next day or two, the Internet was going crazy. X and all the other social media accounts (had) accusatory tweets and posts about DiJonai Carrington. "She meant to hurt her, Caitlin Clark. What was she doing? Why did she do it? Her fingers …" Pictures galore, millions and millions of posts and reactions. And so as a journalist, there's one thing you do at that moment. You ask the athlete about it. And most athletes understand, and covering the NFL and others over the years, I've asked incredibly tough questions. The athletes understand that this is an opportunity for them to hit it out of the park, for them to answer the question and have their moment to tell their side of the story. And by the way, DiJonai Carrington did that. She answered the question. I basically said, "What were you doing there? Did you intend to hit Caitlin Clark in the eye or not?" Because that was the insinuation by thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of comments, that she was trying to injure Caitlin Clark. I asked, "Did you intend to do it or not?" I think female athletes are strong and tough, and can answer those questions, and DiJonai did. DiJonai Carrington answered it, saying of course she did not intend to injure Caitlin Clark, and then I followed up with another question specifically about other things that were on the internet. And while I don't base my entire career on Internet questions, so much of the WNBA season surrounding Caitlin Clark and all the issues did rise up, the foundation of so many of those was actually the internet. And so social media was a huge part of the conversation with the WNBA last year and Caitlin Clark and DiJonai Carrington, so you've got to ask the specific question and the follow-up to give them that chance to answer, and put it to bed and quiet all the criticism. That's exactly what I did with DiJonai Carrington. I would do it again a hundred times out of a hundred, and what really surprised me was how the WNBA, the players, were so unprepared for national scrutiny. As I said, again, are they saying that women can't handle these questions? I believe they can, and DiJonai Carrington showed us that she could, and answered it and tried to quiet the criticism. And that's what you do as a journalist every time. As I said, it was journalism 101, and it's also giving the respect to the WNBA and its players that I've given to the NFL, I've given to the Olympics. I would ask those same kinds of questions, probably much tougher. I asked Tiger Woods and many others over the years. So again, very surprising that the WNBA Player's Association wanted to ban a journalist for asking questions. And also, as a postscript, they failed miserably. I had credentials, USA TODAY credentialed me for Game 1 of the finals, and obviously that did not work, and it's a shame that they even went that far, but clearly journalism went out, at least in 2024. Well, bringing it back to Clark here, on her arrival to the league, we saw some eye-raising reactions from some WNBA veterans. This was a big part of the narrative early on. How do you view that moment after some time to digest, Christine, and was that a dynamic you wanted to explore in this book? You know, it was really surprising to me, and I did write a column for USA TODAY on Diana Taurasi's comments and Breanna Stewart's comments where they were minimizing, taking a shot at Caitlin Clark, not giving her her due. And this was at the women's final four, where again, Caitlin Clark was taking an Iowa team that no one expected to make to the finals. She was taking them to the finals, and that's where they had four million more viewers than the men the next night. And you've got some of these stars in the game that were kind of giving Caitlin Clark a quick kick to the shins, and what were they thinking there? Just throwing cold water on what is an incredible celebration of female athletes. Meanwhile, Diana Taurasi, as she is saying, "Reality's coming…" And of course now she's long since said, well, reality was coming for her, because she was so wrong about Caitlin Clark, and her coach Geno Auriemma was just absolutely wrong, talking about delusional fans and that Caitlin Clark didn't have the skill set to play in the WNBA. As I say in the book, I'm not sure that there's ever been a sports prediction more wrong than the one of Geno Auriemma, but as someone myself who mentors a lot of 22-year-olds, it just was stunning to me to see a revered at that time 41-year-old at acting in that manner towards a 22-year-old who loves her. And so you have Clark, the kid, going on and on for minutes, like a veteran, about the meaning of Taurasi, and you have Taurasi doing whatever the heck she was doing, embarrassing herself and the WNBA. And what was it? Were they shocked that a woman from Iowa could be the one, and not a woman from Connecticut? Which of course, UConn, amazing, now has 12 national titles. Breanna Stewart, also from UConn, literally was asked if Caitlin Clark, if she needed a NCAA title to be seen as one of the greats. Not the GOAT, not the greatest of all time, but one of the greats. Well, Taylor, you and I could come up with probably a hundred greats, right? The more the merrier. And Breanna Stewart literally looked at the interviewer and said, "Yes, yes, she does need a title to be considered one of the greats." That was one of the great put downs of Caitlin Clark ever, and it was just ridiculous. And the nation noticed, and I noticed. And of course Sheryl Swoopes, with her flurry of falsehoods, extraordinary. What was going on? And I tried to get them to talk to me for the book, and most did not want to speak and talk to me about it. But the pattern is clear and unmistakable of either the attempt to minimize Caitlin Clark, to be critical of her. And that spotlight shining on Caitlin Clark is, we've already seen, shining on all the players who deserve the attention, who never got it, but are now getting it. And you've got these veterans acting in an absolutely bizarre manner, and so I felt it was very important to tell that story, as sad as it is to see it. It was clearly what happened, and a big part of trying to understand why the league seemed so unprepared, and even so reluctant to accept, as I said, the greatest thing that ever happened to it. Christine, part of the book's title here is "The Revolution in Women's Sports." How important was the broader conversation around women's sports beyond Caitlin Clark, beyond just basketball, in writing this book? You know, for me, Taylor, it was huge, because this has been such a topic that I've covered and focused on in my work over, really, the length of my career. And being a girl athlete growing up at a time when Title IX was just starting, I had my own personal Title IX. I had my dad. So I was a six sport athlete in high school, at Ottawa Hills High School in the suburbs of Toledo, not because I was so great, but no one really cared about girls' sports, so you didn't have to specialize. And I literally ran from field hockey to tennis, and then winter was volleyball and basketball, and spring was softball and track and field. And I loved it. But my dad and my mom were just so supportive of me as a tall, 5-foot-11-1/2 girl. At a time when most girls were told, "No, you cannot play sports," my mom and dad were saying, "Yes, yes you can." From literally age 5 or 6. That's my background. And so to see what we have now, to see what these young women have now, it can almost bring tears to your eyes. And I've been asked a lot, "Does it make you sad that you didn't have that back then?" And my answer is, we didn't know what we didn't have. So I was playing sports and loving it, and wanting to be a sports journalist and going to Northwestern and on my way, but I've also then had such a … It's been so important to me to be an observer, reporter, try to chronicle this incredible rise in our country. I think Title IX might be the most important law in our country over the last 53 years. I realize there's a lot of competition for that title of most important law, but we're just beginning to see the breakthroughs with women who played sports, who are now running for Congress and winning in the Senate. We will have a woman president, many women presidents, throughout the '40s and '50s in this country, maybe the '30s. The common denominator for all those young women will be that they played sports because of Title IX, and learned how to not only win at a young age, but lose at a young age. Beautifully put there, Christine. I just want to end here with Caitlin Clark again. What will her legacy be? How will we be talking about Caitlin 10, 20, 50, a hundred years from now? I hope, Taylor, that we will be looking at her as the beginning of something incredible, and we'll be seeing crowds like the crowds in Indiana. And by the way, out in California with the Valkyries, they're having incredible sellouts as well in the WNBA, the expansion team. But every team will have capacity crowds, and will have secondary market prices going through the roof. And that all the little girls that Caitlin Clark is signing the autographs for? That all of them are going to grow up and probably be trying to hit logo threes, although coaches will be saying, "Hey, let's try for twos," as a whole generation are flinging it from half court because of Caitlin. But also because they have those autographs and the signed shirts and wearing the number 22, they'll also want to be great athletes, but also role models themselves. And that's the hope, that this is just the beginning. Again, we would have hoped it would have been Maya Moore. We would have hoped it would have been Sheryl Swoopes. All of the great players from the past, that they would have been the ones with the spotlight, and the millions of TV viewers and packed houses to the rafters in arenas around the country. But it wasn't. It's this woman. And yes, in a 74% Black league, a white woman, those are issues. I deal with all of them in the book as well. Absolutely. But this is the moment, and this is the time. And again, the spotlight, we see the examples, the all-star voting. What A'ja Wilson got two years ago? Not even a hundred thousand votes, and now she's, last year, well, well into the hundreds of thousands votes, because that rising tide lifts all boats. People are voting for Caitlin Clark for the all-star game, then they're also voting for other players, because they've seen them now, because they've watched them play and they respect them. And that's what we're seeing. So that is a huge sea change in our country. All those guys, their daughters, their granddaughters, what will it look like? I'm very bullish. I think it will be terrific, and we will be able to have those stepping stones from Billie Jean King, through the Atlanta Olympics in '96, the Women's Olympics, the '99 Women's World Cup Soccer, onward we would go. And with Caitlin Clark now, the arrival of Clark, of course Venus and Serena Williams and what they meant in tennis. But this is women's team sports, and this is remarkable, and we've never seen anything like this before on the team sports side. And that's why I think the future is so bright. I really enjoyed this book. "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports" is on shelves now. Christine, thank you so much for joining me. Oh, my pleasure, Taylor. Thank you.
USA Today
08-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Three things you missed about WNBA star Caitlin Clark in new book 'On Her Game'
Author Christine Brennan reveals details about Caitlin's Clark's rookie season in the WNBA, including her Olympic snub My book "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports," was published by Scribner on Tuesday. Much is being written and said about the book, but here are three stories in the book you might not have heard. Clark's real reaction to the Olympic snub During an interview session after the Indiana Fever practice on June 9, 2024, Caitlin Clark was asked about the Olympic team decision. "I'm excited for the girls that are on the team,' she said. "I know it's the most competitive team in the world, and I knew it could've gone either way — me being on the team, me not being on the team. I'm excited for them, I'm going to be rooting them on to win gold. "Honestly, no disappointment," she added. "I think it just gives you something to work for. It's a dream; hopefully one day I can be there. I think it's just a little more motivation, you remember that, and hopefully, when four years comes back around I can be there.' Fever coach Christie Sides said during her availability with the media that Sunday that she and Clark texted right after she got the call on the bus. "She texted me to let me know. I just tried to keep her spirits up. The thing she said was, 'Hey, Coach, they woke a monster,' which I thought was awesome.' Although Clark took the high road in her public comments, Sides said in an interview for this book that the Olympic decision was "such a disappointing moment for her. Being an Olympian is a huge dream of hers, and when she realized it wasn't going to happen, it just lit a fire under her." As the team landed in Indianapolis after a game in Washington earlier that evening and got off the plane late at night, Sides said she and Clark 'were walking and talking about the decision. She could have gone to practice that night, I mean, that's where she was, that's the competitor she is. She didn't really say much more after that.' Clark's 'big sister' As Clark's name was called first in the 2024 WNBA Draft, veteran Fever point guard Erica Wheeler exploded from her courtside seat in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Giddy with anticipation at the news she knew was coming, Wheeler had placed one hand on the knee of Lexie Hull and the other on the knee of Maya Caldwell, both Fever teammates at the time, and waited to hear Engelbert's words. Wheeler—known as 'EW' to her teammates—leaped for joy with Hull and Caldwell, then pulled a red Fever No. 22 jersey over her head and ran around the court as the fans stood and roared. 'Let's go!' Wheeler shouted to every corner of the arena. Her happiness was predictable, but also admirable, for as she danced, she knew she was celebrating the moment that she had lost her starting job. Clark was going to be the starting point guard for the Fever, guaranteed. Wheeler would be her backup, a difficult role, but one she understood, and even relished. "You know when you go to a different school,' said the 33-year-old Wheeler, 'the first day of school, you don't know anybody, and you find that one person that says hi to you that becomes your best friend.' Wheeler became that person for Clark. "For me as a big sister, I'm going to take the first step, to just let her know, 'We're here, we got you. Whatever you need from me as your vet, even in the same position, I got you.' . . . She's one of the biggest players in the world right now and she don't act like that. She's just like, 'Help me, in any way you can,' in a sweet way, there's no ego at all, she's not selfish. . . . She wants to learn, she wants to be a family, and I'm like a big sister to her.' 27 minutes — not one mention of Clark Throughout the WNBA post- and off-season, the league found itself curiously out of step with the nation's fondness for Clark. On Oct. 10, before Game One of the WNBA Finals in Brooklyn, commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke for 27 minutes in a press conference about the historic developments in the 2024 season and never once mentioned Clark's name. Calling the season "the most transformational year in the WNBA's history," Engelbert talked glowingly about the record or near-record levels of viewership, attendance, merchandise sales, and digital engagement. "You saw some teams upgrade . . . arenas for certain games this year, and I thought that was a sign and signal as attendance has grown across the league that we can play in bigger arenas. . . . We had our highest-attended game ever, over 20,000, in Washington this year.' Clark, of course, was the reason for most of those moves to larger arenas, and her presence definitely was the only reason Washington had the biggest crowd in WNBA regular-season history on Sept. 19. Engelbert sprinkled the names of various WNBA players throughout her press conference, among them: Napheesa Collier, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Leonie Fiebich, Aliyah Boston, and A'ja Wilson. But no Clark. Through her spokespeople, Engelbert was asked to be interviewed for this book several times in late 2024 and early 2025. Every request was declined. In March 2025, I asked again, specifically wondering why Engelbert, on Oct. 10, failed to mention Clark's name when referring to the unprecedented season highlights that happened because of Clark. On March 10, Engelbert replied in a text message sent through a spokesperson: "You're asking me why I didn't mention Caitlin Clark during my WNBA Finals press conference? I didn't mention any players in that press conference other than some of those from the Liberty and the Lynx who were participating in the Finals." Engelbert did mention two players who were not participating in the Finals: Aliyah Boston and A'ja Wilson. She talked about them when mentioning WNBA players in commercials: "There's virtually not a sporting event you can turn on where one of our players is not in an ad spot. That was not happening five years ago. Look at Aliyah Boston and Sabrina and A'ja and so many of our players in these ad spots." Engelbert's March 10 text continued: "I have stated many times that Caitlin is a generational talent and there is no denying her impact — not only in the WNBA but beyond the world of sports. We have also always stood by the belief that our league is not about any one player but about the collective talent, teamwork, and dedication of all the athletes who continue to elevate the game and inspire generations. Just because Caitlin's name is not mentioned in every interview or press conference does not mean we do not recognize, celebrate, and fully support her — both as an athlete and, even more importantly, as a person.' A week and a half before the WNBA Finals, Engelbert, in an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Jon Wertheim for a piece on Clark and the WNBA, was asked to describe "the Caitlin Clark phenomenon.' Engelbert replied, "She's clearly an unbelievable player, came in with an unbelievable following, has brought a lot of new fans to the league. If you look at our historic season around our attendance, our viewership, Caitlin — Angel, too, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink — this class of rookies, we will be talking about them a generation from now." Wertheim followed up. "I notice when you're asked about Caitlin a lot, you bring up other rookies as well." "No league's ever about one player," Engelbert replied. "That player could get hurt or whatever, so I think it's just to give recognition that in sports, people watch for compelling content and rivalries. And you can't do that alone as one person.' By practically any measure, Clark was that one person. Adapted from "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports" by Christine Brennan. Copyright © 2025 by Christine Brennan. Adapted for excerpt with permission from Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
New York Post
08-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Caitlin Clark book author dishes to The Post on what sets the Fever star apart
While Caitlin Clark became an instant household name during her collegiate career at Iowa, she has faced a great deal of scrutiny throughout her first two WNBA seasons. The entire world has seen a lot of Clark in the past few years, but Christine Brennan has been there firsthand for the Fever star's rise to superstardom. The award-winning USA Today columnist's new book, 'On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports,' highlights the star's ascent and her impact on the sporting landscape. Advertisement 6 Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) shoots the ball while New York Liberty guard Natasha Cloud (9) defends in the second half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images Whether it's cheap shots, criticism from her peers or controversial takes from sports media's biggest talking heads, Clark has faced it all over the past few years. 'Everything was thrown at her — everything — more than I think any other athlete has had to deal with,' Brennan told The Post. 'Questions, every topic, polarizing topics in our country, and she handled it all with grace and class. She always looks you in the eye when she answers a question. She doesn't get angry about a question.' Advertisement Athletes getting angry with questions is something Brennan is familiar with, as she was at the forefront of some drama after asking then-Connecticut Sun forward DiJonai Carrington if she had intentionally hit Clark in the eye while defending a pass and then laughing about it with teammate Marina Mabrey during a playoff game last season. She details the controversy in her book, and how Carrington and teammate DeWanna Bonner each took exception to the question and confronted Brennan about it. 6 USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan. Getty Images 'They wanted to ban me,' Brennan said of the WNBPA Players Association's call for her press credential to be revoked. 'I don't think the NFL would want to ban a journalist.' Advertisement But Clark's grace in handling strenuous coverage and scrutiny doesn't only set her apart from some WNBA stars. 'I covered Tiger Woods the length of his career, and he would mope and not like a question and not want to talk,' Brennan said. 'Caitlin Clark is the exact opposite. She is ready and willing to answer every question. She goes on with an answer and sometimes will go off on a tangent and then help you out with more information. She's terrific in that way.' 6 Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever reacts on the bench in the second quarter against the Las Vegas Aces. Getty Images During her rookie season last year, Clark was victim to a hard hip-check foul from then-Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Charter, a play which drew Carter's teammate Angel Reese out of her seat on the bench to applaud. Advertisement Less than two minutes later in real time, Clark was brought aside for a live on-court interview ahead of the fourth quarter. In the heat of the moment, Clark kept her poise. 6 Christine Brennan's book on Caitlin Clark. AP 'Yeah, that's just not a basketball play,' Clark said. 'But you know, gotta play through it. That's what basketball's about at this level.' Her handling of the situation impressed Brennan and left her thinking about what could have been in that situation. 'I say in the book how lucky the WNBA was at that moment that this woman would take the high road when a couple million people were watching,' Brennan said. 'She could've said anything. She could've done the equivalent of a cheap shot back to Chennedy Carter. She did none of that.' 6 Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever reacts after hitting a basket against the Atlanta Dream during the second quarter at State Farm Arena on May 22, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Getty Images Love her or hate her, it's evident Clark has changed women's sports forever. Advertisement Her meteoric rise got the whole world watching. Covering the league so closely, Brennan doesn't see Clark getting the credit she deserves. In the book, she notes an instance in which WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert talked for 27 minutes about the 'historic developments' in the league's 2024 season — without mentioning the Fever superstar a single time. 6 WNBA Commissionner Cathy Engelbert speaks during the 2025 WNBA Draft on April 14, 2025 at The Shed. NBAE via Getty Images Advertisement Upon asking specifically why Engelbert did not mention Clark at all in her news conference that took place during the WNBA Finals between the Liberty and Lynx, Engelbert responded, 'You're asking me why I didn't mention Caitlin Clark during my WNBA Finals press conference? I didn't mention any players in that press conference other than some of those from the Liberty and the Lynx who were participating in the Finals.' However, Engelbert did mention two non-Finals players, A'ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston. Brennan's hope is for the world to see further through her book how 'special' a talent —and person — Clark is. Advertisement 'February 2023, just watching [Clark] for fun, I was drawn to this magical player and this magical moment where she wins the game,' Brennan said. 'The feeling that I felt there was like I'm watching something really different and really special. … I never thought I'd live to see the day where there'd be people lined up for hours in the cold at Big Ten arenas waiting to get in to watch a woman play basketball. 'What is that? That's historic; that's magical; that's intriguing; that's fun. So, I hope people reading this book will come away with all of those feelings reliving the games in Iowa, reliving her first season with the Fever. Just feeling great about sports, feeling great about this player finding out about her behind the scenes that she is as good as you'd hope for.'
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Book Review: Christine Brennan's ‘On Her Game' explores the Caitlin Clark Effect on the WNBA
This cover image released by Scribner shows "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports" by Christine Brennan. (Scribner via AP) This cover image released by Scribner shows "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports" by Christine Brennan. (Scribner via AP) This cover image released by Scribner shows "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports" by Christine Brennan. (Scribner via AP) This cover image released by Scribner shows "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports" by Christine Brennan. (Scribner via AP) This cover image released by Scribner shows "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports" by Christine Brennan. (Scribner via AP) 'On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports,' the title of USA Today columnist Christine Brennan's new book about the WNBA star, is doing a lot of work. On one hand, it's about the game, right? Nobody can deny Caitlin Clark's talent on a basketball court, where her rookie season stats with the Indiana Fever were eye-popping: 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game while leading the WNBA in assists and 3-pointers made. On the other hand, why is Caitlin Clark the poster child for a 'Revolution in Women's Sports?' The WNBA's been around since 1997 and plenty of female athletes are or were the very best at what they do, inspiring millions of young women to play all sorts of sports — from Serena Williams to Simone Biles to Lindsey Vonn. Advertisement But there's something more to the Caitlin Clark phenomenon, and it's that something that Brennan's reporter instincts sensed early, when Clark was filling the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City for every home game, well before her remarkable first year in the WNBA. 'What was going on?' writes Brennan in her introduction. 'Was this because Clark is white and straight in a league that is 74% Black or mixed-race, with a sizable gay population?… Was it because of her eight-year $28 million Nike shoe deal?… Was it jealousy? Was it all of the above?' Hoping to find answers or at least insights into those questions, Brennan convinced her editor to let her cover six straight weeks of Clark's first WNBA season, giving 'On Her Game' a comprehensive feel, except for one thing: Clark never sat down for a one-on-one interview with Brennan. She did, however, answer every question Brennan posed at press conferences, and they are widely quoted throughout the book, along with all sorts of other Clark content like TV appearances and social media posts as well as interviews Brennan conducted with other WNBA players, coaches and various experts. Brennan's presence at Fever games, home and away, and her intense focus on Clark as a singular story became a story of its own in September 2024, when Brennan asked follow-up questions of DiJonai Carrington, a Phoenix Sun player whose fingers made contact with Clark's eye during a playoff game. Brennan asked Carrington if there was anything intentional about it, she said no, and days later the WNBA Players Association called for Brennan's media credential to be revoked for 'unprofessionalism.' Ten months later, it's a good bet only the most diehard sports journalism fans will care about that controversy. Brennan makes it very clear how she feels about it. 'I was doing my job,' she writes. Advertisement Clark's race and the frosty reception she got from some in the league is returned to again and again, with Brennan and the people she talked to asserting with incredulity that the WNBA wasn't ready for all the attention. 'The league needed to do a better job in preparing… to take advantage of the tsunami of popularity that is raising all of the boats,' legendary civil rights activist Dr. Harry Edwards told Brennan. Instead, Brennan cites example after example — from WNBA legends like Diana Taurasi and Sheryl Swoopes, to fellow female athletes like former USWNT goalie Breanna Stewart — who made statements minimizing Clark's impact. It all makes for an interesting read and speaks to the divisive 'us vs. them' moment the world finds itself in, but fans looking for tidbits about Clark that are not already part of the public record — how she learned to shoot like that, her on- and off-court life — will have to stay tuned to the current WNBA season. Clark's Fever team is in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, with their superstar having missed several games with a quadriceps injury. The playoffs begin Sept. 14. ___ AP book reviews:
Indianapolis Star
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
WNBA was totally unprepared for Caitlin Clark: 'That's unfortunate but that's what happened'
INDIANAPOLIS -- The day after Caitlin Clark declared for the 2024 WNBA draft, USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan made a phone call to a top official in the league. "Do you know how big this is?" Brennan asked. That official said Clark's arrival was the biggest thing to happen to the WNBA since Maya Moore came into the league. What? Wait. What? Brennan was shocked. Moore, a Hall of Famer, was called the "greatest winner in the history of women's basketball" by Sports Illustrated in 2017. She was a talented, beloved superstar in the league, and she deserved all the attention. But outside the league, Moore went virtually unnoticed. Clark? She was going to capture the attention of an entire nation. Brennan had been covering Clark and the WNBA for years, and she could see it coming. This official clearly had no idea. "That interaction tells you everything about the utter lack of preparation, or even understanding, by the league of what was coming," said Brennan, whose book "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports," comes out July 8. "And that's unfortunate. But that's what happened." Clark's entrance to pro women's basketball would be nothing like Moore's. Clark would be bigger, more monumental, more earth shattering and game changing than anything that had happened in modern day women's sports. The so-called Clark Effect would be monstrous, potent, and it would be real. "How did the WNBA not see this coming?" said Brennan. "One of the reasons for having so badly mismanaged Caitlin Clark's arrival in the WNBA is because, did they truly not believe this could happen to the WNBA? Were they so relegated to second class citizenship by the male-dominated mainstream sports media that they just never believed this would be possible?" The league would quickly see that this Clark phenomenon was very possible. Re-live Caitlin Clark's spectacular rookie season with our collector's book It was May 9, 2024, in downtown Indianapolis, the first preseason game for the Indiana Fever with Clark debuting as a rookie in the league. As fans descended on Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Clark had traffic backed up on Alabama Street for more than three blocks heading south into the parking garage across from the fieldhouse. It was 6 p.m. on a Thursday and a crew of workers directing cars had their jobs cut out for them. Tony Dunkin was used to crowds jamming up the lane he works on Level 1 of the garage for the Pacers and other events, but he had never seen anything like this for a Fever game and definitely not for a preseason WNBA game. The cars were packed in, maneuvering around orange cones, clamoring to get their vehicles into a parking spot so they could get themselves into a seat. "This is what a Pacers game usually does," Dunkin said, "not the Fever. I call it the Caitlin effect." Security staff working at a Delaware Street entrance into the fieldhouse for Clark's first preseason game with the Fever were shocked. There were fans waiting outside two hours before the doors opened to pour into the arena. Waiting for a preseason WNBA game. In 2023, the year before, the Fever averaged 4,067 fans a game. "14,000 of them tonight," said Beverly Franklin. "Now, if they can just have a crowd like this for every game, that would be awesome." Clark said the same thing just a few hours later, after she stuffed the stat sheet as the Fever beat the Atlanta Dream 83-80 in the team's only preseason home game. She said the same thing to the crowd of 14,000, who had roared with every mention of her name during the game and rose to their feet with every shot she took. "You all were amazing. Thanks for coming out for a preseason game," Clark said as she was interviewed on court after racking up 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists. "I hope you'll keep coming back." Coming back. They did. The Clark Effect would reverberate throughout the league, an effect that a season and a half later has turned, to put it mildly, complicated. Brennan says it didn't have to be complicated, if only the league had taken some initiative to prepare other players in the WNBA for what was coming with Clark. "The league failed the players," Dr. Harry Edwards, an American sociologist and civil rights activist, says in the book. "The WNBA not only missed an opportunity to prepare players for this moment, they set the traps along the path that the league was going to travel." Edwards told Brennan the WNBA needed to understand and prepare for the "disappointment and anger" some Black players, in particular, would be experiencing due to Clark's ballyhooed arrival. "This was predictable," he said. "It's human nature for people not to be happy for you when you're new and successful, especially if it's in an arena where they have toiled all their lives and not come close to the kind of reward or applause that (Clark) is receiving." Through the years, before Clark ever laid a hand on a ball on a pro basketball court, the WNBA has stood for equality, often being described, according to Brennan, as "a Black, gay league." The most recent statistics reveal that 63.8% of WNBA players are Black, while 19.1% are white, according to a 2023 report on the WNBA by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. While that study didn't include sexual identity, "a substantial portion of the league identifies as LGBTQ+," writes Brennan. The league "often has been under attack because a third of the players in the WNBA are identified as being part of the LGBTQ+ community," commentator and writer Jemele Hill said at the 2024 Association for Women in Sports Media conference. "And into this world landed Caitlin Clark, a white, straight, 22-year-old woman who had not played a second in the WNBA," Brennan writes, "but already was a national phenomenon and about to become the face of the league." Clark is a player who can be a bit of a hothead. She has racked up her own share of technical fouls and is not a player to back down, clapping in the faces of opponents and sometimes having to be calmed down on the bench. She is also a player who has endured an endless surge of rough play and technicals committed against her. As that has played out in the WNBA since Clark arrived, there have been racial undertones that cannot be denied when it comes to the coverage and the treatment Clark has received, Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sports media in the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in New York, told IndyStar in September "Research has shown that A'ja Wilson, one of the best WNBA players in history and she's getting half the coverage of Sabrina Ionescu," said Staurowsky. "There's no doubt and there's no question that there is a racial dynamic in all of this. And that cannot be discounted." There is a very concrete way the league could have prepared players for what was to come, said Edwards, who has counseled players and leagues for decades. The WNBA should have established "a series of seminars" in the preseason for every team in the league, he says in the book. "There are people out there who could have gone in and given those talks to each franchise," says Edwards, "experts and specialists from a sports sociological perspective with the understanding and grasp of the situation." They could have told each team, Edwards says, "Hey, we have Caitlin Clark coming in and the media has grabbed ahold of this, the public has grabbed ahold of this, but let me tell you something, you sitting right here in this room, you set the stage for this." Brianna Scurry, the first Black superstar in women's soccer and the goalkeeper for the 1999 U.S. women's soccer team, readily endorses Edwards' idea for having programming to prepare the players for this unprecedented time. "That would've been absolutely brilliant to have something like that even if the players didn't themselves want to see things holistically, they would have at least been able to see someone talking about it and saying, 'OK, I may be angry about all this and feeling like we've been here this whole time, however I can find this silver lining in here," Scurry says in the book. "But because the WNBA, unfortunately, didn't do that the players didn't even understand how big that tsunami was that was coming for them in a good way, and they were just woefully unprepared for it." Brennan wants to make clear that when she says the players needed to be prepared for the moment "it's not because these players, Black and white, the veteran players, Black and white, it's not because they're damsels in distress. No, of course not," she says. "They're strong athletes, most of them have college degrees. They are wonderful, accomplished young women. But nothing like this has ever happened before in the WNBA," Brennan said. "And frankly, you can make a strong case, nothing quite like this has ever happened, not only in women's team sports, but in all of team sports, men and women, where one league is lifted up to this extent by one person." In December, IndyStar reached out to Dr. Ryan Brewer, a renowned valuation guru in the field of finance, asking him to put a price tag on Caitlin Clark -- what she meant financially to the WNBA, her city and the country in her rookie season with the Fever. The numbers were so shocking that Brewer was sure he must have made some mistake. He ran the numbers again. Then again. And every single time, he got the same result. "The numbers are so staggering," said Brewer, associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus. "They don't even seem real." By Brewer's calculation, Clark was responsible for 26.5% of the WNBA's leaguewide activity for the 2024 season, including attendance, merchandise sales and television. One of every six tickets sold at a WNBA arena could be attributed to Clark. Total TV viewership due to Clark was up 300% and 45% of total broadcast value came from Fever games. The league's merchandise sales catapulted 500%, with Clark ranking No. 1 followed by the Chicago Sky's Angel Reese, another rookie. The Fever's regular-season game attendance averaged more than 17,000 fans, the first time a WNBA team has drawn more than 300,000 fans in a season. Clark's regular-season games were watched by 1.2 million viewers on average, which was 199% more than non-Clark WNBA games. But, perhaps, the most astonishing number of all is Clark's economic impact on the city of Indianapolis, which Brewer says is upwards of $36 million. "Now, let's take a breath for a minute and think about this," Brewer told IndyStar in December. "That's for one year. We're talking about one player." What all those numbers mean, he said, is that the entire league is benefitting from the arrival of Clark. "Caitlin Clark's presence, while polarizing for some people, is really a watershed moment for the league, and I just hope that all these amazing Black players are taking full advantage of the fact that the spotlight is on what they're doing now," Scurry says in the book. "I understand there's a lot of frustration and there's some anger because the league has been around for 27 years before she came. "But my goodness, it's having this moment right now. And please, please, please as players in the league, do not let this opportunity pass you by to get yours." Unfortunately, the disconnect between Clark and other players in the league was highlighted this week when Clark was voted as the ninth-best guard in the WNBA by fellow players, said Brennan. "Here we are again. Because Caitlin was ranked first in fan voting overall," Brennan said. "That's a disconnect that is going to be problematic for the WNBA and its economics and its financial future moving forward. That's just a fact. It's such a disconnect between what the fans think and what the players think, that is a problem for the WNBA that should be addressed." With the league's collective bargaining agreement open, "Clark is the most important person to them. This is the conundrum, right?" Brennan says. "Because they need her desperately in order to get more money because she is the economic rocket ship that's going to get them more money. I've never seen anything quite like this, and it's just absolutely fascinating." Brennan, who covered Title IX, has had a front row seat to the controversy, the fights for equality and the upward rise of women sports, including the explosion of the WNBA with Clark at the center. "And I never thought I would see this in my lifetime," Brennan says. "So to be able to chronicle it (in this book) I hope people enjoy the magic of Caitlin Clark and also enjoy the reporting on so many issues that are so important surrounding Caitlin Clark. "I hope as a journalist, I've captured this moment, this time, this athlete. This is a remarkable moment in women's sports, in sports overall, and in our culture. Caitlin Clark isn't just one of the country's most popular athletes, she's one of the country's most popular people. She is that big. And it's an honor to write this."
