Caitlin Clark just became the first player in WNBA history to record 30 points and 10 assists in back-to-back games — and the same press corps breathlessly covering her every shot won't lift a finger to defend the women's category she competes in.
Clark is the most electrifying story in women's basketball, maybe ever. But the media complex that uses her to sell the women's game won't acknowledge the biological reality that underpins it: women's sports exist as a protected category, and that category is under assault from policies allowing men to compete against women.
On Friday, Clark and teammate Kelsey Mitchell each dropped 34 points on the Connecticut Sun in a 111-91 blowout — the fourth time the duo has each scored 30+ in a game, extending their lead over A'ja Wilson and Jackie Young, according to Essentially Sports. Clark's 11th career 30-point game broke her tie with Tamika Catchings. Her sixth game with 30+ points and 10+ assists puts her two ahead of every other player in league history combined, despite being in just her third season.
Head coach Stephanie White told reporters Clark's dominance is being taken for granted: "You watch her, and I think it's easy to take for granted some of the things she does. … I think that's why players are great. They make the complex things look really simple."
What the press won't say is simple: if women's sports don't protect the women's category, there won't be a category for Clark to dominate. Sports Illustrated framed Clark's upcoming FIBA World Cup participation as an unalloyed honor — "representing Team USA is an honor, so it's not like Clark or Boston would ever turn that opportunity down" — while ignoring that international federations have been ground zero for the debate over men in women's sports. Essentially Sports acknowledged "non-basketball noise" around Clark but buried what that noise actually involves, pointing only to a social media altercation between Natasha Cloud and Enes Kanter.
Clark herself, per the Fever's YouTube account, joked that she'd rather play in the World Cup than practice during the break: "When you play on Team USA, nobody's playing 35 minutes. So it will be good for me to continue to play basketball over the break … I think for myself, I would rather actually play in games compared to the [Fever teammates] that have to stay here and do practice."
The woman can play. The question is whether the institutions profiting off her talent will defend her right to compete against women — or whether celebrating women's sports is just a branding exercise until the gender activists show up.
