Friday morning, as I watched Tiger Woods complete his rain-delayed first round of the Masters golf tournament, it dawned on me that I will be watching the WNBA this summer.
What does the greatest golfer of my generation have to do with women’s basketball? Nothing, really.
Clark’s fame might be fleeting. I’m going to enjoy it while I can and bounce the moment she’s pictured kneeling in solidarity with Megan Rapinoe.
But my 27-year fascination with Tiger on a golf course is a pretty solid indication that I won’t easily shake my fascination with Caitlin Clark. Sports fans are suckers for history. We want to witness it. We want to be a part of it. We want to tell younger generations what we saw. It makes us feel important.
I knew Tiger Woods had no real chance of being competitive at this year’s Masters. He’s been too injured and too inactive. Plus, at age 48, he’s too old. ESPN hooked me into watching because I wanted to see Tiger make a tiny bit of history. He was vying to make his 24th consecutive cut at Augusta National Golf Course. He shared the previous record of 23 with Fred Couples and Gary Player.
Woods made the cut, adding another piece of history to one of the most compelling narratives in sports.
This weekend, as I continued to watch Tiger and the Masters, I kept asking myself why I am entertained by golf. Why? It’s arguably the most boring sport known to man. It’s hard to see the ball. Other than Charles Barkley’s, no one’s golf swing looks that much different from anyone else’s.
Is golf more exciting than women’s basketball? No, it’s not.
What Caitlin Clark will do on a WNBA court will be 10 times more challenging and interesting than Tiger Woods walking a golf course and swinging a club once every three or four minutes.
My admiration for Tiger grew from a conviction that he would make history, and I wanted to witness it. I wanted to see him shake up the golf establishment, and I wanted to analyze his impact.
The same is true for Caitlin Clark. She has a chance to be the greatest women’s basketball player of all time. The WNBA establishment — a group of mostly angry lesbians — hates Clark. They want to see her fail. I want to see her succeed.
I’m going to watch Monday night’s WNBA draft. I’m looking forward to it far more than the NBA draft.
Clark is the greatest force in sports. A woman has never been America’s most interesting athlete. Serena Williams was close, I guess. But she was so much more physically gifted than her peers, her dominance of tennis didn’t seem nearly as unlikely as a white girl from Iowa dominating basketball. Plus, for the most part, everyone celebrated Serena’s rise. She faced no real resistance from her peers. The media exaggerated the resistance to Serena. The media acted like boos at Indian Hills scarred Williams for life. Athletes have been getting booed by fans from the moment leagues invited paying spectators.
No. Caitlin Clark is one of one. She’s the biggest draw in sports because of the thin line between love and hate. Many of her peers hate her out of sheer jealousy. Many in corporate media hate her because of their racial idolatry. And a good percentage of fans don’t like her for the same reason as corporate media.
Clark is a true trailblazer.
This weekend, she showed up on “Saturday Night Live.” She visited the news desk and exchanged jokes with Michael Che. Her appearance was celebrated across social media. But it also raised a caution flag for me.
Her perch atop the sports landscape will diminish the minute she adopts the behaviors of her WNBA peers. The reason Tiger Woods still captivates is that he’s still very different from his PGA Tour peers and most other black athletes.
Like Michael Jordan before him, Tiger has pretty much stayed out of politics. He’s never bent his knees to the Black Lives Matter fad. He’s never acted like his life depends on casting a vote.
At the end of her appearance on “SNL,” Clark rambled on about Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Dawn Staley, Lisa Leslie, Maya Moore, and the WNBA legends to whom she owes a debt. She only named black WNBA players. Maybe all her hoops heroes were black women? It’s a possibility. Or maybe she was pandering.
The WNBA is as woke a sports league as there is on the planet. Clark is going to be under immense pressure to co-sign whatever bogus narrative the WNBA promotes in support of the Democratic Party and the BLM-LGBTQ Alphabet Mafia. She’ll be asked to pretend that WNBA players are underpaid because of systemic sexism.
Will Clark fold and become the typical, angry feminist athlete?
She wore a Nike jacket on “Saturday Night Live.” That’s our first clue. Clark’s fame might be fleeting. I’m going to enjoy it while I can and bounce the moment she’s pictured kneeling in solidarity with Megan Rapinoe.
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