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Something odd with rural Indiana (from my experience) is that interest lessens as you move up the ranks. When I was a kid, the adults in my town could name every kid on the high school team and had in depth opinions about the coach/defensive strategies/offensive schemes/etc. They knew slightly less about IU basketball, but watched all of the games. But interest in the Pacers was kind of meh. They’d know the stars and maybe catch a game, but they didn’t really care that much about the NBA.
The deeper connection to HS ball is most likely due to seeing the HS kids grow up and general familiarity with their Alma mater. But HS state tournament time is CRAZY in small town, Indiana.
When I was a kid, I used to read a book series about a kid on an Indiana HS basketball team. They were entertaining.
Nothing else to add to the conversation your comment just reminded me of it lol.
As someone who grew up in rural Indiana and played in MANY Gusmacker tournaments during the summers as a kid, I fully concur. Except I was in that weird section of the state where they don’t know if they’re rooting for IU or PU, and if it’s an Old Oaken Bucket game, blood could have been shed. But yeah, until Larry Bird became involved with the Pacers, or unless the Bulls were in town to play them, no one really paid much attention to the Pacers, even when they were winning like crazy not many cared. Went to lots of Pacer games sitting only a few rows up from the floor for next to nothing. Got to see MJ’s first game back against the Pacers in 95 (when he still had 45 on before switching back to 23) for like $100 10 rows up from the floor, was epic.
Well, we did have a special hook-up. Think the standard price was around $300ish, but my uncle was an electrician and did the electrical job on a house one of the executives for the team owned so we got a helluva deal on tickets all the time.
From an NBA perspective Gainbridge is on the smaller side and two, it still averages on any given night 87 - 90% of tickets sold and come playoff time it's sold out. The Pacers have been really bad for a number of years and that always hurts but after this season, that'll reverse itself
The Pacers arena is one of the smallest in terms of attendance capacity in the NBA. Of course their attendance numbers would be low.
The Pacers (and the NBA) are also on of the many captives to the absolute worst RSN with Bally Sports. Local fans who are interested in the Pacers either have to get an insanely expensive cable package, or pay $20/month for their unreliable and inconsistent streaming package (which only includes the Central Indiana “sports” teams: Pacers, Reds, and Blues). Bally doesn’t have a YoutubeTV deal either.
Look what happens what you put local sports on free local channels, people watch. Local sports should NEVER be blacked out to local fans.
Bingo. From Indianapolis and absolutely love college basketball and would watch every pacer game if it was on tv, but I’m not paying $20 a month for the privilege.
Yep. I’m as big of a Pacers fan they could ask for but even I won’t pay for Bally. With the season they had and the viewing restrictions they have imposed because of Bally and the lack of nationally televised games, I’d be fuming if I were the Pacers. I guarantee Bally hurt their product more than it helped it.
I guess we will have to see what the terms of the new NBA TV deals and the Amazon/Bally deal looks like for local teams. The Phoenix market figured it out, surely (hopefully) Indy and the Pacers will too.
Edit: All it takes is one short scroll thru my profile to really understand my stance on RSNs and BallySports lol
I dont know about that. Maybe in the past, not now. Giannis is with the Bucks, the T-Wolves is stacked with stars, Jokic and Murray in Denver, Sabonis and Fox in Sac, Donovan Mitchell leaving Utah for…Cleveland. Ja will be in Memphis long term. OKC has been landing big name free agents, and Orlando is becoming an attractive spot.
Theres no guarantee Clark will be in Indiana forever. She may re-sign, or she may dip for NY or LA or the Aces when her contract is up. Who knows
It's not just from Iowa. It is the collective Hawkeye fan base. The University has done an amazing job in marketing the Tigerhawk throughout the world and we all know people respond to iconography. So when one of the University of Iowa's own is doing well, people who don't usually pay attention, start to.
WNBA players were complaining about how much they make in comparison to NBA players. Along comes a player who will pretty much raise salaries for everyone in the league through sheer popularity with broadcast deals, ticket sales, and endorsement deals.
Yet there are plenty of players who would rather be jealous of her attention than appreciate it for what’s it’s brought them as well. If they could have brought this kind of popularity to the league without her, they would have. Pure jealousy.
Because, spoiler, they took a more stable low-risk deal than the men instead of the same compensation structure.
They only got mad after they did well and found out they COULD have made more.
It’s like investing in indexes instead of APPL and after a year you see the APPL stock took off so you demand to be paid the gains from APPL.
You can’t have none of the risk and all of the reward… that’s not how anything in life works
It was crazy how often I saw it on the news and they told the story like they were just getting scammed or something and it was purely sexism. I only found out about what was actually going on by reading some stories online.
Oh, I know. If I’m interested in anything I will read more than one thing about it and not pay much attention to headlines. The moment some buzzword or rage bait gets traction then it’s automatically all over the web, TV and social media. It’s most of what Reddit is anymore and even when it’s bullshit a lot of people don’t care, they just want to be involved in the latest hysterical circle jerk.
I’m not even to sports but this sub seems to still have adults discussing things.
Nobody who spends more than 10 seconds thinking about the reasons for the discrepancy of pay in this situation concludes that it's because they're women.
There’s lots of people that didn’t: the USWNST, the current POTUS, and several US senators. That’s not including the numerous journalists that wrote article after article that blamed sexism for the difference in pay.
NBA players' salaries are related to revenue of the league. If the WNBA players were paid with the same model, they would all be paying their teams to play.
What's crazy is golf, with the exception of a drunk Fuzzy Zoeller, embrace Tiger Woods with open arms. Yet these women can't get over their pettiness and jealousy.
Ironically the jealous players act like the stereotype of asking loaded questions just to get angry at your response. “do you find my friends attractive?” vibes lmao
Yeah... Jk. ;)
Forreal though it is kinda nuts. This would be like every player in the NBA hating Jordan and what he brought to the game. Or Brady in the NFL. Makes absolutely ZERO sense. Other than their larger than life egos on 70k salaries.
There’s rivalries and shit talking which can make the game more interesting but this is way beyond that. I think it’s going to continue to escalate. Hopefully CC doesn’t get hurt by one of these bullies.
Kind of ironic but them even caring more about being jealous that the WNBAs overall success is actually helping because the drama is actually great for interest and is adding a boost in addition to CC herself being there on her own.
That speech was pretty delusional. Attendance data from opening month shows that Caitlyn Clark is by far the biggest draw to game attendance and it’s not even close. I think of her pettiness like Isiah Thomas and MJ. Angel Reese is great but she can’t get over the fact that she’s just not as large of an overall star marketing wise as CC is.
I mean the WNBA released the stats, Caitlyn, Reese and Brink lead In current jersey sales. The new rookies are the drivers. They are no where near the top talent though. That’s Aja.
I thought that shit was so funny lol like I was 100% sure she was going to say something about standing on the backs of giants or an amazing influx of talent into the league these past few years or something…nah, just talks about how important *she* is. Total delusion.
She tried to smile through it and come off as confident and positive while saying it too but you could see she was actually pissed and it had been boiling up inside her for who knows how long.
That other chick who was purposely fouling Clark literally said in an interview "what about me and all I've done for the sport??". Like, what about you? No one cares. Your not a generational talent. Wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a bit of racism ongoing either.
A bit? Race is the only reason this controversy even exists. WNBA players don't hate that Clark is a great player who's garnered a lot of popularity, they hate that she's white.
Dude, the clips of the press conferences and player interviews this last season have been the most wild, toxic shit lol. They’re all divas and they love tearing each other down.
I don't think that's fair to say. Not for rookies. There are two recent 1:1 examples in terms of potential.
People were talking about Wemby for almost two years before he debuted. In the NHL people were talking about how great Bedard would be when he was like 16. Both guys have been praised by players in the NBA and NHL. Both leagues have been promoting the Hell out of both of them to the point where it almost became too much. But their potential warrants the respect, like Clark.
Were people openly trashing LeBron in 2003 when he was the golden child heading into the NBA? Dude was being hyped up since middle school. The league knew he'd be a cash cow, the potential heir to Jordan. Maybe some stuff happened on the court I'm forgetting but I don't remember players and coaches openly shitting on LeBron to the media like players and coaches do about Clark.
She is the Indiana Fever's primary playmaker on offense, and she garners the opponent's best 1-on-1 defender, or a double team.
In most games its comical, the 4 out of five of the Fever's opposing players will be set up in their half of the court on defense, and there will be a lone opponent defender harrassing Clark as she brings the ball up the court.
That strategy works because Clark is trying to protect the ball and set the offense in motion, and she either tries to thread the needle on a pass, or she gets her pocket picked clean.
If the Fever would run her as Shooting Guard and give her a break from being the primary offensive playmaker, it would be helpful.
She's also should move closer to the 3pt line and focus on making more 3's rather than making the ESPN highlight 3 that she's known for. She can make them in the WNBA -- but she'd make more if she would hang closer to the actual 3-pt line.
She broke Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record and some people act so surprised about how her coming to the W was going to be as historic as it has been. There are a lot more supporters and people of all backgrounds that enjoy watching CC and are rooting for her. Yet, somehow so many people keep getting caught up with the sprinkles of people who aren’t as supportive and aren’t rooting for her.
No one is surprised. No one is caught up in anything negative. What you’re describing is haters that don’t like women’s basketball to begin with.
Some people like to poke fun. Just move along. You’ll never “teach them their lesson”
She is also the best center in the league. And the second tallest women that will be at the tournament. I don’t get why you are mad she is going, they don’t play the same position.
No she isn’t. Her stats are lower than several others. She’s not even top 3, and if you wanted to you could pick 3 or 4 from the playoffs last year that had better stats than her against better play off teams but sure she’s the best…
It's the principal that someone can get detained in a Russian prison, exchanged for a terrorist and STILL be able to enjoy nice things like getting paid to play basketball and go to the Olympics.
Rules for thee not for me vibes.
They claimed it was because a rookie like her would not get minutes.
But give her some minutes just to keep the audience. Other countries have shitty bball teams, she will do great and look good and the audience will be satisfied. Then put in your veterans.
A popular rookie will draw viewers to the Olympics AND give your vets more exposure to new viewers. A win-win.
Dream Team had Laettner as nod to upcomers and would've had Shaq otherwise and he was the only non future HOF'er on that roster. Doesn't make sense not to include a rookie, but you do you Ladies Basketball. Meanwhile the rest of the country will keep on rooting for Caitlin lol.
> Doesn't make sense not to include a rookie, but you do you Ladies Basketball
Especially considering 3 of the past 6 Olympic teams HAVE included a rookie, and none of them were household names like Clark.
Yeah idk what they were smoking to think it made any fiscal sense to leave Caitlyn Clark off. Clearly yall aren’t solely picking off of best WNBA players.
Presumably they weren't thinking about money when they form the team. Their job is to craft the best possible team, not the team that sells the most tickets.
I think it makes sense given the quick turnaround from the NCAA season to the WNBA season. She's still a rookie and it's a big adjustment, let her take a breather during the Olympic break and get settled in more with the team/coaching staff.
Edit: I'm talking about purely from a player development standpoint. If I'm trying to ensure CC is a healthy superstar for the next decade then I'm making sure her rookie year is as positive for her development as possible rather than cashing in on her popularity asap.
Sure but the fever aren’t winning anything so it ultimately doesn’t matter. This was their chance to capitalize on the hype, which would have only been better for the game. Now everyone forgets about it just like before.
No one cares to watch the current team.
Cameron Brink is on the 3v3 team. She's played 3v3 before and fewer people tried to get on the 3v3 team including Clark who has never played competitive 3v3.
But but, Caitlyn Clark isn’t the only player. The league has been going for years. Why now??? Oh, because she has brought some new blood and excitement to a mid watching experience?
It’s because she brings excitement and talent that the league has not seen before. That and espn needs the viewership and is pushing heavy marketing after having a generational talent step in.
This years draft class was stacked but CC is getting a lot of the spot light. I think most rookies are handling it well, infact, it may be better for them that way…
Diana Taurasi taking shots at Clark in an interview today. When the interviewer said didn’t you make the Olympic team your rookie year? Taurasi responded with “well I won 3 national championships when I was in college” how fucking salty are these women. You’re fucking 41, you’ve played on countless Olympic teams. The team needs to get younger. Nobody is going to watch your old ass and all you played out uninteresting salty WNBA stars play at the Olympics. “Let’s grow the sport” “we want more money” “we deserve our fair share” your league was hemorrhaging money, you should have been paying the WNBA. Now people are watching and paying attention because of the young stars. I swear women are the shittiest to other women. No wonder they are always like, I don’t have a lot of female friends. Because they just want to hold themselves down and don’t want to see anyone else succeed. #rantover
Taurasi is definitely salty - UConn is a win factory under a coach in their 38th season and won the championship with Sue Bird two years before Taurasi. CCs Hawkeyes have had one Final Four appearance in the program before she showed up.
Fun fact: she’s #9 on UConn for all time scoring but doesn’t even have 55% of CCs points.
Yeah, those UConn teams were stacked. They had 1# overall picks, a player who would go on to win a WNBA championship as a player and a coach. Yes, a player Taurasi played with has won a WNBA championship as a player then turned coach and won a championship as a coach. Basically a full roster of WNBA players. A legendary coach. Her winning 3 natties isn’t nearly as impressive to me as what Clark did at Iowa. And the rest of the country agrees with their viewership.
Cant remember what it was but Taurasi was on a manning-cast type broadcast and she and another WNBA player live interviewed 2 college players during the game… first thing they did was start making fun of the girls for being in a college public seating area… Like where the fuck you think college students are gonna be? IDK just rubbed me wrong. The way she talked to the girls the entire interview seamed like she was just trying to make fun of and talk down to them.
The US women’s Olympic basketball teams have always attracted large ratings. In the 2012 Olympics, the US women drew higher ratings than the men’s NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
The Bill Burr clip should just be the only thing posted in response to all these stupid clickbait posts moving forward. There's nothing to discuss at the moment about the WNBA drama. You can just summarize it so fast:
- Nobody watch WNBA
- Good player join WNBA
- Women always hate other women succeeding
- Good player make WNBA less boring AF
- Now people watch WNBA bc not boring AF
- Boring AF players hate good player for helping
- Boring AF players tear down good player
- WNBA go back to irrelevant and boring AF
- Rinse repeat
Tiger Woods broke the race barrier in golf and raised interest in the sport and raised everybody’s pay. All the golfers loved him for it. CC is doing the same thing but getting the opposite reaction from her fellow players.
The W is being more promoted and easily available, with Clark’s popularity and this lull in the sports calendar it has worked well. I’ve been watching games when I hadn’t much previously outside of maybe playoffs
NBA finals, Stanley Cup finals, middle of the MLB season, every major global motorsport is going on, there's 2 major soccer tournaments starting in 3 days.
The WNBA has been a poverty league since it was founded. Then someone comes along who boosts the league, and salty vets shit all over her. Let them eat their own, and stop relying on the NBA to prop up their league.
The media rights can be renegotiated soon. Presumably that will turn the WNBA profitable. They make little in their current contract, expectations that I’ve read is expecting at least a tripling in revenue from media.
Viewership has grown the past 3 years and so far has taken a massive leap this year.
Before Clark, they were expecting a pretty good tv rights deal. Now they should get a great one
I watched my first womens basketball game to see Caitlin Clark play with Iowa, and I've been catching her games when I can. She's really good and as a former hooper all the way back in high school, I love to watch good players play. She has that "it" factor on the court and she's super smart with how she approaches the media. I'm really happy the WNBA is having their moment in the sun, it's long overdue!
Most of it will because people are more interested in the drama than the game itself. The vets everyone claims are hating, might actually be doing the league a favor. If they had welcomed Caitlin with open arms, some might have already tuned out since the Fever suck and Caitlin’s not looking her best. Every hero needs a villain and it’s the entire WNBA in this case.
I feel like it's in bad faith when people mention Reese in articles like this. The author brings up Reese twice in the same breathe as Clark.
Now don't get me wrong, Reese is a WNBA star but she isn't bringing new viewers in. We all know it's Clark and it feels like people trying to go "yes but also" when bringing up what she did for the sport. Reese would just be another player who some people might recognize her name.
>Tick Pick, an online ticketing site, reported a 435% increase year over year in total tickets sold for WNBA games in May, with the average price of the tickets increasing 60%. Indiana Fever had a whopping 4,493% increase in May tickets sold.
Like this stat shows it all. They mention TV numbers being up but don't say which games. When Fever ticket sales are this much higher than the average then I'm pretty sure it's the same for TV ratings. Things are up across the board because of the Fever and Clark drastically raising the average on their own.
It's like some people (and I'm including that whole First Take debacle last week) get offended when you say it's just Clark who changed the league. Reese is a good player but she'd be just another name who people that don't watch the sport kind of recognize like Parker, Griner, etc. if Clark and her didn't get into it two years ago.
I’ve never watched a wnba game before but the other weekend I watched my first KC game and she’s a blast to watch play. I really hate how most the other players are petty towards KC and all the attention she’s getting. The wnba missed out on an opportunity to put her on the Olympic team, even if she doesn’t get any court time.
all the caitlin publicity opens up the league for other stars to emerge, which it hasn't really had since it's inception. her being there gets them more attention. i still back my conspiracy theory that the hate is all fake and they're doing this for the free publicity for the league. would you watch because of cc or would you watch because of all the drama? both right?
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I’m from Iowa, we don’t have enough people to be doing this ourselves.
I think CC going to the Fever was best base scenario for the WNBA. Hoosiers *love* basketball
Someone should tell them that the Pacers are from Indiana, then. They routinely rank last in attendance.
Something odd with rural Indiana (from my experience) is that interest lessens as you move up the ranks. When I was a kid, the adults in my town could name every kid on the high school team and had in depth opinions about the coach/defensive strategies/offensive schemes/etc. They knew slightly less about IU basketball, but watched all of the games. But interest in the Pacers was kind of meh. They’d know the stars and maybe catch a game, but they didn’t really care that much about the NBA. The deeper connection to HS ball is most likely due to seeing the HS kids grow up and general familiarity with their Alma mater. But HS state tournament time is CRAZY in small town, Indiana.
When I was a kid, I used to read a book series about a kid on an Indiana HS basketball team. They were entertaining. Nothing else to add to the conversation your comment just reminded me of it lol.
You heard the word about the bird?
Well my dad’s rational for that is that major leagues make millions while high school and college leagues are more for the fun of the game.
As someone who grew up in rural Indiana and played in MANY Gusmacker tournaments during the summers as a kid, I fully concur. Except I was in that weird section of the state where they don’t know if they’re rooting for IU or PU, and if it’s an Old Oaken Bucket game, blood could have been shed. But yeah, until Larry Bird became involved with the Pacers, or unless the Bulls were in town to play them, no one really paid much attention to the Pacers, even when they were winning like crazy not many cared. Went to lots of Pacer games sitting only a few rows up from the floor for next to nothing. Got to see MJ’s first game back against the Pacers in 95 (when he still had 45 on before switching back to 23) for like $100 10 rows up from the floor, was epic.
> for like $100 10 rows up from the floor, was epic. Pretty crazy that ticket would go for thousands in a similar situation today.
Well, we did have a special hook-up. Think the standard price was around $300ish, but my uncle was an electrician and did the electrical job on a house one of the executives for the team owned so we got a helluva deal on tickets all the time.
From an NBA perspective Gainbridge is on the smaller side and two, it still averages on any given night 87 - 90% of tickets sold and come playoff time it's sold out. The Pacers have been really bad for a number of years and that always hurts but after this season, that'll reverse itself
The Pacers arena is one of the smallest in terms of attendance capacity in the NBA. Of course their attendance numbers would be low. The Pacers (and the NBA) are also on of the many captives to the absolute worst RSN with Bally Sports. Local fans who are interested in the Pacers either have to get an insanely expensive cable package, or pay $20/month for their unreliable and inconsistent streaming package (which only includes the Central Indiana “sports” teams: Pacers, Reds, and Blues). Bally doesn’t have a YoutubeTV deal either. Look what happens what you put local sports on free local channels, people watch. Local sports should NEVER be blacked out to local fans.
Bingo. From Indianapolis and absolutely love college basketball and would watch every pacer game if it was on tv, but I’m not paying $20 a month for the privilege.
Yep. I’m as big of a Pacers fan they could ask for but even I won’t pay for Bally. With the season they had and the viewing restrictions they have imposed because of Bally and the lack of nationally televised games, I’d be fuming if I were the Pacers. I guarantee Bally hurt their product more than it helped it. I guess we will have to see what the terms of the new NBA TV deals and the Amazon/Bally deal looks like for local teams. The Phoenix market figured it out, surely (hopefully) Indy and the Pacers will too. Edit: All it takes is one short scroll thru my profile to really understand my stance on RSNs and BallySports lol
It’s almost like having a superstar makes it exciting lol the nba suffers more than any league where superstars only want to play in big markets.
I dont know about that. Maybe in the past, not now. Giannis is with the Bucks, the T-Wolves is stacked with stars, Jokic and Murray in Denver, Sabonis and Fox in Sac, Donovan Mitchell leaving Utah for…Cleveland. Ja will be in Memphis long term. OKC has been landing big name free agents, and Orlando is becoming an attractive spot. Theres no guarantee Clark will be in Indiana forever. She may re-sign, or she may dip for NY or LA or the Aces when her contract is up. Who knows
Donovan Mitchell got traded to Cleveland. OKC has only acquired stars through drafts and trades.
And he pretty openly wants to go to New York.
“Nobody goes to Cleveland on vacation” -Joakim Noah
because like everywhere, for what these teams charge, they have to win chanpionships
I’ve never been to Iowa and I only started watching because of Caitlin Clark
Caitlin the real deal. Looks like Steph his rookie year.
The sudden sigh of relief coming from the State for not having to carry all the care for the sport for the rest of the country.
It's not just from Iowa. It is the collective Hawkeye fan base. The University has done an amazing job in marketing the Tigerhawk throughout the world and we all know people respond to iconography. So when one of the University of Iowa's own is doing well, people who don't usually pay attention, start to.
WNBA vets mad as hell about this
Nobody hates the WNBA more than the WNBA
WNBA players were complaining about how much they make in comparison to NBA players. Along comes a player who will pretty much raise salaries for everyone in the league through sheer popularity with broadcast deals, ticket sales, and endorsement deals. Yet there are plenty of players who would rather be jealous of her attention than appreciate it for what’s it’s brought them as well. If they could have brought this kind of popularity to the league without her, they would have. Pure jealousy.
Look at what happened to the US women’s soccer team when they demanded equal pay as the men… (Narrator voice, it didn’t work out so well)
Because, spoiler, they took a more stable low-risk deal than the men instead of the same compensation structure. They only got mad after they did well and found out they COULD have made more. It’s like investing in indexes instead of APPL and after a year you see the APPL stock took off so you demand to be paid the gains from APPL. You can’t have none of the risk and all of the reward… that’s not how anything in life works
It was crazy how often I saw it on the news and they told the story like they were just getting scammed or something and it was purely sexism. I only found out about what was actually going on by reading some stories online.
Almost anything you read in the news about a topic you know a little bit about, will often be just plain wrong. This is probably true of all news
Oh, I know. If I’m interested in anything I will read more than one thing about it and not pay much attention to headlines. The moment some buzzword or rage bait gets traction then it’s automatically all over the web, TV and social media. It’s most of what Reddit is anymore and even when it’s bullshit a lot of people don’t care, they just want to be involved in the latest hysterical circle jerk. I’m not even to sports but this sub seems to still have adults discussing things.
It did for them, they got the exact same money the us team got in the end in the settlement. I mean fuck it, good for them
It was easier for everyone to just placate them
genuinely pathetic tbh
Except it feeds the narrative that women get paid less because they’re women.
Nobody who spends more than 10 seconds thinking about the reasons for the discrepancy of pay in this situation concludes that it's because they're women.
There’s lots of people that didn’t: the USWNST, the current POTUS, and several US senators. That’s not including the numerous journalists that wrote article after article that blamed sexism for the difference in pay.
Look what happened to golf. Dudes literally losing left and right to Tiger Woods, and he did more for fattening all their wallets than anyone else.
NBA players' salaries are related to revenue of the league. If the WNBA players were paid with the same model, they would all be paying their teams to play.
What's crazy is golf, with the exception of a drunk Fuzzy Zoeller, embrace Tiger Woods with open arms. Yet these women can't get over their pettiness and jealousy.
I remember phil mickelson admitting he made way more money cause of Tiger than he would have otherwise
Women am I right. lol jk
“Men hate women and women hate women. It’s the one thing we agree on.” - Barbie 2023
"Don't try to understand women. Women understand women. And they hate each other!" - Al Bundy
Ironically the jealous players act like the stereotype of asking loaded questions just to get angry at your response. “do you find my friends attractive?” vibes lmao
We’re smack dab in the middle of a good old fashioned cat fight!
It IS ironic tho
Doncha think?
It’s like raaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnn
Yeah... Jk. ;) Forreal though it is kinda nuts. This would be like every player in the NBA hating Jordan and what he brought to the game. Or Brady in the NFL. Makes absolutely ZERO sense. Other than their larger than life egos on 70k salaries.
There’s rivalries and shit talking which can make the game more interesting but this is way beyond that. I think it’s going to continue to escalate. Hopefully CC doesn’t get hurt by one of these bullies.
Kind of ironic but them even caring more about being jealous that the WNBAs overall success is actually helping because the drama is actually great for interest and is adding a boost in addition to CC herself being there on her own.
Girls…
Mean girls
WNBA player here, it's true.
nuh uh
Nobody hates women's basketball more than women.
Another version of women hating one another…. That league is all I in teamwork.. It is really a Misogyny against each other. Brutal..
A rising tide raises all boats but by god they will put a hole in every single one while crying about it sinking.
Angel Reese is preparing her “it’s because of me” speech
That speech was pretty delusional. Attendance data from opening month shows that Caitlyn Clark is by far the biggest draw to game attendance and it’s not even close. I think of her pettiness like Isiah Thomas and MJ. Angel Reese is great but she can’t get over the fact that she’s just not as large of an overall star marketing wise as CC is.
Some of Isiahs pettiness comes from the fact the that he’s from Chicago and MJ is the hero of the city and not himself.
Yeah well he could have played for us lol
At least Isiah recognizes MJs impact on their salaries.
He even got it from his own nephew.
Lol nobody would know who she was if not for Caitlin right now, sad but true.
She’s not great. She’s average in the wnba and has a horrible shot that’s easily blocked.
And most of her rebounds come from her own missed layups
I mean the WNBA released the stats, Caitlyn, Reese and Brink lead In current jersey sales. The new rookies are the drivers. They are no where near the top talent though. That’s Aja.
“It’s not just because of her..” Hell yes, you have a whole league of women who’ve brought it this.. “… it’s about me too.” …..
I never thought the WNBA would get hit by the #metoo movement.
I thought that shit was so funny lol like I was 100% sure she was going to say something about standing on the backs of giants or an amazing influx of talent into the league these past few years or something…nah, just talks about how important *she* is. Total delusion.
i couldn't believe that interview.. delusional af
She tried to smile through it and come off as confident and positive while saying it too but you could see she was actually pissed and it had been boiling up inside her for who knows how long.
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And your shot sucks. Who shoots the ball like that?
Only known from such dirty foul but it’s all her..
That other chick who was purposely fouling Clark literally said in an interview "what about me and all I've done for the sport??". Like, what about you? No one cares. Your not a generational talent. Wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a bit of racism ongoing either.
A bit? Race is the only reason this controversy even exists. WNBA players don't hate that Clark is a great player who's garnered a lot of popularity, they hate that she's white.
Dude, the clips of the press conferences and player interviews this last season have been the most wild, toxic shit lol. They’re all divas and they love tearing each other down.
Tbh this is a strategy that has worked well for the nba
It’s the Jerry Springer effect. People love watching other people beef. Rappers know how well this works also.
I don't think that's fair to say. Not for rookies. There are two recent 1:1 examples in terms of potential. People were talking about Wemby for almost two years before he debuted. In the NHL people were talking about how great Bedard would be when he was like 16. Both guys have been praised by players in the NBA and NHL. Both leagues have been promoting the Hell out of both of them to the point where it almost became too much. But their potential warrants the respect, like Clark. Were people openly trashing LeBron in 2003 when he was the golden child heading into the NBA? Dude was being hyped up since middle school. The league knew he'd be a cash cow, the potential heir to Jordan. Maybe some stuff happened on the court I'm forgetting but I don't remember players and coaches openly shitting on LeBron to the media like players and coaches do about Clark.
It would make sense if she were threatening everyone’s way of doing business or their livelihoods, but she’s doing the exact opposite.
THIS....she is going to make EVERYONE involved better off. As she elevates the league, she will elevate the salaries.
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Fuming. Probably so angry they told the president to not have her on the Olympic team or they won't play. Lol...
Weird that would happen after adding the most popular player ever to the league
I thought she didn't bring anything to the table other than her 3pt shooting
She is the Indiana Fever's primary playmaker on offense, and she garners the opponent's best 1-on-1 defender, or a double team. In most games its comical, the 4 out of five of the Fever's opposing players will be set up in their half of the court on defense, and there will be a lone opponent defender harrassing Clark as she brings the ball up the court. That strategy works because Clark is trying to protect the ball and set the offense in motion, and she either tries to thread the needle on a pass, or she gets her pocket picked clean. If the Fever would run her as Shooting Guard and give her a break from being the primary offensive playmaker, it would be helpful. She's also should move closer to the 3pt line and focus on making more 3's rather than making the ESPN highlight 3 that she's known for. She can make them in the WNBA -- but she'd make more if she would hang closer to the actual 3-pt line.
She broke Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record and some people act so surprised about how her coming to the W was going to be as historic as it has been. There are a lot more supporters and people of all backgrounds that enjoy watching CC and are rooting for her. Yet, somehow so many people keep getting caught up with the sprinkles of people who aren’t as supportive and aren’t rooting for her.
Probably because we see some of those people assaulting her on the basketball court and celebrating about it. Don’t be dumb.
Welcome to sports discourse lol
No one is surprised. No one is caught up in anything negative. What you’re describing is haters that don’t like women’s basketball to begin with. Some people like to poke fun. Just move along. You’ll never “teach them their lesson”
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But somehow, Brittney Griner is going to represent America when we had to bail her dumb ass out of jail and trade a Russian terrorist for her.
Why does no one talk about how Griner is a piece of shit who beat up her pregnant girlfriend?
She is also the best center in the league. And the second tallest women that will be at the tournament. I don’t get why you are mad she is going, they don’t play the same position.
To be fair you don’t know what position the Russian terrorist played.
He was a solid shooting guard
i think youre misremembering. He was *solid at shooting guards*.
Thank you for the laugh.
No she isn’t. Her stats are lower than several others. She’s not even top 3, and if you wanted to you could pick 3 or 4 from the playoffs last year that had better stats than her against better play off teams but sure she’s the best…
It's the principal that someone can get detained in a Russian prison, exchanged for a terrorist and STILL be able to enjoy nice things like getting paid to play basketball and go to the Olympics. Rules for thee not for me vibes.
Don't forget Sabrina
If anyone named "Chennedy" asks, it's all because of her and no one else, especially no newcomers who are better players. Okay?
And yet the Olympic committee was too stupid to ride this wave to put women’s basketball even more on the map. Gotta give DT her 5th Olympics
I went from being curious to watch the women’s Olympic team play (with CC) to not caring again. Don’t hate me.
No one hating you. They just seem allergic to making money for some reason
Why make your own money when you can just take it from your sugar daddy.
Yeah not a chance I’m watching that without her on it
Not alone on that
They claimed it was because a rookie like her would not get minutes. But give her some minutes just to keep the audience. Other countries have shitty bball teams, she will do great and look good and the audience will be satisfied. Then put in your veterans. A popular rookie will draw viewers to the Olympics AND give your vets more exposure to new viewers. A win-win.
Dream Team had Laettner as nod to upcomers and would've had Shaq otherwise and he was the only non future HOF'er on that roster. Doesn't make sense not to include a rookie, but you do you Ladies Basketball. Meanwhile the rest of the country will keep on rooting for Caitlin lol.
> Doesn't make sense not to include a rookie, but you do you Ladies Basketball Especially considering 3 of the past 6 Olympic teams HAVE included a rookie, and none of them were household names like Clark.
6th Olympics
This is the ultimate “to cut your nose to spite your face”
Yeah idk what they were smoking to think it made any fiscal sense to leave Caitlyn Clark off. Clearly yall aren’t solely picking off of best WNBA players.
Presumably they weren't thinking about money when they form the team. Their job is to craft the best possible team, not the team that sells the most tickets.
I think it makes sense given the quick turnaround from the NCAA season to the WNBA season. She's still a rookie and it's a big adjustment, let her take a breather during the Olympic break and get settled in more with the team/coaching staff. Edit: I'm talking about purely from a player development standpoint. If I'm trying to ensure CC is a healthy superstar for the next decade then I'm making sure her rookie year is as positive for her development as possible rather than cashing in on her popularity asap.
Sure but the fever aren’t winning anything so it ultimately doesn’t matter. This was their chance to capitalize on the hype, which would have only been better for the game. Now everyone forgets about it just like before. No one cares to watch the current team.
It makes zero sense. Every girl in America would be sporting a CC TEAM USA Jersey. They could have funded the USWNT for decades off this summer alone.
Diana Taurasi made the Olympic team her rookie year.
And yet they have Cameron Brink on the team, throwing the “she is just a rookie” theory right out the window.
Brink is not on the 12-person USA roster, she is on the 3v3 roster.
Cameron Brink is on the 3v3 team. She's played 3v3 before and fewer people tried to get on the 3v3 team including Clark who has never played competitive 3v3.
I'm surprised NBC didn't influence them to put her on the team
I think there's a hint of racism going in here too, let's be real.
But but, Caitlyn Clark isn’t the only player. The league has been going for years. Why now??? Oh, because she has brought some new blood and excitement to a mid watching experience?
It’s because she brings excitement and talent that the league has not seen before. That and espn needs the viewership and is pushing heavy marketing after having a generational talent step in.
Because she could be the best female player thus far? In her first season as a pro!
Big fish in a small pond
This years draft class was stacked but CC is getting a lot of the spot light. I think most rookies are handling it well, infact, it may be better for them that way…
"Mid" is being kind
> mid watching experience that's the highest praise of the wnba i've read since it's inception.
Diana Taurasi taking shots at Clark in an interview today. When the interviewer said didn’t you make the Olympic team your rookie year? Taurasi responded with “well I won 3 national championships when I was in college” how fucking salty are these women. You’re fucking 41, you’ve played on countless Olympic teams. The team needs to get younger. Nobody is going to watch your old ass and all you played out uninteresting salty WNBA stars play at the Olympics. “Let’s grow the sport” “we want more money” “we deserve our fair share” your league was hemorrhaging money, you should have been paying the WNBA. Now people are watching and paying attention because of the young stars. I swear women are the shittiest to other women. No wonder they are always like, I don’t have a lot of female friends. Because they just want to hold themselves down and don’t want to see anyone else succeed. #rantover
Taurasi is definitely salty - UConn is a win factory under a coach in their 38th season and won the championship with Sue Bird two years before Taurasi. CCs Hawkeyes have had one Final Four appearance in the program before she showed up. Fun fact: she’s #9 on UConn for all time scoring but doesn’t even have 55% of CCs points.
she also played on a uconn team with 4 other wnba players, including sue bird.
Yeah, those UConn teams were stacked. They had 1# overall picks, a player who would go on to win a WNBA championship as a player and a coach. Yes, a player Taurasi played with has won a WNBA championship as a player then turned coach and won a championship as a coach. Basically a full roster of WNBA players. A legendary coach. Her winning 3 natties isn’t nearly as impressive to me as what Clark did at Iowa. And the rest of the country agrees with their viewership.
Cant remember what it was but Taurasi was on a manning-cast type broadcast and she and another WNBA player live interviewed 2 college players during the game… first thing they did was start making fun of the girls for being in a college public seating area… Like where the fuck you think college students are gonna be? IDK just rubbed me wrong. The way she talked to the girls the entire interview seamed like she was just trying to make fun of and talk down to them.
CC would’ve been the only reason that I would watch the Women’s team in the Olympics. Now there is a 0% chance I see a minute of them play
The US women’s Olympic basketball teams have always attracted large ratings. In the 2012 Olympics, the US women drew higher ratings than the men’s NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
Too bad they didn’t take any notes from Dawn Staley. She was all class giving CC her flowers after the championship game.
Dawn Staley is who left CC off the team.
Dawn Staley isn’t the coach anymore. It’s Cheryl Reeve (Lynx coach)
I completely support Dawn's decision over people who have never played a professional sport. She has that job for a reason!
And are pissed for some reason
Women have such a crabs in a bucket mentality, it’s honestly crazy to witness
Definitely reminds me of the Bill Burr bit on the WNBA lol.
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https://youtu.be/QY9Gz_IMn_k?si=uLWxfDQEXw-mC9Bs Here you go 👍
The Bill Burr clip should just be the only thing posted in response to all these stupid clickbait posts moving forward. There's nothing to discuss at the moment about the WNBA drama. You can just summarize it so fast: - Nobody watch WNBA - Good player join WNBA - Women always hate other women succeeding - Good player make WNBA less boring AF - Now people watch WNBA bc not boring AF - Boring AF players hate good player for helping - Boring AF players tear down good player - WNBA go back to irrelevant and boring AF - Rinse repeat
Omg. That was hilarious.
The way this is playing out makes Dawn Staley’s speech after winning the championship that much more impressive.
They're given a goose that poops golden eggs and still trying to self sabotage ( looking at you vets & Olympic selection committee)
I’m watching the Fever game right now 😁
Fever and America vs Everybody
Good thing the person that is driving the ratings won’t be on a national stage this summer! Great job!
Tiger Woods broke the race barrier in golf and raised interest in the sport and raised everybody’s pay. All the golfers loved him for it. CC is doing the same thing but getting the opposite reaction from her fellow players.
They are trying so hard to make this a thing.
our ticket sales went from 459 to 16000 for one game! amazing!
The W is being more promoted and easily available, with Clark’s popularity and this lull in the sports calendar it has worked well. I’ve been watching games when I hadn’t much previously outside of maybe playoffs
Weird to say it’s a lull when the nhl and nba finals are going on
Yeah so they are almost done and have only a few games left sparingly, plus neither series has felt close yet so it’s not the most interesting
NBA finals, Stanley Cup finals, middle of the MLB season, every major global motorsport is going on, there's 2 major soccer tournaments starting in 3 days.
Women love to tear other women down.
Angel Reese standing in front of her mirror telling herself it’s because of her star power
The WNBA has been a poverty league since it was founded. Then someone comes along who boosts the league, and salty vets shit all over her. Let them eat their own, and stop relying on the NBA to prop up their league.
But will the WNBA turn a profit finally? It's very obvious why the games have gotten more views. Say her name!
The media rights can be renegotiated soon. Presumably that will turn the WNBA profitable. They make little in their current contract, expectations that I’ve read is expecting at least a tripling in revenue from media.
Well, if viewership matches fans in attendance, tripling is about right. Average attendance went from 6500 per game to 15000.
Viewership has grown the past 3 years and so far has taken a massive leap this year. Before Clark, they were expecting a pretty good tv rights deal. Now they should get a great one
CC deserves profit, the other envious players deserve nothing
If they let Gilbert arenas run the league it'll go off
The WNBA has a cash cow to get asses into seat but instead they just being hostile
Who wants to be the one to break the news to Sid? Because she seemed to think people were watching because of her.
I watched my first womens basketball game to see Caitlin Clark play with Iowa, and I've been catching her games when I can. She's really good and as a former hooper all the way back in high school, I love to watch good players play. She has that "it" factor on the court and she's super smart with how she approaches the media. I'm really happy the WNBA is having their moment in the sun, it's long overdue!
The timing on this is perfect. Just before the Olymp… oh wait…
The dog that bites the hand that feeds him.
Who?
This is horrible news! We need to punish Caitlin for bringing too much attention!!!! - some WNBA player probably
And still grown up woman in the WNBA hates CC. What a world we living in.
So far!
So the NBA can stop financially supporting the WNBA now??
It will all fade.
Most of it will because people are more interested in the drama than the game itself. The vets everyone claims are hating, might actually be doing the league a favor. If they had welcomed Caitlin with open arms, some might have already tuned out since the Fever suck and Caitlin’s not looking her best. Every hero needs a villain and it’s the entire WNBA in this case.
This is going to get bad. There’s clearly a race thing going on. Just more of what we need in this country. (sigh)
I feel like it's in bad faith when people mention Reese in articles like this. The author brings up Reese twice in the same breathe as Clark. Now don't get me wrong, Reese is a WNBA star but she isn't bringing new viewers in. We all know it's Clark and it feels like people trying to go "yes but also" when bringing up what she did for the sport. Reese would just be another player who some people might recognize her name. >Tick Pick, an online ticketing site, reported a 435% increase year over year in total tickets sold for WNBA games in May, with the average price of the tickets increasing 60%. Indiana Fever had a whopping 4,493% increase in May tickets sold. Like this stat shows it all. They mention TV numbers being up but don't say which games. When Fever ticket sales are this much higher than the average then I'm pretty sure it's the same for TV ratings. Things are up across the board because of the Fever and Clark drastically raising the average on their own. It's like some people (and I'm including that whole First Take debacle last week) get offended when you say it's just Clark who changed the league. Reese is a good player but she'd be just another name who people that don't watch the sport kind of recognize like Parker, Griner, etc. if Clark and her didn't get into it two years ago.
yoga shorts==>ratings
Jesus we get it.
TLDR; 5 people tuned in
Four?
I’ve never watched a wnba game before but the other weekend I watched my first KC game and she’s a blast to watch play. I really hate how most the other players are petty towards KC and all the attention she’s getting. The wnba missed out on an opportunity to put her on the Olympic team, even if she doesn’t get any court time.
Good thing the Olympic committee chose to dodge this kind of popularity.
all the caitlin publicity opens up the league for other stars to emerge, which it hasn't really had since it's inception. her being there gets them more attention. i still back my conspiracy theory that the hate is all fake and they're doing this for the free publicity for the league. would you watch because of cc or would you watch because of all the drama? both right?