Jeffrey Parenti

[Sports Patriot @SportsPatriotUS]

Thank you, Sage. 🫶 That means a lot coming from someone who has covered sports at the highest level.

Caitlin Clark has forced a much bigger conversation than basketball alone. She has exposed what the league has been, what fans are now seeing, and what women’s basketball could become if it fully embraces skill, growth, and accountability.

I appreciate you helping amplify that conversation.

[Sports Patriot @SportsPatriotUS]

I have been told countless times over the last 48 hours that I am a conspiracy theorist.

That I do not know basketball.

That I do not understand the WNBA.

And that my articles are too long.

So I wrote this...

I do not believe there is some organized, calculated operation to take down Caitlin Clark.

That would be too simple.

The truth is deeper... and far more damaging.

Caitlin Clark walked into a league that spent nearly three decades convincing itself that its weaknesses were culture.

For years, the WNBA was not a mainstream sports product.

It was a cause.
A talking point.
A subsidized idea.
A league people were told they should support, even when the product on the floor often failed to earn that support from casual fans.

The empty seats were excused.

The financial struggles were excused.

The rough offensive flow was excused.

The poor spacing was excused.

The inconsistent officiating was excused.

The excessive physicality was excused.

The lack of mainstream interest was excused.

And anytime fans questioned the product, the answer was usually the same:

You just do not understand women’s basketball and you're racist.

That was the lie the league told itself for too long.

Because a lot of fans understood basketball perfectly fine.

They just did not like what they were watching.

Too often, the WNBA confused physicality with quality.

It confused survival with success.

It confused being protected with being excellent.

It confused an insulated culture with a strong one.

And then Caitlin Clark arrived.

She did not come in asking people to support the league out of obligation.

She made people want to watch.

That is the difference.

Caitlin brought range, pace, vision, passing angles, court gravity, creativity, and real basketball electricity.

She made regular-season games feel like events.

She made casual fans stop scrolling.

She made people who had ignored the WNBA for years suddenly care about matchups, rotations, officiating, coaching decisions, and league standards.

And that is where the collision happened.

Caitlin Clark exposed the gap between what the WNBA had convinced itself was good enough and what mainstream sports fans actually expect.

Fans want skill.

They want spacing.

They want pace.

They want shooting.

They want smart coaching.

They want fair officiating.

They want stars protected.

They want basketball that looks modern, intelligent, and entertaining.

They did not show up to watch Caitlin get grabbed, held, shoved, bumped, and treated like every possession needs to become a wrestling match in the name of “physicality.”

They also did not show up to watch the basketball constantly pushed into the background while social messaging, league-approved narratives, and cultural lectures compete for center stage.

That is not evolution.

That is a league clinging to old habits because it does not know how to handle the future standing right in front of it.

And Caitlin Clark is the future.

That does not mean she is perfect.

She is not.

That does not mean veterans have no value.

They do.

That does not mean physicality has no place in basketball.

It does.

But there is a difference between physical basketball and ugly basketball.

There is a difference between toughness and fouling.

There is a difference between defensive pressure and mugging someone off the ball.

There is a difference between culture and bad habits that went unchallenged because not enough people were watching.

Caitlin did not create the league’s problems.

She exposed them.

She exposed the officiating.

She exposed the coaching gap.

She exposed the outdated style.

She exposed the resentment toward new fans.

She exposed the discomfort some people have with a player becoming bigger than the system that was supposed to contain her.

And more than anything, she exposed a league that is still trying to force a generational player into an old version of basketball that she has already outgrown.

That is why this does not feel like a conspiracy.

It feels like resistance to change.

The WNBA finally got the player who could push the league into a new era, and too many people inside the ecosystem seem determined to make her prove she belongs in the old one.

That is backwards.

You do not take the most skilled, market-changing player your league has ever seen and ask her to shrink into the culture that failed to attract mainstream fans in the first place.

You build around her.

You modernize around her.

You protect what she represents.

Because she is not just another player.

She is the mirror.

She is showing the league what it has been, what it is, and what it could become if it would stop defending its flaws as tradition.

And the frustrating part is that the next generation is already here.

You can see it with Caitlin.

You can see it with Paige Bueckers.

You can see it with Sonia Citron.

You can see it with Aliyah Boston.

You can see it with JuJu Watkins.

The skill is changing.

The training is better.
The footwork is better.
The shooting is better.
The spacing is better.
The basketball IQ is better.

But too much of the league around them is still operating like nothing has changed.

Same coaching habits.

Same officiating problems.
Same marketing instincts.
Same defensive excuses.
Same resentment toward criticism.
Same belief that the old WNBA culture must be protected, even if it means slowing down the very players who could make the league bigger than it has ever been.

That is the real story.

Caitlin Clark is not being taken down by some secret plan.

She is being resisted by a league that still does not fully understand what she represents.

She represents a better product.

A bigger audience.

A more skilled game.

A more modern game.

A version of women’s basketball that does not need to be sold as charity, activism, obligation, or guilt.

It can be sold as basketball.

Great basketball.

But that requires the league to stop pretending its weaknesses are sacred.

It requires officials to clean up the game.

It requires coaches to modernize.

It requires veterans to adapt.

It requires media voices to stop protecting the old product from honest criticism.

And it requires the WNBA to stop resenting the very fans it spent decades trying to attract.

So no, I do not think there is a coordinated takedown of Caitlin Clark.

I think it is bigger than that.

I think Caitlin walked into a league that spent years convincing itself its flaws were culture.

And now that a generational player has arrived to expose the difference, too many people are trying to humble her instead of learning from her.

That is not Caitlin Clark’s failure.

That is the league refusing to recognize the future.

[Sports Patriot @SportsPatriotUS]

I’m going to say this as calmly as possible:

Watching Caitlin Clark in the WNBA has become genuinely hard to stomach.

Not because she struggles sometimes. Not because she makes mistakes. Not because she gets criticized. That comes with being great.

It’s hard to stomach because it has become obvious that the league, the officials, the media, the players, and even her own organization have all decided that the most important thing is not letting Caitlin Clark become too big.

And that is insane.

This league was handed the most marketable, electric, revenue-generating player women’s basketball has ever seen, and instead of building around the moment, too many people seem obsessed with humbling her.

She gets fouled. Held. Hit. Cheap-shotted. Mocked. Targeted. Then when she reacts like a normal competitor, suddenly everyone wants to analyze her attitude.

No.

Her attitude is not the story.

The story is that a generational player is being treated like a problem by the very league she helped drag into mainstream relevance.

This reminds me of the worst kind of youth coach... the one who sees a special player, feels threatened by her talent, and slowly drains the joy out of her in the name of “teaching humility.”

That is what this looks like.

The freedom she played with at Iowa is disappearing. The fire is still there, but the joy looks damaged. The confidence looks weighed down. She looks like someone constantly fighting the refs, opponents, narratives, coaching decisions, jealousy, and a league culture that should be protecting its golden opportunity instead of resenting it.

And let’s be honest: Stephanie White has not helped.

Benching Caitlin Clark randomly when she is controlling the game tempo, or having your best shooter off the floor in critical game ending minutes when a victory is within reach is basketball malpractice. Limiting her rhythm, downplaying her greatness, benching momentum, and treating her like just another piece instead of the engine is absurd.

You do not take a player who changed the economics of your sport and manage her like you’re afraid her greatness might offend the room.

Nike deserves criticism too. Other players get signature shoes rolled out with urgency, while the biggest draw in women’s basketball is somehow still waiting on that signature shoe. That is not confusing. That is revealing.

Fans are not stupid.

They see the fouls.
They see the double standards.
They see the jealousy.
They see the media resentment.
They see the league benefiting from her popularity while refusing to fully embrace her.
And here is the part the WNBA better understand quickly:
People are not tuning in to watch Caitlin Clark be humbled.
They are tuning in to watch Caitlin Clark be great.
If she walked away tomorrow, the fans would follow her. The sponsors would follow her. The energy would follow her. The high salaries and the charter jets would follow her. And the league would be forced to confront the uncomfortable truth it keeps trying to avoid:

Caitlin Clark did not need the WNBA nearly as much as the WNBA needed Caitlin Clark.

At some point, her family, her agent, and her team need to ask a hard question:

How much longer do you let a league profit from her while allowing the culture around her to beat the spirit out of her?

Because from the outside looking in, this does not look like normal adversity anymore. It looks like abuse.

It looks like a league trying to break the very player who made millions of people care.

https://t.co/AAxFrO46Z4

[Mark Bartlett @mark_a_bartlett]

If every single player on this team is struggling and regressing at the plate this far into the season and nothing has changed, the Padres need to start looking at the hitting coach. What’s the philosophy at the plate? Why are these guys constantly swinging at the first pitch and chasing terrible pitches outside the zone? Why are the strikeouts up? Why hasn’t Tatis hit a homer? Why is Manny & Merrill batting .177 & .198? Why does this lineup look worse at the plate as the season goes on?

[Paul Krueger @paulkruegersd]

Speaking to @CityofSanDiego's Balboa Park Committee, Peter Cominsky, representing Park institutions, reports "a very dramatic decrease in visitation that has gotten worse," for many Park attractions. He said county residents don't visit because they refuse to pay for parking.1/3

[cinesthetic. @TheCinesthetic]

ETHAN HAWKE on Robin Williams & Philip Seymour Hoffman.

“It didn’t come for free.”

[Jeffrey Parenti @JD_Parenti]

@HawkEmDownChris The amazing Don Kessinger.

[Viejas Arena Local @viejaslocal]

As a Mountain West parting gift, SDSU is reminded exactly why we are getting the hell out of the Mountain West.

Utah State gets a 9 seed and the “6th best” conference in the country gets a single bid.

[Mick Cronin Loyalist @uclambb1]

Joe Lunardi will have UCLA downgraded to “First Four Out” first thing tomorrow AM and Alabama moved up after their loss to UGA

[The Wrestling Room (Pat Mineo) @MrPatMineo]

A video reportedly taken undercover by a Cal Baptist wrestler — and later leaked — appears to show Deputy Athletic Director Joey Logan informing the team that they would not be permitted to wear “Keep CBU Wrestling” singlets or any alternate singlet as a form of protest in their final dual meet.

The directive comes after the university’s abrupt decision to eliminate its Division I wrestling program.

The moment draws comparisons to Stanford’s Shane Griffith, who wore an inside-out black singlet during the 2021 NCAA Championships in protest after Stanford announced it would cut wrestling. Griffith went on to win the national title, and the program was later reinstated.

With Cal Baptist’s season coming to a close, the wrestling world continues to follow the situation closely.

@Keepcbuwrestle
#KeepCBUwrestling

[Chris Ello @ChrisElloSD]

Did I see 👀 that @AztecBaseball just knocked off top-ranked UCLA, 4-3, tonight?? … Yes I did see that!!
Let’s hear it for all of us Aztecs For Life!! 🎉🎉

[Mitchell Northam @primetimeMitch]

Remains wild to me that Vanderbilt vs. Texas — A TOP FIVE MATCHUP — is on the subscription-only SECN+.

You grow the sport by making games like this more accessible. You gotta flex this game to a bigger platform, ESPN.

[Gregg Williams @gtw1962]

Great atmosphere at Grand Canyon University basketball game last night

[Jon Wilner @wilnerhotline]

Big Ten athletes are imploring NCAA president Charlie Baker to continue pushing for limitations on/elimination of prop bets, which put their safety at risk and threaten integrity of competition -->

[lindsey vonn @lindseyvonn]

I’m sorry Greg but this is a very odd opinion piece. The pain and suffering is the point? I’m searching for meaning? Why am I taking risk “at my age?” This ageism stuff is getting really old.

My life does not revolve around ski racing. I am a woman that loves to ski. I don’t have an identity issue, I know exactly who I am. I was retired for 6 years and I have an amazing life. I don’t need to ski, but I love to ski. I came all this way for one final Olympics and I’m going to go and do my best, ACL or no. It’s as simple as that.

And respectfully, if you don’t know the story, it might be best not to make assumptions.

[Chase Senior @Chase_Senior]

San Francisco can be a great Super Bowl host city. This year was a logistical nightmare and pain in the ass, because different areas of the Bay Area wanted a piece of the pie and everything was so far apart.

The reason why everybody loves New Orleans as a Super Bowl host city is because everything is within close proximity. San Francisco and New Orleans have everything you want in a Super Bowl host city: great restaurants and food, music and entertainment, nightlife and attractions.

San Francisco needs to showcase San Francisco more. It’s one of America’s greatest cities. Sorry, but nobody cares about San Jose or Santa Clara.

Super Bowl opening night: hold it at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Opening night kicks off Super Bowl week. It’s supposed to be a big, exciting event. This year, it was at the San Jose Convention Center. A small venue, with just a couple hundred fans, and there was no juice or energy.

Radio row at the Moscone Center worked well. It was a little crowded, but radio row always is. The fan experience at the Moscone Center worked as well.

Have the teams stay in San Francisco. Media having to travel 90 minutes to team availability makes no sense. It’s brutal and takes three hours away from creating content.

Make San Francisco the hub. ESPN had a set by the Ferry Building. That was cool. Showcase that, show off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Everything felt a little disjointed, thrown together last minute and just didn’t make much sense. Little bit of a blown opportunity. The game being in Santa Clara is fine. That’s a whole different event and it ends the week.

Had a great time, just think it could be better and make more sense for everyone involved.

[Aztweets @AztecJ]

Aztecs on 3. 💔 RIP Chet. Aztec Legend.

[Damien Woody @damienwoody]

I don’t care what your feelings are towards Bill….u just made a jackass out of yourself & you should never have a vote moving forward!

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

@kenklippenstein This is incorrect. Congress has not yet renewed ICE’s budget. House voted but Senate hasn’t yet. They need 10 Dem votes in the Senate. We can still stop it

[Dov Kleiman @NFL_DovKleiman]

𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: NFL Films has released new footage that shows Bills WR Brandin Cooks CLEARLY caught the ball.

The refs somehow ruled this an interception essentailly giving the Broncos the win over Buffalo.

One of the worst calls in NFL history...