Michelle Obama's style was an expression of intention—lifting up new designers, and shopping where everyone shops. Joy. Color. Confidence. A reminder that no one gets to define beauty for you.
Love her or hate her, Caitlin Clark has changed women’s basketball forever. Argue with me.
Before Caitlin, people were talking about women’s basketball.
After Caitlin, people were planning their weekends around it.
She didn’t just bring fans. She brought casual fans, sports fans, gambling fans, media attention, sold-out arenas, record TV ratings, jersey sales, and nonstop debate. Entire teams moved games to larger venues when she came to town because demand exploded.
The numbers aren’t really up for debate.
The 2024 NCAA Championship drew 18.9 million viewers, outdrawing the men’s title game. Her WNBA debut became one of the most-watched games in decades. Attendance records fell. Merchandise sales surged. Economists and analysts have credited her with generating hundreds of millions of dollars in value for women’s basketball.
And here’s the part that drives some people crazy:
You don’t have to think she’s the best player ever.
You don’t have to think she’s the MVP.
You don’t even have to like her.
But pretending she hasn’t transformed the visibility, revenue, and cultural relevance of women’s basketball is like pretending Michael Jordan didn’t help grow the NBA.
The strongest evidence might be this: when Clark has been sidelined, national TV audiences have dropped dramatically. Her games simply attract more viewers than anyone else’s.
So go ahead.
Tell me which player in women’s basketball history has had a bigger impact on attendance, ratings, merchandise sales, and mainstream attention than Caitlin Clark.
I’ll wait. 🍿
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
If you're happy about the Kennedy Center decision thank Joyce Beatty. @RepBeatty was the plaintiff in the case that made Donald cry and write a 10 page essay about how he was going to abandon the Kennedy Center because they ordered his name taken off of it.
Watching Trump's named get ripped off the Kennedy Center is going to be so satisfying.
Let's honor this man, Judge Christopher Cooper, who ordered that the Kennedy Center be cleaned up and dignified again.
🎉Starting June 19, The Obama Presidential Center is your home for fun, inspiration and activities of all kinds this Summer and on into the year!
🇺🇲To honor the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, and to inspire visitors to shape our shared future, we are hosting “You Are America,” a series of talks, performances, films, and community events.
🎇The series will kick off with a free Independence Day celebration on July 4 called “The People’s Fourth,” featuring live music, self-guided tours, and family-friendly activities across the campus.
Get closer to nature, and your neighbors, Summer Garden Gatherings in the Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit and Vegetable Garden will run every other week from July 12 to Sept. 20, in partnership with Urban Growers Collective.
🎂Celebrate President Obama’s birthday with an all-ages karaoke DJ set Aug. 4! Get ready to sing along to classics from soul, R&B, and contemporary hits.
📖To create a little quiet and connection, we’re partnering with the Chicago Public Library to host storytime inside our new library branch.
🏐And local youth can discover their potential at the Teen Action Lab, in partnership with After School Matters, with hands-on sports, leadership, and wellness programs.
👟Meanwhile, older adults can hit their stride on campus through At Your Pace, a walk-run club led by Peace Runners 773.
We can’t wait for you to join us for these, and so many more things to do! We’re just getting started!
Check out the full event calendar: https://t.co/a50FLDpGF5
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is truly America’s Mayor already. Hate him or love him, he is transparent, pragmatic, visible, relatable, aware, and delivering for New Yorkers on his campaign promises.
We cannot wait to welcome you to campus! Today, we’re announcing the first slate of programming at the Obama Presidential Center, including free, public activities during our Grand Opening Weekend, June 19-21.
As part of the Foundation’s mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world, and reflecting the Obamas’ legacy from their time in the White House, programming at the Center will offer experiences connected to arts and culture, civics and democracy, gardening and food, and sports and well-being.
Grand Opening Weekend activities will include:
💃Live entertainment, including DJs, musical groups, and dance performances on the Plaza;
🎨Family-friendly activities throughout the campus, such as face painting, art making, and photo booths;
🎭Performances and programs featuring Obama Presidential Center commissioned artists;
🍔A variety of food available for purchase in our restaurant, cafe, and pop-up stations across campus;
📚Storytime and hands-on activities at the Center’s Chicago Public Library branch;
🏀Sports and play stations at the Home Court athletic center led by Chicago’s professional sports teams and their mascots, including the Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Fire FC, Chicago Sky, Chicago Stars FC, Chicago White Sox
🧶Double Dutch performances and hands-on crochet jump rope making in Home Court;
🫛Drop-in experiences in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden celebrating community, wellness, and creativity in partnership with Urban Growers Collective;
🙋Guided and self-guided audio tours of campus.
Let us know we’ll see you on campus for Grand Opening Weekend: https://t.co/kFLCEPS58h
These and all Grand Opening week activities are made possible through the generous support of GCM Grosvenor, Abbott, BMO, ITW and Northern Trust.
We are only 23 days away from the Obama Presidential Center's Grand Opening Celebration, and here in Chicago, that number makes us think of only one person: Michael Jordan.
President Obama invoked Jordan's greatness often, but most notably when talking about resilience in 2009 in a national address to America's schoolchildren given at Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA: "Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots. But he once said, 'I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed.'"
Jordan is part of how so many Americans define greatness. As a global icon whose athletic career, philanthropy, and business vision broke barriers around the world, Jordan's impact is honored in one of our Exhibition Galleries, Toward A More Perfect Union, located on Museum Level 2. This gallery tells the story of the early influences that shaped President and Mrs. Obama and the grassroots energy of the 2008 campaign.
During his presidency, President Obama read 10 letters a day from Americans who’d taken the time to write to him about their worries, hopes, and, often, their requests for help.
These letters were hand-picked from the thousands of emails and handwritten notes that the White House received daily, and were representative of the day’s mail. The President read the 10 letters at night, and later often visited letter writers in their hometowns and spoke about how these messages inspired him and his policies.
As President Obama toured the exhibits with Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett, he reflected on those letters and how they’re brought to life in the Museum today. The letters are paired with a deeply moving film created by Chicago’s own Manual Cinema, which beautifully illustrates the stories of letter writers as diverse as a worried veteran, a hopeful refugee and a joyful adoptee.
The Obama Presidential Center opens June 19.
FETTERMAN CONFRONTED: “I’m a breast cancer survivor, I had a double mastectomy, and the Trump administration took my health care away… And you’re standing with him.”
Fetterman can barely talk. Painful to watch as usual.