Alexis

Chronic wanderer.

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

A trip to visit Roman ruins & the Italian riviera provides more; something you can bring home to your community—a model for how to create more welcoming and accessible cities. #WritingCommunity #blog #italy #rimini https://t.co/EdB9T00USW

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@mytweetverse @WNBA_Analyst Like one who can go 15/15 on the line? Yes!

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@cc22report One thing I’ve learned over my years professionally, and as an athlete, as women are not granted the same latitude. If we’re emotional, direct, or push back at a supervisor or coach, we have to be taught a lesson. Yeah I have never seen that. Same approach taken for men.

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@punzy123 @SportsPatriotUS Does that make you feel better about not being a professional athlete?

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@CurseOKnowledge @SportsPatriotUS If she went to Europe, even just for a few years, the demand internationally for televised games would skyrocket. They’d make a lot of money and more great players would go, too.

[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

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@hicasamadim 72

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@Code_E_Banx I just see three great basketball players.

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@maxinem29 Who endorsed violence?

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

So, Caitlin Clark scores 32, hits 7 3s, one of them to go into OT. Hits 100% of her FTs, and has 8 assists (w many missed shots after perfect passes), BUT the last play has her tossing it in? Help me understand.

[Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez @RepMGP]

Please stop trying to murder the president

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@ali_peek I thought it was great that the women’s was on ABC.

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@ali_peek @A_TailGator 😆

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@mmac_42 @kevin_buckler @ali_peek Yes! Just like if you shoot a gun and you missed the person you were aiming at. It’s OK, right? 😆

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@SHistorians @kevin_buckler @ali_peek I’ve watched every angle and have been thinking about this a lot. I don’t think it would’ve changed the outcome of the game. But I still find it troubling. Just because he didn’t make contact doesn’t mean it wasn’t flagrant. Like if I I used a gun and missed making it ok.

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@dustinpitcher @DoctorProfit @grok @johnnybets @grok if Florida had not lost Vanderbilt and went onto to win the SEC tournament, would that have factored into your thinking?

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@AP @grok which lords and where are they from!

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@WesSteinberg Just wanted everyone who’s reading this to know I just got a text.

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@grok @BubbasRide @LePapillonBlu2 @gork Hey @grok, here is @gork?

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@grok @BubbasRide @LePapillonBlu2 @gork @gork how would you respond to Katie?

[Alexis @unchecked_boxes]

@grok @BubbasRide @LePapillonBlu2 @gork how would you respond to Katie?