JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: A Fever for Caitlin Clark
By Jim “Pappy” Moore
America has a Fever for the number one women’s basketball player in the world – Caitlin Clark. The twenty-two-year old rookie in the WNBA has proved she is as outstanding as her record breaking play in college and in the WNBA. She has put the Indiana Fever on the map.
She is an old school hero, however. None of that over-the-top bragging that has become standard for so many emerging stars in sports. Her passing is out of this world! She drops dimes all over the floor to her teammates, getting them the ball where they need it. A point guard, she led the league in assists this just ending rookie season.
Cailin Clark can drain three-point shots 28 feet from the basket. She has the kind of long-range accuracy which has made Steph Curry an NBA star and several times champion.
Clark has a winning personality. She’s been a baller her whole life. Great person. Great family. Who could hate such a wonderful person, such an outstanding player? Jealous WNBA players and former players, that’s who.
Clark arrived with a boyfriend, and with millions of fans who love her.
You might think the WNBA would be happy to have a superstar among their number, someone who can fill arenas built for NBA teams. You would be wrong. You might think WNBA players would love getting to ride chartered jets instead of commercial, but many of them are bitter and hateful beyond words.
The violence Caitlin Clark has suffered this past WNBA season has been very distasteful. She has been repeatedly physically attacked during games, on the floor, by assaults which should warrant criminal charges against the perps.
Too often, the WNBA players hating on Clark have looked more like bar fighters than legitimate professional basketball players.
The WNBA cannot exist without money from the NBA. Every year the NBA has spent about $25,000,000 keeping the WNBA running. It is time for the NBA to step in and give the WNBA a long-deserved make-over.
I recall the early years of the WNBA. The Houston Comets won the first four championships of the league. But since that time the league has devolved from a basketball league to combination basketball-roller derby league, with worse physical attacks than seen in men’s basketball.
The Fever are out of the playoffs after two games, both of them being examples of excessive targeting of Caitlin Clark, and poor officiating which favored the other team. Any time one team gets more than twice as many free throws as the other team, that can indicate some bias in officiating at the professional level. I saw what I saw.
The WNBA leadership must be replaced. Coaches who employ enforcers must be run off. Players who cannot get with the program must be sent packing to play on foreign teams.
There’s a new sheriff in town, and her name is Caitlin Clark. Build the league around her, and run off the 10% of players, coaches and owners who cannot get with the program. Run them off. Create a new face for the league. America needs a hero, and her name is Caitlin Clark.
Copyright 2024, Jim “Pappy” Moore. All rights reserved.