Ahead of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year announcement on Thursday, they’re releasing their other POTY titles, like CEO of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, and Athlete of the Year. Athlete of the Year went to none other than Caitlin Clark, arguably one of the most controversial and discussed athletes in America in the past two years. People – specifically white people – go absolutely feral when it comes to Caitlin Clark. She became a huge college basketball star, and she is currently the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. Clark’s teams never won an NCAA title, nor a WNBA title, but her fame and race have brought a crazy amount of attention to women’s basketball.
While I understand why Clark was chosen – she really was one of the most-discussed athletes of the year – I also think it’s weird that the AOTY wasn’t someone who played in the Olympics? It’s an Olympic year – hello, LeBron James won his third gold medal at 39! Steph Curry played in the Olympics for the first time and won gold! Diana Taurasi won her SIXTH gold medal at the age of 42! Leon Marchand became a French national hero! Simone Biles exists! But yeah, Caitlin has become a phenomenon and her presence in the WNBA has changed women’s basketball really quickly. Some highlights from Caitlin’s Time AOTY profile:
What she’s doing for the sport: She signed a reported $28 million endorsement deal with Nike, the largest ever for a women’s basketball player. Clark’s Fever appeared in the most watched WNBA games ever on ABC, CBS, ESPN, and ESPN2. The WNBA attracted an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers across all its national broadcasting platforms during the regular season, and the league’s overall attendance jumped 48% year over year to its highest level in more than two decades. The Fever broke the WNBA record for home attendance by a single franchise, and Fever games were moved to NBA and NHL arenas in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., to accommodate the hordes of fans, many donning Clark’s No. 22 jersey. The Washington Mystics-Fever regular-season finale set a new WNBA single-game attendance record of 20,711.
Clark on bringing more fans to the sport: “I’ve been able to captivate so many people that have never watched women’s sports, let alone women’s basketball, and turn them into fans.”
She often finds herself surrounded by controversy: “I tell people I feel like the most controversial person. But I am not. It’s just because of all the storylines that surround me. I literally try to live and treat everybody in the same exact respectful, kind way. It just confuses me at times.”
Her defenders have pushedracist, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ narratives: She calls this toxicity “upsetting” and “gross,” but during the season she addressed the discourse mostly when asked about it in courtside interviews or at press conferences rather than proactively engaging with it.
On her rivalry with Angel Reese, which began during the NCAA championship game last year: “I don’t get that at all… We’re not best friends, by any means, but we’re very respectful of one another. Yes, we have had tremendous battles. But when have I ever guarded her? And when has she guarded me?” She downplays Reese’s ring gesture. “I didn’t think it was taunting. It really didn’t bother me. It’s just like, ‘Why don’t you talk about them winning? Or the incredible run that we went on that nobody would have thought we would have ever gone on?’ The only thing people cared about was this controversy that was really fabricated and made up, and then that has continued to be the case ever since.”
Her white privilege. “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”
She wasn’t chosen for the Olympic team: “I don’t want to be there because I’m somebody that can bring attention. I love that for the game of women’s basketball. But at the same time, I want to be there because they think I’m good enough. I don’t want to be some little person that is kind of dragged around for people to cheer about and only watch because I’m sitting on the bench. That whole narrative kind of upset me. Because that is not fair. It’s disrespectful to the people that were on the team, that had earned it and were really good. And it’s also disrespectful to myself. ”
Whether she thinks she’ll speak out against the racist storylines: “It’s something I’m trying to navigate. I’m trying to find a balance while being a rookie.” But she hears the calls imploring her to step up for her colleagues, particularly in a league known for its outspokenness on social-justice issues. “I’m probably the most popular player in the league at the moment, and somebody a lot of people turn to to have a voice on this type of stuff. I hope we can do a better job as a league of protecting our players and putting better resources around them to make it a safer environment. And obviously, there’s only so much you can police on social media, because we don’t have full control over social media. But there is real responsibility. I understand that, and I acknowledge that.” So what’s her message to bad-faith actors harassing others in her name? “Just stop,” says Clark. “Because that’s not who I am.”
There are some quotes from WNBA coaches and former players who defend Clark even as they acknowledge that she could speak out against the racist narratives playing out among her growing fanbase. Most of the defenses are like – Clark has a lot on her plate, she’s focused on the sport, not on cultural issues. And she’s doing all of this at 22 years old, when really, she’s only had to confront race issues head on for less than two years. I don’t have an answer – I think she could do better, but I also acknowledge that she’s like a lot of 22-year-old white women, in that she doesn’t have the language or experience to really speak out in a helpful or authentic way. I think it’s a positive thing that she addresses some of the narratives head on in this piece and doesn’t shy away from telling her fans to cool it. She’s genuinely trying to tamp down a lot of the hateful rhetoric being thrown at Angel Reese and other women of color.
Cover & IG courtesy of Time.
Her teams have never won a WNBA championship? She’s played 1 year on a team that was a disaster the year before she joined and catapulted into the playoffs. She was so good early on that her teammates couldn’t handle her passes – they were too hot. She’s 22. She’s getting involved in the right causes and efforts in Indianapolis. She’s spoken out periodically but rightfully doesn’t take on everything that is said.
Her fans are trash and I was sick to death of them attacking anyone Black for daring to be good. They were calling WNBA players the N word. I am sick of it. I am sure a ton of Black basketball players are feeling some kind of way now and I don’t blame them.
Whatever. 2025 is the Year of the Aggrieved White People it seems.
Caitlin got an otherwise middling college team to two straight NCAA finals, which is a lot more impressive than winning with a team with a dozen future WNBA players on it like the teams that dominate women’s college basketball. She then did the same thing with the Indiana Fever, she got a team that was terrible last year to the playoffs, of course with the help of many skilled teammates including Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. She is an amazing player, full stop. She’s not getting too much credit because she’s white, she’s getting credit because she’s amazing. I do believe many of the black female players do not get *enough* credit but there is no serious question whether Caitlin deserved rookie of the year, despite being hazed at the beginning of the season with flagrant fouls. I think she’s going to break most of the career and season offensive records in the WNBA if she stays healthy.
As for Diana Taurasi, she never should have been on that Olympic team. The US women barely hung on to win against France, Taurasi barely played the entire Olympics, and they should have picked a much younger team that included Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. The all star team easily beat the Olympic team in the all star game. There are of course other people who could be this athlete of the year but Caitlin probably was the most talked about athlete of the year, it was her rookie WNBA year, so this is a good choice and not surprising and Caitlin Clark honestly does an amazing job being graceful about all the attention being heaped on her and somehow having to answer for all the racism in women’s sports and the media. Kudos to her and the Fever, can’t wait to watch them again next season, I think they are going to be great.
Taurasi was there for her leadership and experience. Clark will be picked for the Olympics going forward, but she hadn’t been practicing with the team and we were already rich with guards going into the Olympics.
Winning Olympic gold isn’t just about having a star or popular player, but about teamwork and knowing where your teammates are on the floor during the game. Clark wasn’t available for training; it’s that simple.
The men’s Olympic team was also full of veterans. Playing internationally is a whole different ball game than playing in college. It’s more physical and Clark wasn’t ready for that.
I think this is the correct take on the Olympic team decisions. Clark had never trained with the Senior team (she’d spent time with the U18s). All she was going to do was sit on the bench if she had gone to France (even Taurasi got less playing time as they moved along and didn’t step on the floor in the gold medal game). If my recollection is correct, Ionescu was the youngest player on the team and she was a 26 year old, fourth or fifth year pro (depending on if you count the 2020 bubble season where she played two or three games before getting hurt).
Clark had also gone straight from the NCAA season into the WNBA season and hadn’t had a real break in almost a year. She needed a few weeks of downtime and low-key practices with the Fever. They came back after the break as a much more cohesive team, even if their coaching was not quite right for the roster they had. Let’s see what happens this year – I suspect it will be a much deeper run into the playoffs.
The All Star team that beat the Olympic team also included at least one player that wasn’t eligible of the US team – Jonquel Jones is not a US citizen (she’s from The Bahamas). That said, Arike Ogumbowale was the true snub of the US team.
The US women’s Olympic team should have been great, they weren’t, because they were mostly too old. The failure to use Ionescu more says more about why the team was not great than it does about their rationale for picking who they picked. ionescu had one of the best seasons of any single player this year in the WNBA and she absolutely should have been on the floor more, watching those games was painful, they are extremely lucky they pulled off the win in the final. The team was badly picked, and that is not a controversial opinion even if there are arguments why Caitlin and Angel weren’t “ready” or whatever.
Hate this! Just look at the stats. Iowa had several good players and Indiana has several great players but she single handedly got them there. Just compliment her. Some Iowa players complained about this.
It isn’t mentioned, but I’m sure it was a factor, that WNBA viewership is three times higher than that of other WNBA games when Caitlin Clark is playing. Whether that is because of her talent or the alleged Angel Reese drama or because she’s white etc – the sponsors don’t care why. I’m not saying it is fair or right, but she has become the player people want to see, either because they like her or dislike her. Whether it is deserved or not, she has changed the WNBA in terms of visibility and viewership. I believe the same for NCAA women’s basketball as well.
It’s worth pointing out as well that Caitlin has had a lot of naysayers and she has proven them all wrong. Both of the two most prominent college coaches (Staley and Auriemma) predicted she wouldn’t do well in the WNBA, and then she became rookie of the year, very deservedly.
White supremacy is what has lifted her. White people want to control everything any HINT of a “great whit hope” they lose their minds. She’s never one a championship. Why is she lauded? Because she talented and white. Period.
Her acknowledgement of white privilege and her fan base being mad is just another day. I’m sick of them all.
Should have been Simone Biles but it’s good to see Caitlin acknowledge that her toxic fans are an issue and that she’s not shying away from the fact that her whiteness has been weaponised against the other players and it has helped her to get all those endorsement deals. She needs to start winning things now.
I would have loved Simone Biles as Time’s AOTY, she won it in 2021 and deserved a repeat.
Breaking both the NCAA men’s scoring records and the NCAA women’s scoring records is how Caitlin got noticed. I’m a fan of A’ja, Angel, Britney G and Dawn Staley (it’s a long list) too as well as Caitlin. The WNBA is overdue to get the recognition and $ they deserve.
I like her comments here – especially about the manufactured controversy with Angel Reese, the way league was built on Black women and how she thinks we (the press and society) need to be highlighting that more, etc.
I think she is a good pick for Athlete of the Year because of the cultural impact she has had. More people are talking about the WNBA now than were talking about it a year ago, and that’s a good thing for women’s sports. People started talking about Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain and Abby Wambach and now if I go to a bar and the USWNT is playing during the olympics or world cup (when the timing works out), the bar is packed with people watching women’s soccer.
So I think this intense interest in Caitlin Clark will end up being a very good thing for the WNBA. Maybe someone gets Fever tickets just to see her and then they think “hey this is fun, I like this” and then they become season ticket holders and can talk about the other players, the other teams.
It doesn’t mean she’s the best women’s basketball player of all time or that the women who came before her weren’t important or didn’t make huge strides for women’s sports in general and basketball in particular. But right now she is having a huge impact, especially on ticket sales and TV viewership, and those metrics are very very important to the People in Charge.
She acknowledged her toxic fans in a Time interview while ignoring them when they said anything controversial through out the year. Her boyfriend is an idiot. I feel like an Olympic athlete should have won but yeah the WNBA had the most talked about rivalry.
As a University of Iowa grad and someone who has attended Iowa WBB games for years, I love what Caitlin Clark has done for the sport. She’s helping get more eyes on women’s sports overall and it’s wonderful, especially for all the young girls I see at Iowa games sporting No. 22 jerseys. Plenty of boys wear them, too. Actually, the entire team is loved, with players getting deals with Raygun (www.raygunsite.com), an Iowa-based company (an EXTREMELY liberal company; we love them!), so all could be celebrated. I don’t own a Clark shirt, but I had one for Kate Martin, Gabby Douglas, Molly Davis, Sydney Affolter, and Hannah Stulke. I still get to wear Southside Syd and Stulke Smooth this year, and loved supporting Kate and Megan Gustafson with the Aces! I’m excited to see what Kate will do with her new team next season!
It’s sad that racist people calling themselves fans threw mud on what was an incredible year for Clark, the NCAA, and the WNBA. I’m sure it sucks to see her getting all of this attention, but she is a generational talent and for being only 22, she’s taken everything thrown at her in stride. No, she doesn’t have a championship yet, but don’t forget she helped Iowa beat South Carolina to make it to the NCAA finals in 2023, ending the Gamecocks 42-game winning streak in the process. Then they returned to the finals a year later, beating LSU to get back to that spot.
The women who started the WNBA should always be celebrated for making professional basketball viable for female athletes. And, as the league’s popularity grows, hopefully it will expand, allowing more talented college athletes to play. It isn’t easy being a trailblazer, especially when it means watching others who come after you get the attention you fought to receive in your day, but that’s also the downside of being first. You aren’t doing just for yourself, but those who will follow in your footsteps.
As a Hawkeye myself, I totally agree. Clark is loved in Iowa for a reason, and she overcame a lot of hate and hazing in the WNBA to excel this year. She does so much for the community and so much for women’s sports. Quite frankly, you see the bump even in viewership for other women’s sports like volleyball. The whole “she never won a championship” narrative is just dumb- its a team and she lifted that whole team to two runner up wins in the NCAA. I’m glad she was recognized. Well deserved.
Team Stephen Nedoroscik. Nerds unite.
Some of CC’s white fans are losing their sh*t over her acknowledgment of her white privilege, and I love that for them.
I’m glad she spoke up.
I do think this idea that CC is the SOLE reason for the explosion of interest in the WNBA is a matter of conjecture. I am someone who DGAF about sports and for the past three years I would say I and other friends who also DGAF about sports have all gotten into the WNBA and that’s because of the Black players in the league and NCAA having an incredible Social Media game. I’ve been inundated with so many fun posts of off the court fashion, on the court fashion and these cute fun videos. Pre CC there was buzz around women’s BBall because Sza, Victoria Monet, and HER, and Gucci Mane, started regularly showing up to the games. So that’s another thing about this that’s quite annoying the players had started putting in really hard work themselves to get eyes on the league.