WNBA’s A’ja Wilson: Clark’s Fame Linked to Being White

(LibertySociety.com) – WNBA player A’ja Wilson pulled the race card during a recent mainstream media interview while discussing the popularity of Caitlin Clark, who was recently drafted to the Indiana Fever. Wilson claimed that black women in the WNBA were cast aside while Clark, who holds the record for the most points scored in NCAA basketball, received special treatment because she is white. Wilson said that “they” do not see black women’s accomplishments as “marketable,” and that when people claim that it has nothing to do with race, it makes her blood boil.

Just one day before the interview hit the press, Wilson’s long-planned sneaker deal with Nike was announced. She released a statement following the announcement, recounting the enjoyable time spent developing her shoe with the company. Just a week earlier, she signed a deal with Gatorade. Those two deals prove that her claims were completely inaccurate regarding the marketability of black women athletes. Wilson is not the only voice making race-based claims about Clark. One prominent left-leaning media outlet also attributed her popularity to being white.

Contrarily, others have expressed pride in Clark for matching up with black WNBA players, including Paul Pierce, who played for 19 seasons in the NBA. Clark recently signed a multi-year deal with the sports equipment company, Wilson, which will come with her own basketball line. No such deal has been struck since Michael Jordan’s deal with the company right after he started playing for the NBA in 1984. The deal includes three basketball designs and other branded products. Additionally, the deal involves several initiatives, although the financial details were not released.

Since her WNBA career began on May 14, Clark has jumped to the top five for assists, blocks, and average points scored per game. ESPN’s broadcast of the game received the most views ever for a WNBA game on the network. She was slapped with a technical foul on May 20 after she cussed at a referee for not calling a foul on another player.