If the other players could drive Clark from the league altogether, they would not lose much in personal compensation, which clearly would not have been the case had black NBA players banded together to injure Larry Bird or push him out of professional basketball. They would have paid a serious price for their actions. The women, not so much.
Because the WNBA is not a profitable entity, its survival owes more to feminist and racial politics than anything else and the response of the league to Caitlin Clark drives home that point. A male star like Clark who is so good that he is changing the game would be honored in the NBA. The WNBA, however, is looking more and more like just another part of the modern Grievance Industry. As long as the league is heavily-subsidized, don’t look for that part to change.
A political sport and sports teams in the real world? Since it does not hurt them to be the mean girls they go in being mean girls to nobody’s detriment. If they were to get more money because of Clark, there would be different treatment, don’t you think?
That's probably right. I'd also imagine they lost a lot of sponsorship deals when she burst onto the scene.
Well, that could be true, if there were sponsorship deals to be had before she entered the league. The problem seems to be the perception that the WNBA is only a result of the Title IX law. Perhaps, the players should get paid according to their value to the league (that is loosing $40M per year). They might begin appreciating what Clark is bringing to the league more, then.
It's possible that we'll see it become a viable league, especially with the sports betting tie-ins.
It'll be interesting to see if they start acting like real athletes at that point or if they remain whiny entitled petulant woke activists.
I think they could become a viable league, but they may need something like the aforementioned Bird-Johnson rivalry to really get some traction. The author of the article indicates that seems to be what brought the NBA back from the point of dissolution. It could work for the women, too.
Similar things happened amongst the men over the years as NBA got more profitable and salaries increased. I think MJ was quite resented at the time before he won any championships. I also recall reading that in the Larry Bird era and before that lesser paid players sometimes got second jobs.
Yes, but the true rivalry brought interest into the game and new ticket sales that allowed the players to get paid more for their labor. The value of their play, to the team went up as more people demanded more tickets to see the games.
Even at it’s lowest point NBA ratings were much higher than WNBA
Caitlin has single handedly lifted women basketball.
The other women keep leaning in to foul her flagrantly
Referees need to protect the stars
Who is hindering women? Women
I guess the other women do not appreciate higher contracts.
They can't see the big picture or the financial picture
typical female 'thinking'
The players let their feelz get in the way of what they want.
they have agents who should tell them don't kill the golden goose
Yeah, how has that worked until now? I don't think the agents have much power over these behaviors, do they?
Does Boston have wnba team?
There were other great white players before Larry like west and Havlicek and Dave Cowens , Mikan and Schayes
There is no WNBA team in Boston.
Maybe in the future.
I would guess that consumer tastes are shifting again or the ticket prices are too high.
ticket prices are def too high but that doesn't explain TV ratings decline
NBA has been too woke and political since 2015, probably earlier
I remember Dave Rubin complaining about it in 2016: I can't watch NBA w/o a political lecture!
I would venture to guess that they thought anything they did would be acceptable to basketball fans. The players just don’t sound very educated, even though they all came through college on those teams.
Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich should stop discussing gun control or Trump in public.
Same goes for the commissioner.
Remember they cancelled the all star game in North Carolina over transgender bathrooms.
Maybe a former NBA player should play in wnba
NBA has the largest black audience for tv 📺. The decline in ratings is disproportionately non black, probably. On the other hand most men regardless of race or ethnicity are not woke.
That could certainly be a factor. I think that the black population is rather conservative, too. That could also be a factor. Do you know which teams are failing the quickest. Is their some sort of indicator that would give a clue as to the reason for the failing?
The alternative is to start firing all those destroying the league, no matter who they are or how well they play. Every contract has a clause about harm to the parties and what to do when that happens.
https://xcancel.com/dom_lucre/status/1870262925417459990