WNBA star exhibits help for Caitlin Clark after race feedback; coach says to ‘again off’ notion she is hated

A debate grew earlier this week when basketball Corridor of Famer Charles Barkley claimed that different WNBA gamers had been “petty” about Caitlin Clark’s stardom.

Angel Reese appeared to take a delicate shot at Clark in a since-deleted social media publish, whereas A’ja Wilson mentioned race was a “big factor” in her recognition.

Clark mentioned she would not take note of such notions, however reigning champion head coach Becky Hammon, of Wilson’s Las Vegas Aces, mentioned any such narratives must cease.

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“We love Caitlin Clark. I believe she’s superb. I watch each time I presumably might. Our league loves her. We’re simply doing our job. We’re gonna present up. Whoever’s on the opposite staff is on the opposite staff. We do not actually care – we’re gonna present up and do us,” Hammon said.

“I believe this narrative of everyone hating on Caitlin Clark – and even the black and white factor – knock it off. It is not there. It is not there. So shut down the noise, and black and white, what’s she, 22? She’s a 22-year-old girl with loads of stress, she’s not excellent, she’s a rookie on this league. Again off.”

The race remark is considerably ironic and damning, as her star participant in Wilson stood proper beside the coach in the course of the schpeel, simply two weeks after saying that “it’s” about “Black and White.”

“It truly is since you may be top-notch at what you’re as a Black girl, however but perhaps that’s one thing that individuals don’t need to see,” Wilson mentioned on the time. “They don’t see it as marketable, so it doesn’t matter how onerous I work. It doesn’t matter what all of us do as Black girls, we’re nonetheless going to be swept beneath the rug. That’s why it boils my blood when folks say it’s not about race as a result of it’s.”

ANGEL REESE’S MOM DENIES DAUGHTER’S X POST WAS AIMED AT CAITLIN CLARK: ‘OF COURSE YOU’RE ABOUT CLICKS’

However after Hammon was carried out talking, Wilson supplied one other thought.

“She’s studying and rising like everybody else. I really feel like folks do not give her an opportunity,” she mentioned. “We inform our rookies each single day, that is new. You are coming into a complete different new world and beginning over. So, these questions are solely annoying as a result of she’s younger. She’s a rookie. You retain asking us these questions as if she’s a grown-ass girl that is been on this league for years. No, she’s doing her job. We’re doing ours and on the finish of the day, that is how we develop, is after we get higher and do issues like that.

“I am simply exhausted over the dialog as a result of I do know she’s exhausted. I can solely think about.”

Forward of her recreation Friday, Clark was requested in regards to the “narratives across the consideration” she’s gotten “versus a few of the vets which were on this league for a very long time.”

“To be sincere, I am not likely on social media. I do not learn that,” Clark mentioned. “That is my job. My job is to compete and play basketball each single day. I believe the extra consideration we will get on each staff round this league, that is solely going to assist me get higher and higher. 

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“My job is simply to proceed to point out up and assist this staff get higher. We’re preventing for our first win. That is my important focus.”

Clark and the Fever earned their first win on Friday evening, due to the rookie’s clutch threes down the stretch in entrance of a star-studded crowd in Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Enviornment towards the Sparks.

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