Caitlin Clark‘s former college coach, Lisa Bluder, thinks it’s time for everyone around the WNBA — including Washington Mystics co-owner Sheila Johnson — to “embrace” how Clark’s stardom has provided a boost for women’s basketball.
Following a 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year season with the Indiana Fever, Clark was named Time magazine’s Athlete of the Year, a decision Johnson, the billionaire founder of BET network, said she disagreed with.
In an interview earlier this week with CNN Sports, Johnson said that “the structure of the way media plays out race” was a factor in Clark receiving the honor and argued that Time should have instead “put the whole WNBA on that cover, and said the WNBA is the League of the Year.”
Speaking with USA TODAY’s Sports Seriously, Bluder — who in May retired after 24 seasons coaching the Iowa Hawkeyes, where Clark played from 2020-24 — disagreed, insisting that Clark’s impact on women’s sports is historic.
“It’s silly to me that anybody’s trying to take away from something that’s so good in your sport right now,” said Bluder. “(Clark) is a person that’s really helped athletics, helped women’s sports in a way that nobody has helped women’s sports, maybe since Billie Jean King.”
Mystics owner Johnson: Unrelenting focus on Clark ‘creates hard feelings’
Johnson’s point is a nuanced one, and in the same interview the Mystics co-owner credited Clark for using her Time interview to call for more attention for the WNBA’s Black players.
“It has taken the WNBA almost 28 years to get to the point where we are now,” explained Johnson. “It’s just not Caitlin Clark, it’s (Angel) Reese. We have so much talent out there that has been unrecognized, and I don’t think we can just pin (the league’s rise) on one player…
“I feel really bad because I’ve seen so many players of color that are equally as talented, and they never got the recognition that they should have. And I think right now, it is time for that to happen.”
Bluder’s position appears to be that a rising tide will lift all boats, and that the entire WNBA will benefit from Clark’s fame.
“Let’s get on the bandwagon and help her out, make her life a little bit easier, because she is helping all of us,” said Bluder. “Sometimes, you know, we used to tell our team, ‘listen when, when Caitlin’s light shines on her, it shines on all of us.’ And I think everybody else needs to embrace that a little bit better.”
Clark defends Time honor, acknowledges white privilege
As is the case with any athlete that rockets to superstardom, Clark’s every word on larger issues can spark a reaction. Some have been dissatisfied at the frequency with which the 22-year-old has used her elevated platform to highlight the issues Johnson discussed. In speaking with Time magazine, Clark paid tribute to the WNBA’s Black players while insisting she has earned the plaudits she’s receiving.
“I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” explained Clark. “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. … The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lisa Bluder shoots down criticism of Caitlin Clark Time magazine cover
