WNBA owner says league, not Caitlin Clark, should have been TIME magazine Athlete of Year

One WNBA team owner is taking issue with Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark’s Athlete of the Year award from TIME Magazine.

Sheila Johnson, the owner of the Washington Mystics, went on CNN on Friday morning to talk about the award and how she feels it is singling out one player.

TIME honored Clark as the Athlete of the Year because of her historic season, both on and off the court: according to an IndyStar study, she was responsible for one in six tickets sold in the WNBA in 2024, and packed home and away arenas alike. Over 300,000 fans came through Gainbridge Fieldhouse (a WNBA single-season record), and opposing arenas were packed throughout the season.

More: Caitlin Clark makes her debut on list of highest-paid female athletes in the world

Multiple teams, including the Mystics and Las Vegas Aces, moved their games from their smaller usual arenas to NBA or NHL-size arenas for Fever games throughout the season. The Fever played the Mystics in the final game of the regular season at the home of the NBA’s Washington Wizards (quadruple the size of the Mystics’ home arena) and set a single-game attendance record of 20,744. The WNBA was named the fastest-growing brand of 2024 by Morning Consult, which evaluated over 1,700 brands.

But, Johnson told CNN anchor Amanda Davies she thinks TIME shouldn’t have singled out Clark specifically.

“It has taken the WNBA almost 28 years to get to the point where we are now,” Johnson said on CNN. “And this year, something clicked with the WNBA and it’s because of the draft, the players that came in. It’s not just Caitlin Clark, it’s (Angel) Reese, there’s so much talent out that has been unrecognized, and I don’t think we can pin it on just one player.”

The league was already growing exponentially before Clark was drafted in 2024, mostly on the efforts of Black women like three-time MVP A’ja Wilson, New York Liberty MVP Jonquel Jones, and WNBA All-Stars DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas. But the young Fever star was a catalyst for the 2024 season, as economist Ryan Brewer projected that Clark was responsible for 26.5% of economic activity within the league in her rookie year.

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Some of that activity, both economically and through the media, came off of perceived rivalries, especially between Clark and fellow Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese. The four times the Fever and Sky played in 2024 were some of the most talked-about games of the season, and those games were nearly sold out in every instance. The WNBA is leaning into that rivalry in 2025, as the Fever and Sky are playing five times in the regular season, including the season-opener.

Johnson said in her CNN interview she believes Clark has been singled out because of her being a white woman, which leaves her Black colleagues behind.

Clark is the fifth athlete and the second basketball player to earn this award since TIME introduced the Athlete of the Year honor in 2019. LeBron James is the only other basketball player to earn the honor. Clark also joins Simone Biles, Lionel Messi, and Aaron Judge as individual honorees. There is some precedent for multiple players to earn the award, as TIME gave the entire 2019 US Women’s National Soccer Team the award after they fought for equal pay in 2019.

“I want to be very diplomatic about this, and it’s just the structure of the way the media plays out race, if I’m being very honest,” Johnson said. “I feel really bad, because I’ve seen so many players of color that are equally as talented, and they never get the recognition that they should have. And I think right now, it is time for that to happen. So last night, you read TIME Magazine, and Caitlin Clark was the athlete of the year. Why couldn’t they have put the whole WNBA on the cover and say ‘The WNBA is the league of the year,’ because of all the talent that we have. Because when you just keep singling out one player, it creates hard feelings, so now you’re starting to hear stories of racism in the WNBA, and I don’t want to hear that. We have got to operate and become stronger as a league and respect everybody that’s playing and their talents.”

Los Angeles Sparks player Lexie Brown came to Clark’s defense in a series of posts on X, posting “Saying that after having to move her team’s games to a bigger arena when they played the Fever is absolutely insane.”

As one of the most popular players in the league, Clark has gotten a lot of outside brand partnerships — including a $3.5 million year deal from Nike, a deal with State Farm in which she stars in nationwide commercials, and deals with Hy-Vee, Gatorade, Buick, Xfinity and Gainbridge.

However, Clark is not the only player receiving those deals or appearing on magazine covers.

Reese was one of the most popular women’s basketball players in the country even before she became a member of the Sky, and she will release a signature shoe with Reebok in 2026 (similar to Clark’s signature shoe deal with Nike). Reese also has brand deals with Reese’s Puffs, where she was featured on the cover of the cereal box as it was renamed ‘Angel Reese’s Puffs,’ has posed for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, and has appeared on the cover of magazines like Women’s Health, Sports Illustrated and Adweek.

Wilson also has a brand deal with Nike for a signature shoe that will be releasing in 2025, as well as a clothing line with the brand. Wilson has appeared in nationwide commercials for Nike, Gatorade and Google, was on the cover of the NBA 2K video game and was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2024 in April.

Clark addressed how she has unintentionally became a flashpoint for discussions surrounding race in the league during her TIME interview, as well. As a white woman from West Des Moines, Iowa, in a majority-Black league, some people following Clark’s game have used her to put down some Black players. She wanted to shut those conversations down.

“I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” Clark told TIME. “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.”

Here are some other fans reactions to Johnson’s interview:

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Mystics owner says WNBA, not Caitlin Clark, should be TIME Athlete of Year