phanman wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:1. The people tuning in to watch Clark in general are going to be people excited about Clark. If they watch her get humiliated, this may well dampen their enthusiasm.
2. Since not just Clark but everyone in the women's game is invested in the bubble of hype surrounding Clark, making her next move something that humiliates her seems like a guaranteed way to puncture the bubble.
I don't get the argument for her getting humiliated in the Big 3. She can definitely hang with that level of competition even if they are in fact men. You have to remember that it is strictly a half court game which places a higher emphasis on skills vs athleticism. There are plenty of female basketball players that can easily hang with men on the basketball court, c'mon guys, its 2024.
Your timeline is also off considering that the WNBA season officially begins on May 14. A full 10 days before the BIG 3 season kicks off. So she will have plenty of time from the draft to the start of the season to showcase her skillset in practices, pre-season games and roughly 5-6 regular season games too.
Doctor MJ wrote:3. There's already a great deal of resentment among female players for the opportunities Clark is getting, and accepting this will make it worse. You might think "Why does Clark care about that?", but realistically she's going to have to play with top women if she wants to have a long, successful career.
4. If you didn't realize, there's already a specific resentment against straight, white women in the WNBA. Kelsey Plum has talked about knowing all about this before she even got to the WNBA, and working really hard to prove that she wasn't an entitled diva. Clark has also already shown a pretty deft touch in not accepting special treatment - like when Jill Biden suggested "both teams should come to the White House!" after last year's NCAA finals which left many in the women's game thinking, "She wouldn't have said that if Clark wasn't white". (For the record, I don't think Biden had any ill intentions there...but I also don't think she'd have been as aware of Iowa if not for Clark, and wouldn't have been aware of Clark if she looked different. She was foolish, and Clark & Iowa would have been foolish to embrace he suggestion, but they didn't.)
This really doesn't matter. Like you stated, why would she care that her competition resents her for the opportunities that she has earned with her play? It's not like we're talking about a fringe all star here, this is arguably one of the best prospects to ever come out woman's basketball.
As an athlete, I don't think they even give a damn about how their opponents feel about them and good riddance. You don't have to be friendly with people who are jealous of your success. With her teammates I am sure everybody on the Indiana Fever team doesn't give a damn, they just care they they are getting Clark on their team.
