Leonard Greene: WNBA star Caitlin Clark has to deal with minor players and bigoted fans

Caitlin Clark can't win.

On one side of the field, she takes on minor players who believe the only reason she achieved rockstar status is because she's white.

On the other side of the court, she faces critics who say she is not doing enough to denounce the racist backlash against the minor players.

Somewhere in the middle – let's call it half-court – Clark has managed to take the women's basketball world by storm, filling sold-out arenas en route to a record-setting season as WNBA Rookie of the Year.

But even that was controversial. Clark's rookie of the year award fell short of unanimity by one vote (66 to 1). Why? That's because an anonymous voter chose to vote for Caitlin's biggest rival and college rival, Angel Reese, who led the WNBA in rebounding (13.1 per game) and missed the final few weeks of the regular season with a broken wrist.

Clark, who plays for the Indiana Fever, broke several league and franchise records in her first WNBA season, including the record for assists in a season, the rookie scoring record and most points by a guard in a single season of WNBA history.

One voice. Inconsequential.

“I am incredibly honored to be named Rookie of the Year,” Clark said in a statement. “But beyond that, I’m grateful to everyone who supported me last season.”

Clark was suitably modest, but she was criticized in some circles for the bigotry that surrounded her status as the latest great white hope.

After the Connecticut Sun knocked their team out of the playoffs late last month, Fever fans showered Sun players with hateful comments. Much of it was directed at Suns guard DiJonai Carrington, who accidentally poked Clark in the eye.

The incident prompted one columnist, Christine Brennan of USA Today, to ask Carrington whether the hit was intentional.

The WNBA Players Association was so offended by the question that it released a statement calling the question a “blatant attempt to entice a professional athlete to participate in a narrative that is false and intended to promote racist, to stir up homophobic and misogynistic hate speech on social media.”

Carrington's teammate Alyssa Thomas said the backlash against black players was shameful.

“I’ve never been called what I’ve been called on social media and there’s no place for it,” Thomas said in a postgame press conference.

Even Clark, fed up with the blatant racist foul-ups, fought back.

“No one in our league should be subjected to any type of racism, (or) hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats,” Clark said. “They’re not fans, they’re trolls, and that’s a real disservice to the people in our league.”

But like a full-court game, the bigotry goes both ways.

Like Larry Bird before her, Clark has been the target of jealous, petty black players who act as if she only gets the recognition she does because she is white.

But like Bird before her, Clark is so good.

But don't hate the player. Don't hate the game either. Hate the narrow-minded fans and corporate overlords who pit players against each other.

Whose idea was it for Nike to give Clark a shoe deal and do next to nothing to promote them? Was the company afraid of offending the WNBA's black players and fans?

And what about the small players? Don't they realize that Clark is the rising tide that lifts all their boats?

Their advertising contract, the sold-out arenas and the television revenue put money in their pockets.

If there's anyone who needs to shut up and dribble, it's him.

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