# BEST OF: Colin Cowherd on Caitlin Clark + Indiana Fever Reactions

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 12 Jul 2025, 44 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/6259ba00-5805-4d54-980a-b3170127237d/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin Cowherd is joined by Danny Parkins, Jason Timpf, and Nick Wright to discuss the WNBA’s biggest draw: Caitlin Clark. What does the media get wrong about Caitlin Clark? Is the Indiana Fever star the next Michael Jordan? Will she be a billion dollar athlete like LeBron James? What will the future hold for one of the most popular basketball players on the planet? Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:11] Speaker 1: So I'm gonna throw this at you. There are some
[0:13] Speaker 1: genetic and gender realities that seem unfair to me. Oh,
[0:17] Speaker 1: you're driving on the freeway. You're driving on the freeway.
[0:21] Speaker 1: Be totally honest. If a skinny guy is in a
[0:24] Speaker 1: car eating, he's got burgers, you're thinking to yourself, that
[0:28] Speaker 1: guy's on the go, he doesn't have time to stop.
[0:29] Speaker 1: That guy is a hustler, he is making things happen. Okay,
[0:35] Speaker 1: Having set guy in a car is eating burgers, You're like,
[0:39] Speaker 1: and I am too. Oh really, you can't even drive
[0:42] Speaker 1: without eating. I mean, give me a break, Like, what
[0:45] Speaker 1: what you can't You can't pull over?
[0:47] Speaker 2: You have to.
[0:49] Speaker 1: It's a it's a we have no idea about those
[0:51] Speaker 1: two people. That is how people view Wait, we're all
[0:55] Speaker 1: watists at times.
[0:57] Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I'm not saying no to your friend Colin.
[1:00] Speaker 2: I can't.
[1:01] Speaker 3: I love your analogies. Go ahead, I'll never refuse it.
[1:03] Speaker 3: Here's a gender reality.
[1:05] Speaker 2: Okay.
[1:06] Speaker 1: Men can hate each other. Jordan still holds a grudge
[1:10] Speaker 1: against Isaiah. Somehow it makes him more likable. Men can
[1:15] Speaker 1: taunt contrash talk. If Angel Reese appears to hate Caitlyn Clark,
[1:23] Speaker 1: it becomes a race topic. It is outrageous. It is unfair,
[1:27] Speaker 1: and I'm like time out. Women athletes can hate rivals too,
[1:34] Speaker 1: It's not to me.
[1:36] Speaker 2: I'm like, is it race we hate?
[1:42] Speaker 1: Is it used to be a commodity like you loved
[1:46] Speaker 1: when the writer cup we hated the years? Now everybody's rich.
[1:50] Speaker 1: But the Caitlyn Clark Angel Reese rivalry. One got the
[1:55] Speaker 1: best of the other in college the junior year. The
[1:57] Speaker 1: other one got the best of senior year. One goes midway,
[2:00] Speaker 1: small city, one goes big city. One gets more press.
[2:03] Speaker 1: I just I look at it and I think it
[2:05] Speaker 1: doesn't bother me that Angel Reese doesn't like Caitlin like like,
[2:09] Speaker 1: by the way, Caitlyn's game is fun and flashy.
[2:12] Speaker 2: Angels a rebounder like She's probably got a little built
[2:15] Speaker 2: in animosity. She won't get the press.
[2:19] Speaker 3: I think it's the worst story in sports media. I
[2:22] Speaker 3: hate the discourse around it. I think I think it's
[2:25] Speaker 3: I think it brings out the worst in everybody. I
[2:28] Speaker 3: really do think it's it's just show a lot of
[2:31] Speaker 3: people are showing their ass on this story. Of course,
[2:35] Speaker 3: what you just said is correct. I one of my
[2:38] Speaker 3: things to trope it's a cliche that I've just I
[2:41] Speaker 3: like the turn of phrase that I created less hate
[2:44] Speaker 3: in the world, more hate in sports. Sports hate is good.
[2:50] Speaker 3: It is objectively good. Now when it leads to like
[2:54] Speaker 3: fights in the stands, Okay, fine, someone took it too far,
[2:57] Speaker 3: But that doesn't mean that it is a bad thing.
[3:01] Speaker 3: Trash talk, rivalries, bolletin board material, lobbying, shots in the press,
[3:08] Speaker 3: hard fouls, staredowns, the occasional fight.
[3:12] Speaker 2: Those things are good.
[3:15] Speaker 3: They're good for ratings, they're good for business, they're good
[3:17] Speaker 3: for fan interest, they're good for jersey sales.
[3:20] Speaker 2: They are good.
[3:20] Speaker 3: It is good for the WNBA for there to be
[3:24] Speaker 3: sports hape, for there to be rivalries. It is a
[3:27] Speaker 3: good thing that is so objectively obviously true that I
[3:31] Speaker 3: can't believe anyone even dares to deny it. I do
[3:35] Speaker 3: think the Bird Magic stuff is a little ridiculous because
[3:41] Speaker 3: Bird and Magic, in terms of talents, we're kind of equals. Yes, Yes,
[3:47] Speaker 3: this is more like Michael Jordan and Bill Lambert. You
[3:50] Speaker 3: know they were rivals. Yeah, but they're not really the
[3:58] Speaker 3: same type of player, right. They hated each other, they
[4:01] Speaker 3: had great moments, but they were not like no one
[4:04] Speaker 3: was like, you know who carried the NBA at popularity,
[4:07] Speaker 3: Michael Jordan and Bill Lambier. It was not not how
[4:11] Speaker 3: we just got Like Caitlyn Clark is the phenomenon, She's
[4:15] Speaker 3: the comment and like that does that spur jealousy?
[4:19] Speaker 2: No doubt.
[4:21] Speaker 3: Are there interesting racial components to that story that I
[4:27] Speaker 3: think are fair to be discussed. For a league that
[4:30] Speaker 3: has had great players white and black before Caitlyn Clark,
[4:34] Speaker 3: why haven't they caught on in the same type of way,
[4:36] Speaker 3: Like I think that there is like fair conversations to
[4:38] Speaker 3: be had there. But a hard foul by Angel Reese
[4:45] Speaker 3: in a basketball game that like didn't even result in
[4:49] Speaker 3: a fight, It resulted in she said the F word. Like,
[4:55] Speaker 3: what the hell is the matter with people? I mean,
[4:58] Speaker 3: it's it's embarrassing, Like and the we don't need to
[5:04] Speaker 3: name the names. Everyone knows. The discourse of you know
[5:06] Speaker 3: who's going like you're talking about people's wives and you're
[5:11] Speaker 3: making it personal and then you're bringing all these just
[5:14] Speaker 3: shut up, shut up. It's just so it's so beneath
[5:19] Speaker 3: the industry to like take the discourse of online. You
[5:24] Speaker 3: are amazing at not being too online. I give you
[5:27] Speaker 3: a ton of credit for it. Nick Nick right, it's
[5:30] Speaker 3: amazing how he doesn't read his mentions. I still am
[5:33] Speaker 3: addicted to my phone. I still read my mentions. I
[5:35] Speaker 3: have gotten much much, much, much and much better about
[5:38] Speaker 3: not letting it bother me and not responding. But it
[5:42] Speaker 3: is so very clear that way too many people in
[5:45] Speaker 3: our industry formulate their opinions based on the algorithm that
[5:51] Speaker 3: they see on X and it's just complete horseshit. Like
[5:57] Speaker 3: I don't believe that people that go to that bas
[6:00] Speaker 3: B sketball game left being like, you know what, that
[6:03] Speaker 3: was a race war like basketball, Like you.
[6:09] Speaker 2: Know, I'm not.
[6:10] Speaker 3: I it's crazy and I'm not the biggest WNBA fan.
[6:14] Speaker 3: I'm not claiming to have WNBA bona fides or like
[6:17] Speaker 3: watching for years or like going ten deep on all
[6:20] Speaker 3: the rosters. So people like Parkins, I don't give a
[6:22] Speaker 3: shit about your WNBA takes.
[6:24] Speaker 2: That's fine. I just know sports and narratives that is.
[6:28] Speaker 3: A good thing for business, and people taking their online
[6:33] Speaker 3: commentary that is designed to divide us and then making
[6:40] Speaker 3: it actually like inform their sports opinions on television when
[6:43] Speaker 3: they are multi millionaire former professional athletes. They don't even
[6:47] Speaker 3: realize what they're doing, but it's just very embarrassing if
[6:51] Speaker 3: I really do find it embarrassing.
[6:53] Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt this great video, but please remember to
[6:56] Speaker 1: like and subscribe.
[6:58] Speaker 2: Thank you. Now back to the video. Yeah, it's my take.
[7:04] Speaker 1: My take on Caitlin Clark and Angel Rees from the
[7:08] Speaker 1: beginning is the league was growing, but she's Taylor Swift
[7:12] Speaker 1: and tennis shoes. She's not doesn't have to be the
[7:15] Speaker 1: best player in the league. Taylor Swift doesn't have the
[7:17] Speaker 1: best voice. Adele does like like she doesn't have the
[7:20] Speaker 1: best voice. There's something, there's some visceral connection between young women,
[7:25] Speaker 1: middle aged women and Taylor Swift that I can't explain.
[7:29] Speaker 1: I'm usually good at listening to music or watching sports
[7:31] Speaker 1: and going that's a superstar. I didn't see it with
[7:34] Speaker 1: Taylor Swift. There's been Lady Gaga I connected.
[7:40] Speaker 2: There been.
[7:41] Speaker 1: There have been a lot of artists Adele I heard. Yeah,
[7:45] Speaker 1: when I heard Katy Perry, I was but like Adele.
[7:46] Speaker 1: When I heard Adele, I was like, holy shit, what
[7:48] Speaker 1: is that? That's crazy? Lady gagat did that to me.
[7:52] Speaker 1: I remember Garth Brooks years and years ago, hearing him
[7:55] Speaker 1: and going it was like New Country. It wasn't like
[7:58] Speaker 1: you know, old madal My Porch. It was like cool country.
[8:02] Speaker 1: And I'm like Shanaiah Twain. I'm usually pretty good at
[8:05] Speaker 1: spotting stuff and going bang the Taylor swift up. I
[8:07] Speaker 1: can't even explain it. Now, she's got she got a
[8:10] Speaker 1: nice voice, she's really smart. But I can't explain it.
[8:13] Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark's not that hard to explain. Holy shit, she's
[8:18] Speaker 1: taking shots. Yeah, of course some NBA players wouldn't take.
[8:23] Speaker 1: Of course, I said, she's Steph Curry plus Jason Kidd.
[8:26] Speaker 1: The sixty foot passes, the thirty foot bombs, You're like
[8:30] Speaker 1: half the NBA would not make those plays. She's a
[8:34] Speaker 1: comet because it doesn't look like anything else.
[8:37] Speaker 2: Right.
[8:37] Speaker 3: Of course, if a player in five years started dunking
[8:43] Speaker 3: like Anthony Edwards, like, we'd be like, oh my god,
[8:47] Speaker 3: some it's believable because we haven't seen it in the
[8:50] Speaker 3: in the w NBA. Right, So yeah, I think that
[8:53] Speaker 3: part of it is also very obvious. She's the Steph
[8:58] Speaker 3: curryization of basketball has hit women's basketball in a way
[9:04] Speaker 3: and at a moment. And you and I have talked
[9:05] Speaker 3: about this months ago. Now, Like listen, part of this
[9:08] Speaker 3: is ESPN, which the world is changing, Cable is changing. Fine,
[9:14] Speaker 3: it is still the behemoth of sports television. They promote
[9:20] Speaker 3: the shit out of it. Yeah that helps, Like real
[9:26] Speaker 3: talented analysts, real talented broadcasters, real they're not on ESPN
[9:32] Speaker 3: News like they're in good time slots on good networks
[9:36] Speaker 3: on ABC on ESPN in prime time on weeknights with
[9:41] Speaker 3: a real pregame show and a real postgame show and
[9:43] Speaker 3: a real play by play guy.
[9:44] Speaker 2: And they do a good job on college hoops, and
[9:46] Speaker 2: so they think they're invested in it, and it's a
[9:49] Speaker 2: cyclical thing, and they hit this phenomenon like the fact
[9:54] Speaker 2: that that game that was a blowout outrated Yankees red Sox.
[10:00] Speaker 2: That matters, like that that matters.
[10:05] Speaker 3: And so I just yeah, I mean all the respect
[10:09] Speaker 3: in the world to her talent, all the respect in
[10:11] Speaker 3: the world to like people who have been WNBA fans
[10:15] Speaker 3: for forever and have been like now get to say
[10:17] Speaker 3: I told you so, But I just I wish our
[10:21] Speaker 3: media colleagues realized a little bit better that they were
[10:25] Speaker 3: being played by the algorithm.
[10:27] Speaker 2: Because they're all athletes. They can't possibly be offended by
[10:32] Speaker 2: that foul. They can't.
[10:33] Speaker 3: It's it's impossible that a bunch of football players are
[10:39] Speaker 3: were so offended by that foul that they had to
[10:43] Speaker 3: make this big of a deal out of it. So
[10:45] Speaker 3: I just eventually they'll need to talk about the basketball.
[10:49] Speaker 3: And I think for some people it's just easier to
[10:52] Speaker 3: culture war everything, and I think it's unfortunate.
[10:56] Speaker 1: Okay, I want to I want to bring this up.
[10:58] Speaker 1: We can close on this because I saw this today.
[11:01] Speaker 1: It's fascinating. So a university professor in finance looked up
[11:09] Speaker 1: the value of Caitlin Clark for the WNBA. This is insane.
[11:16] Speaker 1: So this year, last season in the WNBA, Caitlin Clark
[11:24] Speaker 1: was twenty six and a half percent of all economic
[11:28] Speaker 1: activity as a rookie on the worst team in the
[11:33] Speaker 1: league when she entered it. So now she has an
[11:36] Speaker 1: eight year, one hundred and twenty eight million dollar deal
[11:39] Speaker 1: with Nike, so you know she's she's going to eat
[11:44] Speaker 1: merchandise in the league. Went up off a rookie from
[11:48] Speaker 1: a Midwest based school on the worst team in the
[11:51] Speaker 1: league two hundred and thirty four percent. But here was
[11:54] Speaker 1: the one that struck me so before she got there,
[11:58] Speaker 1: the Indiana fever, the valuation of the franchise was ninety million.
[12:03] Speaker 1: Remember they play a short season. It's not like the
[12:06] Speaker 1: NBA where it lasts like six months after playing what
[12:10] Speaker 1: forty games. The valuation of that team now is three
[12:15] Speaker 1: hundred and forty million dollars.
[12:18] Speaker 2: She is almost.
[12:19] Speaker 4: That's what NBA teams were selling for ten years ago.
[12:23] Speaker 2: She has called usual the valuation. And I was talking.
[12:28] Speaker 1: I was with a group of friends tonight at dinner,
[12:31] Speaker 1: and people that didn't know the WNBA were like, asking, well,
[12:36] Speaker 1: why what.
[12:37] Speaker 2: Does she do?
[12:37] Speaker 1: And we said, well, she makes passes and take shots
[12:41] Speaker 1: that nobody else in the sport does, so she's a
[12:43] Speaker 1: bit of a It's like when Tiger Woods came on
[12:45] Speaker 1: the tour, Like he drove it further, He's long, putting
[12:48] Speaker 1: was better. He looked like a football player in the
[12:51] Speaker 1: red shirts. Like he just was different than every other
[12:54] Speaker 1: golfer you grew up with, and people like unique and different. Here,
[13:00] Speaker 1: my question to you is there's still no other Like
[13:04] Speaker 1: somebody said at the party, well there'd be another Caitlin Clark,
[13:06] Speaker 1: and I'm like, well there's not another Steph Curry. Like
[13:09] Speaker 1: there's guys that can shoot threes'. I don't think it's
[13:14] Speaker 1: a game, you duplicate and I listen. Let's just be honest.
[13:17] Speaker 1: There are more great male athletes in the world than
[13:19] Speaker 1: female athletes. There is no second Steph Curry. There is
[13:23] Speaker 1: no other player that plays like that.
[13:25] Speaker 2: My take is she could be a billion dollar athlete.
[13:31] Speaker 2: Are you.
[13:33] Speaker 1: Are you surprised by it? Like when I see these numbers,
[13:37] Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, this is Tiger and the Tour. This
[13:39] Speaker 1: doesn't this isn't even Jordan, this is totally different.
[13:43] Speaker 4: Well, I think when you look at basketball, there are
[13:47] Speaker 4: two real kind of like ultimate show type of athletes
[13:52] Speaker 4: that you see, meaning like must see television. And it's
[13:56] Speaker 4: the supreme vertical athlete, which think like young On or
[14:00] Speaker 4: kind of like Anthony Edwards now Dominique. Yeah yeah, like
[14:04] Speaker 4: the guy that does stuff in the air that is
[14:06] Speaker 4: unlike anything you see anywhere else, doctor j And then
[14:10] Speaker 4: the second piece of it is just unbelievable shot making.
[14:15] Speaker 4: Those are the two things. Those are the two things
[14:18] Speaker 4: that like really bring eyes to television. To take it
[14:21] Speaker 4: a step further, there are two types of basketball players
[14:25] Speaker 4: that I think are far and away the most winning
[14:28] Speaker 4: impact in the current game of basketball. It's the big,
[14:33] Speaker 4: strong playmaker. Think Lebron Luka Jokic, and it's the indomitable shooter,
[14:41] Speaker 4: which there's really only been Steph. I think those two
[14:44] Speaker 4: types of players are the players that give you the
[14:46] Speaker 4: best chances to win basketball games in the modern in
[14:49] Speaker 4: the modern world. Now, what makes it fascinating to me
[14:51] Speaker 4: because that's what Caitlyn Clark is. She's a different type
[14:54] Speaker 4: of player, and she can do a lot of different
[14:56] Speaker 4: types of things, but she's essentially bringing a Steph Curry
[15:00] Speaker 4: like basketball impact to the WNBA. It's really this simple.
[15:04] Speaker 4: If you can shoot the way that she shoots, so
[15:06] Speaker 4: the way step shoots, and you can perpetually be in
[15:10] Speaker 4: motion running around, inevitably there is an overreaction to your
[15:15] Speaker 4: shooting ability. And we see this all the time with Kaitlyn,
[15:18] Speaker 4: just like you're gonna see you're gonna see Aliah Boston
[15:22] Speaker 4: get NonStop easy buckets in the mid range or rolling
[15:25] Speaker 4: to the basket, because every time she sets a screen
[15:28] Speaker 4: for Caitlin, her defender is stepping up to guard Caitlin
[15:31] Speaker 4: because as she comes off of that screen, if you're
[15:34] Speaker 4: not there, she's gonna shoot it and she's gonna make it.
[15:37] Speaker 4: And so there's a reaction that invert spacing in brings
[15:42] Speaker 4: a four on three because you bring multiple defenders away
[15:45] Speaker 4: from the rim, there's a four on three with a
[15:48] Speaker 4: vacated paint and because of that, there's a lot of
[15:52] Speaker 4: easy opportunities to score there. Like that's the thing with
[15:54] Speaker 4: Steph Curry, Like Steph Curry is not the same shot
[15:56] Speaker 4: maker that he was four years ago in twenty twenty one,
[16:00] Speaker 4: but just the simple threat of him running around gives
[16:03] Speaker 4: the Warriors a chance to score. And that's the thing,
[16:05] Speaker 4: Like Caitlyn hasn't even really started hitting shots yet this
[16:08] Speaker 4: year the way that she's capable of, but everyone knows
[16:10] Speaker 4: she can and they guard her in that fashion. And
[16:13] Speaker 4: so to me, it's kind of like a proof of
[16:15] Speaker 4: concept in that if you can shoot and you can
[16:18] Speaker 4: run around the way that Steph does, and you can
[16:20] Speaker 4: strike fear into a defense in that way, the trickle
[16:24] Speaker 4: down effects with the way that defenses guard you just
[16:27] Speaker 4: make everything so much easier for her. And like you
[16:29] Speaker 4: could argue she's already the best offensive engine in the
[16:32] Speaker 4: WNBA and she's literally a second year player and like,
[16:36] Speaker 4: and she still has so much room to improve, Like
[16:37] Speaker 4: she still struggles with ball pressure, she still turns them.
[16:40] Speaker 4: She turned the ball over too much against the Liberty
[16:43] Speaker 4: the other night. She still has a little bit of
[16:45] Speaker 4: an issue where she kind of cross fires across her face,
[16:47] Speaker 4: which makes it so she can only shoot going left.
[16:50] Speaker 4: She needs to build it out so that she can
[16:51] Speaker 4: shoot running to her right as well. But like, judging
[16:54] Speaker 4: by her psycho competitive attitude, she's probably going to figure
[16:58] Speaker 4: that stuff out in the next year or two and
[17:00] Speaker 4: then she'll be the best player in the league. And
[17:01] Speaker 4: so like to me, it's just she fits the mold
[17:04] Speaker 4: of one of the most impactful types of basketball players
[17:07] Speaker 4: you can be today, which is the deadly movement shooter.
[17:11] Speaker 4: If you're a deadly movement shooter, it just opens up
[17:14] Speaker 4: so many things for an offense. And honestly, I just
[17:17] Speaker 4: think I think she's must see television Colin. I've watched
[17:19] Speaker 4: all four of her games, and I'm in my busy season,
[17:22] Speaker 4: Like you think i'd be taking a break. My wife
[17:24] Speaker 4: said to me the other day, She's like, you're watching
[17:25] Speaker 4: more basketball, and like, it's Kitlyn Clark, We're watching more basketball.
[17:29] Speaker 4: Come over here, let's watch this. Like she's incredible.
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[19:05] Speaker 1: She doesn't know is get the consistent great star whistle.
[19:08] Speaker 1: She I mean, there's I think they're still kind of
[19:11] Speaker 1: figuring out how to officiate her right, like like when
[19:16] Speaker 1: you're when you know, I've said this for years. When
[19:19] Speaker 1: I covered Shack and to Shack, Shack got fouled more
[19:21] Speaker 1: than anybody I've ever seen. I mean, it was insane.
[19:23] Speaker 1: You just people bounced off Shack Jokics feeling Yokics complains
[19:27] Speaker 1: constantly like people are bouncing off me. She doesn't quite
[19:31] Speaker 1: get as favorable a whistle as you think, so I.
[19:34] Speaker 4: I think neither's step two. That's the funny part.
[19:39] Speaker 2: Well, And I think I will give the w NBA credit.
[19:44] Speaker 1: They they just didn't understand the tsunami ever popularity, Like
[19:47] Speaker 1: they didn't get the schedule. Uh, and you don't know
[19:50] Speaker 1: what you don't know. They've done a much better job
[19:54] Speaker 1: to I mean, all her games are on television. Every
[19:56] Speaker 1: time I turn on a WA every time I see
[19:58] Speaker 1: a promote promotion for the wi NBA, it's Caitlin Clark,
[20:01] Speaker 1: so they're there. But I do think there's a process on.
[20:05] Speaker 1: You know, you're an official. You don't want to give
[20:07] Speaker 1: her too favorable a whistle because the players in the
[20:09] Speaker 1: league will resent her to some degree.
[20:11] Speaker 2: She's getting all this attention and I don't.
[20:13] Speaker 1: And I will say this, I've defended the w NBA
[20:17] Speaker 1: with this. Baseball and the WNBA feel ignored. The NFL
[20:22] Speaker 1: and the NBA in college football, they get a lot
[20:24] Speaker 1: of press, and baseball always feels like, hey, we're America's pastime,
[20:28] Speaker 1: so they're very insular, sometimes very provincial. And the WNBA, similarly,
[20:33] Speaker 1: you don't pay attention to us. So there's part of it,
[20:35] Speaker 1: like I get like they sort of resent this one player,
[20:40] Speaker 1: nobody talks WNBA.
[20:41] Speaker 2: They do, and it's all her.
[20:43] Speaker 1: You know. I remember when Tiger was eighteen, nineteen, twenty
[20:47] Speaker 1: years old coming out of the tour, there were a
[20:48] Speaker 1: lot of people in golf that were like, could you
[20:51] Speaker 1: guys show, could you talk in your sportscast about anybody
[20:53] Speaker 1: other than Tiger Woods?
[20:54] Speaker 2: So she's not. Bryce Harper came into baseball.
[20:57] Speaker 1: He fought with an own teammate in the dugout because
[20:59] Speaker 1: it was like, Oh, everybody wants to talk to so.
[21:02] Speaker 2: I do defend the WNBA.
[21:05] Speaker 1: Is that I get if nobody paid attention to you
[21:07] Speaker 1: for twenty six years and now they do, and they
[21:11] Speaker 1: feign interest in the rest of the league. What we
[21:14] Speaker 1: all care about Caitlin. So the animosity built up by players,
[21:19] Speaker 1: I give it a little bit of a pass. You know.
[21:22] Speaker 1: I think people are spending too much time on race.
[21:26] Speaker 1: You know, it is what it is. There's a million platforms,
[21:28] Speaker 1: a million opinions, But I don't know. My take is
[21:33] Speaker 1: there's still in the adjustment period with Caitlin. How to market,
[21:36] Speaker 1: how to promote, how to officiate, how to defend, And
[21:39] Speaker 1: it's just fluid. That's what it feels like to me.
[21:43] Speaker 4: I think that like when I see the complaining, like
[21:46] Speaker 4: I saw some players complain and some members of the
[21:49] Speaker 4: media complain that she was on TV so much, and
[21:53] Speaker 4: let's just take us out, take fairness and just put
[21:55] Speaker 4: it to the side for a minute, like even with
[21:57] Speaker 4: Nike and giving Caitlin a shoot like set that aside
[22:00] Speaker 4: a minute and just focus on her being on television. Okay,
[22:04] Speaker 4: her being on television brought my eyes to it. I
[22:06] Speaker 4: didn't watch the WNBA. I have grown to really enjoy
[22:10] Speaker 4: watching WNBA basketball even when she's not on and they're
[22:14] Speaker 4: like the Nafista Collier became one of my favorite basketball
[22:17] Speaker 4: players watching her in the finals run last year. And
[22:21] Speaker 4: what brought me to the television was Caitlin. So like,
[22:24] Speaker 4: let's say that the league came out there like every
[22:26] Speaker 4: Caitlyn Clark games on national television, like that's just what
[22:29] Speaker 4: we're gonna do. Deal with it. That would be genius,
[22:32] Speaker 4: because the best way you can market the other WNBA
[22:35] Speaker 4: players is to have them play against Kitland Clark because
[22:38] Speaker 4: we'll all be watching. Okay, well, no one's covering the
[22:40] Speaker 4: rest of the league, Okay, but if you put Caitlin
[22:43] Speaker 4: on television and you get more people to watch. It
[22:46] Speaker 4: will create more WNBA fans, And we live in the
[22:49] Speaker 4: most colin I started making NBA content out of my
[22:52] Speaker 4: guest bedroom. Okay, you create a bunch of WNBA fans,
[22:56] Speaker 4: passionate members of the media will originate from that map,
[23:00] Speaker 4: and we'll cover the league better, and overall, the league
[23:03] Speaker 4: will gain in popularity and gain an impact, and it
[23:05] Speaker 4: will become a momentous thing that carries forward and actually
[23:09] Speaker 4: does shine a big flashlight on the rest of the WNBA.
[23:13] Speaker 4: Caitlin Clark is the vehicle with which to microwave that,
[23:17] Speaker 4: to accelerate it, and to move it into a fast
[23:21] Speaker 4: track towards what could be a bright future for the WNBA.
[23:24] Speaker 4: It's great basketball. It's genuinely great basketball. She's the best
[23:29] Speaker 4: vehicle with which to elevate the sport. I think anything
[23:33] Speaker 4: they can do to put her on TV and promote
[23:34] Speaker 4: her is the best thing they could do for the sport.
[23:36] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Connor McGregor UFC. You know, you knew it existed.
[23:40] Speaker 1: You'd seen fights. You started buying pay per view cards
[23:44] Speaker 1: and sitting through two and a half hours to get
[23:46] Speaker 1: to his fight, and then all of a sudden you
[23:48] Speaker 1: found yourself a year later, hooked on two other fighters
[23:51] Speaker 1: because Dana White would put the second most popular.
[23:53] Speaker 2: Fighter in the undercard.
[23:54] Speaker 1: Exactly, it's all of a sudden, it's John Jones into
[23:57] Speaker 1: Connor McGregor and then they So it's just basic marketing.
[24:03] Speaker 1: And I've said before, I do think the WNBA women's
[24:05] Speaker 1: basketball and I'd said this years ago on FS one,
[24:08] Speaker 1: probably five years ago. The sport was getting better. The
[24:11] Speaker 1: women were, you know, several generations of women were encouraged
[24:16] Speaker 1: to play basketball and to be athletes, and nutritionists came
[24:19] Speaker 1: into the sport and better trainers. There was money in
[24:21] Speaker 1: the league, so they had better training and the players
[24:24] Speaker 1: were getting better. But it takes this, Listen, it took
[24:28] Speaker 1: Magic and Bird in the NBA to take a league
[24:31] Speaker 1: that there were some financial problems. So it's not like
[24:34] Speaker 1: a gender issue, it's a I mean, I think Connor
[24:39] Speaker 1: McGregor's erosion as a fighter has hurt UFC. It doesn't
[24:43] Speaker 1: feel as urgent. And that's and that's already established and
[24:48] Speaker 1: so and we all know that Michael Jordan left once
[24:51] Speaker 1: Magic Bird and Michael had driven the league up. Michael left,
[24:54] Speaker 1: the ratings dropped fifty percent.
[24:56] Speaker 2: So this stuff. Outside of the NFL.
[24:59] Speaker 1: It's all cyclical, it's all market based, it's all star based,
[25:04] Speaker 1: and it's just a WNBA. You know, was waiting for
[25:07] Speaker 1: its first Tiger, and golf's probably had four in my life,
[25:12] Speaker 1: you know, Jack Nicholson, Arnold Palmer, Tiger. I think Rory's
[25:17] Speaker 1: got a little bit of it, Phil Micholson. So the
[25:19] Speaker 1: history of golf, you know, if you modern history is
[25:22] Speaker 1: not like five guys that have done it. So there's
[25:25] Speaker 1: no reason to be defensive about it. It just it's
[25:27] Speaker 1: all these leagues. They all eventually, I mean, look at boxing.
[25:32] Speaker 1: Allie took it from whatever it was to the next level.
[25:36] Speaker 1: Then there were Sugar, Ray Leonard and Hagler. But when
[25:40] Speaker 1: Larry Holmes arrived, nobody wanted to watch Larry Holmes. It
[25:43] Speaker 1: took an old George Forman.
[25:45] Speaker 2: It's selling a.
[25:45] Speaker 1: Grill that you bake chicken on or cook chick it
[25:48] Speaker 1: on to I mean literally to get the casual back
[25:52] Speaker 1: into boxing. Was George Foreman's second tour. So this is
[25:56] Speaker 1: the way sports works outside of football.
[25:58] Speaker 4: The cyclical thing is so fat saying, because that's literally
[26:01] Speaker 4: what the NBA is about to go through. Lebron and
[26:02] Speaker 4: Steph won eight titles in eleven years, and now there's
[26:05] Speaker 4: not really a big name yet. Now you could argue
[26:07] Speaker 4: that the parody might prevent the rise of a star,
[26:10] Speaker 4: and that's a separate conversation for another day, but it
[26:12] Speaker 4: is really fascinating. We're in one of those cycles right
[26:14] Speaker 4: now with the NBA. The old guard's going out, there's
[26:17] Speaker 4: a new card coming up.
[26:19] Speaker 1: Years and years ago, this may have been fifteen years ago.
[26:21] Speaker 1: Sports fans, I think, are more savvy today than ever,
[26:25] Speaker 1: and a lot of it's just because of the explosion
[26:27] Speaker 1: of social media and they can you can learn things
[26:30] Speaker 1: just watching TikTok. I mean, I use the TikTok store
[26:33] Speaker 1: every day. And by the way, it's never let me down.
[26:36] Speaker 1: I buy power bars, I buy workout gear. It's never
[26:40] Speaker 1: let me down. The TikTok store is completely undervalued.
[26:43] Speaker 2: You think that's amazing.
[26:44] Speaker 1: Yeah, the first time I use that, I'm like a
[26:46] Speaker 1: sketchy I'm probably getting robbed. It's twenty four dollars. It's fantastic,
[26:51] Speaker 1: And everything I buy in that TikTok store is amazing.
[26:53] Speaker 1: That's not an ad I just I bought power bars today. So,
[26:59] Speaker 1: but I was thinking years I did a topic where
[27:01] Speaker 1: I said, this is when I would take calls. I
[27:03] Speaker 1: was only doing a radio show. I said, you guys
[27:05] Speaker 1: don't understand Madonna was in her prime. I said, it's
[27:09] Speaker 1: much more well known than Derek Jeter in his prime.
[27:11] Speaker 2: It's not close. One's a global star. I got thirty
[27:15] Speaker 2: calls in a row. No way, Derek.
[27:19] Speaker 1: I'm like Derek. The brand of the Yankees is bigger
[27:22] Speaker 1: than Derek Jeter. Like Derek Jeter is not the if
[27:25] Speaker 1: he played in Kansas City, he'd just be an all star.
[27:28] Speaker 1: Sports fans they struggle sometimes with like recognizing that nobody
[27:33] Speaker 1: knows who Jalen Hurts is out of America unless you're
[27:36] Speaker 1: a sports fan. Your sister who doesn't love sports doesn't know.
[27:39] Speaker 2: Who Jalen Hurts is.
[27:40] Speaker 1: Even after the Super Bowl, she's heard of maybe the
[27:42] Speaker 1: Tush push, but that's about it. And I was thinking
[27:46] Speaker 1: about this, how many NBA players, and I know Caitlin
[27:50] Speaker 1: Clark is an athlete, but how she's like beyond that
[27:53] Speaker 1: now she kind of transcends sports. She's like, it's racial,
[27:56] Speaker 1: it's political, it's polarizing, it's it's a lot of things. Yes,
[28:00] Speaker 1: how many NBA players are more famous than Caitlin Clark,
[28:03] Speaker 1: Lebron's Steph Absolutely, maybe Durant.
[28:08] Speaker 2: That's what I put.
[28:09] Speaker 1: I said, I wrote down k D maybe in one
[28:13] Speaker 1: year out of women's basketball for a horrible team when
[28:17] Speaker 1: she arrived. Outside of Lebron and Steph, she is the
[28:21] Speaker 1: most well known basketball player currently playing in the United States.
[28:26] Speaker 1: Oh yes, And I don't think that's close.
[28:30] Speaker 2: Like I I think I might have said this to
[28:34] Speaker 2: you last year that I thought the most famous basketball
[28:39] Speaker 2: player under thirty was Caitlin Clark. And it's like you said,
[28:46] Speaker 2: I don't think it's particularly close. Like when the she
[28:50] Speaker 2: is demonstrably and inarguably more famous than all of this
[28:57] Speaker 2: generation's NBA stars. She just is, like it it really
[29:02] Speaker 2: Lebron is, I don't know, probably one of the twenty
[29:06] Speaker 2: most famous people in the world. At a secondary level,
[29:11] Speaker 2: there is Steph, And at a far different level, there
[29:14] Speaker 2: is Durant. And the next basketball person, like active basketball person,
[29:22] Speaker 2: is Caitlin Clark.
[29:23] Speaker 4: Like the the.
[29:27] Speaker 2: It's I don't even I don't think that's a hot take.
[29:29] Speaker 2: I don't think that's controversial. I think that's just obvious.
[29:33] Speaker 2: And I think that it is awesome for the sport
[29:37] Speaker 2: and I think that it is awesome for sports fans,
[29:41] Speaker 2: and it it is what I think some people need
[29:46] Speaker 2: to be. Okay, like this is this is apples and oranges,
[29:52] Speaker 2: but not exactly and this is not a fair comparison.
[29:56] Speaker 2: But just the audience is smart, they'll figure it out.
[30:00] Speaker 2: I think it's probable that Lonzo I'm sorry that LaMelo
[30:04] Speaker 2: Ball is more famous than Tyrese Halliburton. No one with
[30:09] Speaker 2: a brain thinks he's better than Tyrese Halliburton, but he
[30:13] Speaker 2: is my famous. You agree, So I think sometimes like
[30:18] Speaker 2: die Hard WNBA or women's basketball fans conflate the discussion
[30:23] Speaker 2: about fame and popularity with a ranking of players quality.
[30:29] Speaker 2: Now Kate Clark is to me, I mean, she was
[30:32] Speaker 2: first team All WNBA last year. She has a legitimate
[30:35] Speaker 2: argument that she's a top five player in the league,
[30:38] Speaker 2: and before this injury, probably was going to make a
[30:41] Speaker 2: real case to win League MVP this year. But if
[30:44] Speaker 2: someone's like, hey, I watch I have WNBA League pass.
[30:48] Speaker 2: I watched the whole league, guy have for years. I
[30:50] Speaker 2: think she is currently the seventh best player in the league,
[30:53] Speaker 2: I'd listened to him like, okay, maybe, like you know,
[30:56] Speaker 2: the Brianna Stewart, Asia Wilson, like whomever. But that's not
[31:01] Speaker 2: the discussion that now. It is also important that your
[31:06] Speaker 2: fame not lap your ability. Again, not to like I'm
[31:11] Speaker 2: just thinking because we're talking about women's sports. An example
[31:14] Speaker 2: of that to me would be like this make me
[31:17] Speaker 2: feel old. But on a corner, Cova, Remember so she
[31:20] Speaker 2: was at a time the most famous women's centnis player,
[31:23] Speaker 2: and I think she was during a lot of that
[31:26] Speaker 2: time not one of the twenty best. She you know her,
[31:29] Speaker 2: she was more famous, far more famous than she was successful.
[31:34] Speaker 2: But it's quite often that your fame lags your ability,
[31:40] Speaker 2: as I think happens to Nikola Jokic, you know, as
[31:44] Speaker 2: an example. And it is also often that your fame,
[31:47] Speaker 2: you know, is a few steps ahead of your ability
[31:50] Speaker 2: when it is a super nova moment, is when your
[31:55] Speaker 2: fame when you are the most famous and you're the best,
[31:59] Speaker 2: like that happ that That was bron with the NBA.
[32:04] Speaker 2: Obviously Jordan Kobe, you know, at least was close to
[32:08] Speaker 2: the best, if not the best, for a brief period,
[32:11] Speaker 2: and it's what I is going to happen, I believe
[32:14] Speaker 2: with Caitlin Clark, because I do think she will have
[32:16] Speaker 2: a period where she is clearly the best player in
[32:19] Speaker 2: the league. And again, it could happen sooner than later,
[32:22] Speaker 2: but it's it is so great for the sport because
[32:28] Speaker 2: it she is someone that people show up to the
[32:33] Speaker 2: party because of her. And where I give the evolution
[32:37] Speaker 2: of the WNBA and women's basketball credit is I think
[32:40] Speaker 2: people show up to the party, whether it's for the
[32:42] Speaker 2: women's NCAA tournament or the WNBA, and they're like, Oh,
[32:47] Speaker 2: this party's pretty good.
[32:49] Speaker 4: I like it.
[32:50] Speaker 2: There's a level of physicality in this sport that isn't
[32:53] Speaker 2: necessarily in the NBA anymore.
[32:55] Speaker 1: Oh it's always been shippier because they're not vertical, so
[32:58] Speaker 1: they're bringing it into each other and it's a very
[33:00] Speaker 1: physical league, exactly right.
[33:02] Speaker 2: And so I think that if you have a good
[33:07] Speaker 2: product and your biggest hurdle is getting people to sample
[33:12] Speaker 2: the product, she's a godsend. There's no denying it. And
[33:17] Speaker 2: again there's obviously there's a lot of complicated components to it.
[33:23] Speaker 2: But just because something has complicated components doesn't mean every
[33:27] Speaker 2: discussion about it has to be complicated. And you know,
[33:30] Speaker 2: you can just be like, she is a super nova
[33:34] Speaker 2: fame level of fame with one of a kind talent,
[33:39] Speaker 2: and it is game changing for the entire league that
[33:42] Speaker 2: she's at.
[33:44] Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt this great video, but please remember to
[33:46] Speaker 1: like and subscribe.
[33:48] Speaker 2: Thank you. Now back to the video.
[33:51] Speaker 1: Well, and also, she had a rivalry with a star
[33:54] Speaker 1: college player in college, so we have a visceral connection,
[33:57] Speaker 1: which college basketball no longer gives you. It's what college
[34:01] Speaker 1: football gives you all the time. Where you know JJ McCarthy,
[34:05] Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I mean you see all these Buckeyes
[34:07] Speaker 1: in Michigan Wolverines.
[34:08] Speaker 2: What I think, J McCarthy, I think Michigan. Okay.
[34:12] Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark obviously a huge story in the controversy around it,
[34:16] Speaker 1: and I was thinking about I was pretty hard on
[34:18] Speaker 1: than the WNBA when Caitlin Clark came in, and I thought, guys,
[34:22] Speaker 1: you can't open up with a New York Liberty and
[34:24] Speaker 1: the Connecticut Sun. You want to groove her into some wins,
[34:28] Speaker 1: because remember she went from the final four into camp
[34:31] Speaker 1: into playing and the WNBA they probably knew she would
[34:36] Speaker 1: be good, they didn't think she'd quite be this good. Sure,
[34:40] Speaker 1: but it's getting to be a little bit like MJ
[34:43] Speaker 1: is that And they've done a better job this year.
[34:45] Speaker 1: They had an easier schedule. They've put the games on television,
[34:49] Speaker 1: so the WNBA took a lot of heat, a lot
[34:52] Speaker 1: of heat, and Val Ackerman, the Commissioner's like, Okay, we
[34:56] Speaker 1: got ourselves a complete Taylor Swift and tennis shoe rock
[35:00] Speaker 1: star and they've done a much better job this year.
[35:02] Speaker 1: The officiating is not great, but the league's now just
[35:05] Speaker 1: starting to make real money now, right, Like, so it's
[35:07] Speaker 1: the officials maybe the last part, you know, it's well, yeah.
[35:11] Speaker 2: I wonder with it. And I don't know, I'm not
[35:13] Speaker 2: educated enough on this about what the hierarchy of officiating is.
[35:17] Speaker 2: But obviously the best basketball officials in the world, or
[35:22] Speaker 2: the NBA officiate in the NBA, right that, let's just
[35:26] Speaker 2: I shouldn't say the world, just let's just do the US.
[35:29] Speaker 2: I assume the second best, like men's college basketball. Well yeah,
[35:35] Speaker 2: I would imagine the third best might be women's college
[35:39] Speaker 2: basketball because up until recently that was a far bigger
[35:43] Speaker 2: industry than the WNBA, like so has the And again
[35:47] Speaker 2: I am just speculating here, but is the WNBA simply
[35:51] Speaker 2: not picking from the you know, the are the people
[35:55] Speaker 2: who are the best officials are like, well, it's way
[35:57] Speaker 2: better jobs in officiating that I can get, so they
[36:00] Speaker 2: assume that's going to be the case. They flew commercial
[36:03] Speaker 2: airlines a year ago, and yeah, I think some st
[36:06] Speaker 2: the NBA moved out of that in like the eighties,
[36:08] Speaker 2: so it's like it's it's just a different ballgame. But
[36:12] Speaker 2: but I was thinking about this.
[36:15] Speaker 1: Most of the time, the media gets it right when
[36:18] Speaker 1: it predicts an all time star. In fact, I would argue,
[36:22] Speaker 1: and I think people listening to this would push back
[36:26] Speaker 1: that we undersold Tiger. Nobody thought Tiger was going to
[36:31] Speaker 1: have the lowest scoring average ever, was going to have
[36:34] Speaker 1: the tied for the most career wins ever, has the
[36:39] Speaker 1: greatest earnings ever. Nobody, not even Nike, would have.
[36:42] Speaker 2: Guessed that, and within five years have the scoring record
[36:46] Speaker 2: at all four majors. Dude, the Tiger slam. Yeah, yeah, no, no, okay,
[36:50] Speaker 2: you're right, Tiger was Tiger Lebron. I would argue. All
[36:56] Speaker 2: the all time grades that turned into all time grades
[36:59] Speaker 2: also actually kind of exceeded expectation.
[37:03] Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt this great video, but please remember to
[37:05] Speaker 1: like and subscribe.
[37:07] Speaker 2: Thank you. Now back to the video.
[37:11] Speaker 1: Most of the time I think Bryce Harper at sixteen
[37:14] Speaker 1: was considered arguably the baseball prospect ever. He's turned out
[37:19] Speaker 1: eight time All Star, two time National League MVP, three
[37:22] Speaker 1: hundred and forty home runs plus that is a If
[37:26] Speaker 1: you would have said that when he was sixteen on
[37:28] Speaker 1: sports illstrat he's gonna be an eight time All Star,
[37:30] Speaker 1: two time MVP, you'd be like, yeah, for the best
[37:32] Speaker 1: prospect ever. That that's that's that's in that elite class work.
[37:36] Speaker 1: But I think Caitlin, Clark, Lebron and MJ I think
[37:42] Speaker 1: they're better. And I thought Caitlin was gonna be good.
[37:45] Speaker 1: But Gino Arima, Yucom's coach came out and said, and
[37:48] Speaker 1: this guy knows basketball. He's the best recruiter in the
[37:51] Speaker 1: history of the sport. He's like, this idea is she's
[37:53] Speaker 1: gonna walk into the WNB.
[37:55] Speaker 2: But it was so here's the thing. All the Yukon
[38:00] Speaker 2: folks had, like the former the legendary Yukon players who
[38:05] Speaker 2: were then in media, and then Gino, they all kind of,
[38:10] Speaker 2: in my opinion, had a bias of man. This was
[38:16] Speaker 2: supposed to be what everyone was saying about Paige Beckers
[38:19] Speaker 2: a year ago, but Paige had blown out her knee
[38:21] Speaker 2: and she missed time and that and all of that,
[38:24] Speaker 2: and so they I think that they and they also
[38:27] Speaker 2: underestimated what a badass Clark was going to be. And
[38:33] Speaker 2: I think they also looked at it and said, well,
[38:36] Speaker 2: she's great and going to be great, but she's not
[38:40] Speaker 2: better than Brianna Stewart or Diana Torazzi, and they you know,
[38:44] Speaker 2: if they had a transition, she will do. And the
[38:47] Speaker 2: answer is she's a She is already one of the
[38:52] Speaker 2: four best players in the league. She is already uh
[38:58] Speaker 2: an absolute and I say this in the kindest words,
[39:03] Speaker 2: an asshole on the court, like the way you kind
[39:05] Speaker 2: of need to don't need to be. But it's something
[39:08] Speaker 2: people historically like in their athletes, like a trash Larry Bird,
[39:13] Speaker 2: Michael Jordan, a trash talker, you know, hard ass. And
[39:19] Speaker 2: she is already impacting winning. I think she has the
[39:23] Speaker 2: best per game plus minus in the league of everyone
[39:26] Speaker 2: that's not on the New York Liberty.
[39:28] Speaker 1: Think about this people ten years ago. So the quality
[39:33] Speaker 1: of WNBA play in the last ten years has improved
[39:35] Speaker 1: more than any league anywhere. The players are the nutrition's better,
[39:39] Speaker 1: the strength is better. You go YouTube and WNBA game
[39:43] Speaker 1: ten years ago, they did not pass like this. Kandas
[39:46] Speaker 1: Parker ten years ago led the league in assists at five.
[39:50] Speaker 2: And a half a game a game.
[39:54] Speaker 1: Not only is Caitlin park the best shooter, the best guard,
[39:59] Speaker 1: the most infl Benchel, she's also dealing nine assists per game.
[40:04] Speaker 1: So what she's done is she's really changed the tempo.
[40:07] Speaker 1: She's doubling these all time assist numbers or close to it,
[40:11] Speaker 1: and giving you threes and shooting nine feet beyond the arc. So,
[40:16] Speaker 1: I mean, as much as I liked her and I
[40:17] Speaker 1: thought she would be really good, I remember saying on
[40:19] Speaker 1: the air, she's gonna be She's gonna be really good,
[40:21] Speaker 1: top ten player, really fast, I didn't think she'd beat this.
[40:25] Speaker 2: No, I listen she I agree with you that I
[40:28] Speaker 2: do think she is and in contributing to winning exceeding expectations,
[40:34] Speaker 2: I also think that and maybe eventually we'll get there.
[40:40] Speaker 2: But there so much in my I don't know what
[40:45] Speaker 2: you said on the air about this today because I
[40:47] Speaker 2: missed it, but so much of the social media pearl
[40:51] Speaker 2: clutching of basically we need to like protet Caitlin Clark, I.
[40:57] Speaker 4: Just think it's so.
[40:58] Speaker 2: I think it's patron, and I also think it fails
[41:03] Speaker 2: to recognize this is, in my opinion, the best case
[41:09] Speaker 2: scenario for the league. The fact that she is has
[41:16] Speaker 2: this swagger that there and Brew made this point, and
[41:19] Speaker 2: I thought it was a really good one. The fact
[41:21] Speaker 2: that yesterday's altercasions primarily happened with Caitlin against other white
[41:26] Speaker 2: players was actually a really nice thing because it removed
[41:32] Speaker 2: any of the bullshit like, oh the are the black
[41:35] Speaker 2: players don't like it? No, you know who doesn't like
[41:38] Speaker 2: Caitlyn Clark, most of her opponents, you know who historically
[41:43] Speaker 2: is not that popular in sports. The young, awesome, swaggery,
[41:48] Speaker 2: trash talking player. That player usually has allies on their
[41:52] Speaker 2: team and their fans.
[41:54] Speaker 1: Larry Bird got choked by j everybody and so and
[42:00] Speaker 1: so that's awesome.
[42:02] Speaker 2: Here's another thing that's awesome. This is only gonna make
[42:05] Speaker 2: Caitlin better and tougher and strong. Guess that's great. The
[42:09] Speaker 2: fact that it is hard and that like because the idea,
[42:14] Speaker 2: because some of Caitlyn's like, there's a real lunatic fringe
[42:18] Speaker 2: on the internet about this conversation, and I hate doing
[42:22] Speaker 2: in life. I don't actually really think both sides are
[42:25] Speaker 2: a problem. Very often in the Caitlin Clark thing, it
[42:28] Speaker 2: is both sides. It is people on both ends of
[42:30] Speaker 2: the spectrum are out of their minds, and the biggest
[42:33] Speaker 2: Caitlyn fans are like the league. This is the league's
[42:36] Speaker 2: cash cow. And if they if they're not suspending these
[42:40] Speaker 2: other players, she could get hurt. Like, give me a break.
[42:43] Speaker 2: It was a light shove. She fell down. She's gonna
[42:46] Speaker 2: be fine. The Fever are gonna be in big games
[42:50] Speaker 2: for a long time. It is she is sustainably drawing eyeballs,
[42:56] Speaker 2: and I do think it is Notewhile people pointed out correctly,
[43:02] Speaker 2: oh man, when she was out the ratings dropped. The
[43:06] Speaker 2: other piece of this is the ratings dropped, but we're
[43:10] Speaker 2: still higher than pre Caitlin Clark WNBA, which means while yes,
[43:16] Speaker 2: some people are just showing up for her, some people
[43:18] Speaker 2: showed up for her, and we're like, oh, I like basketball,
[43:21] Speaker 2: and this is a pretty good product all stick around,
[43:24] Speaker 2: even if she's not there. At least some people did.
[43:26] Speaker 2: It's the best thing imaginable for the league. It's the
[43:28] Speaker 2: best thing imaginable for her, and it is for us,
[43:32] Speaker 2: you know here in hockey ended last night. Basketball probably
[43:35] Speaker 2: ends tomorrow in the NBA. It'll be nice to have
[43:39] Speaker 2: like a captivating sports story for the summer other than baseball,
[43:44] Speaker 2: so I'm excited about it.

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