NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was confronted about the treatment WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark has received on the court, and said these “welcome to the league moments” are nothing new — and Clark “can take care of herself.”
The Iowa State phenom has garnered white-hot attention since joining the WNBA — much of it over aggressive play that has sparked outrage among her fans.
At a press conference this week, Silver was asked about the flagrant foul by Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter and the treatment of Clark more broadly:
JOE VARDON: Joe Vardon, The Athletic. You mentioned the WNBA in your initial comments, I was curious for your reaction to the hard foul Caitlin Clark took last week. And then more broadly, if you have any concerns about her first couple of weeks in the in the league.ADAM SILVER: I, you know, I I’ll leave the specific question about the foul to my colleague, Commissioner Engelbert, I mean I other than as a fan, obviously, you know, there’s it’s not– nothing new in basketball that there’s sort of welcome to the league moments, especially for heralded rookies.But of course, I want to see Caitlin treated fairly and appropriately in the league. I would say it seems like she can take care of herself. She’s– she’s a tough player.I think it may be lost on some people who are new to
basketball, in terms of a little bit of the controversy in the WNBA, what an incredible talent she is. You know, two Final Fours leading scorer, history of college basketball.So I look forward to watching her ongoing development in a league. I think ultimately this is very healthy for women’s basketball in the WNBA. It’s generating tremendous additional interest in fairness to the other players.And in fairness to Commissioner Engelbert, this didn’t just start this year. Certainly we’re seeing an acceleration of it with Caitlin. But, you know, many, individual stars who came in this league in the last several years.And then, you know, again, I’ve been with the league for a long time. So I was there the early days with Val Ackerman when and of course, David Stern when we develop the WNBA. And in some ways, to me, this was a long time coming.If we had if you went back and looked at our original business plan from 28 years ago, we didn’t think it would be such a time long timeline to kind of break into the sort of popularity we’re seeing now.So ultimately, you know, I don’t want to make too big an issue about one particular player, one particular call.But, you know, I, I think the, the burgeoning rivalries in, in professional basketball, you see rivalries obviously among clubs but also among individual players too. And I think that can be ultimately good for the sport.But at the same time, there’s there’s also some larger societal issues at work. There’s no doubt. I don’t want to hide from that, some having to do with race. And they’re very apparent.And I think though sports historically has been a platform to people to talk directly about these issues, I don’t think we should hide from them. And I think the players are happy to engage on these issues. They’re sophisticated people. And but but then ultimately let let the public join part of those conversations. Well, and of course the media will weigh in.
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