2024 WNBA Season: The first one with Caitlin Clark in it

it's time for a new thread with the wnba draft done.

hoping clark is the magic/bird of the league that gets more league investment and expansion.

hoping aces threepeat.

hoping all the rookies show out, esp the two new bigs in chicago.

hoping seattle is competitive again.

get that league pass!

appears that taurasi/bird/other old people are already going after CC? unfortunate.

i do hope she uses her current power wisely . . . which imo right now means utterly burying gregg doyel

super excited for the new season. very interested in the Reese & Cardoso twin towers scene.
i need to check the schedule for our annual trip to DFW for a Wings game

xpost - I don't know what is going on but I've been noticing a lot of the ex players that are TV talking heads obviously can't stand Clark and don't often do a good job of hiding it

has been going on for awhile

clark's rookie season: like $65K to play ball and $3.5M to sell apparel. wild

I've bandwagoned on CC and curious why old heads can't stand her? Is it jealousy?

Good for her on the Nike deal btw, it's a step in the right direction of what the league needs to build star power.

I've bandwagoned on CC and curious why old heads can't stand her? Is it jealousy?

― octobeard, Tuesday, April 23, 2024 4:39 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

that and the usual boring “back in my day” stuff. just like with the mens game there’s no need to pay attention to it. she’s the best thing to ever happen to the sport

i do think a lot of the clark hype is by dudes who havent paid attention to women's hoops at all and are ready to downplay both the w's past and present stars in order to prematurely elevate her to GOAT status, and i think the old-timers are right to be miffed honestly! but it's not like clark won't be an immediate star.

She's definitely got more attention than any other women's hoops player I can think of, but I mean, she did break the scoring record.

there’s some obvious other subtext going on too

Inevitably.

official regular season debut tonight!

ESPN dot com making CC its lead story (during the NBA and NHL playoffs!) while she's going 5-for-15 with 10 turnovers is rough

she seems to have a true gunner's mentality, but all this attention is maybe not the best for her personally

fever have a lot of great young talent but they...are young! ppl who acted like clark was gonna dominate right out the gate were casuals who dont watch the league.

aces new unis look amazing and now that theyre silver and black i finally have an additional excuse to cop one. they are cooking right now.

aces are rolling out a deeper rotation which is very much needed considering how thibs-esque their minute distribution was last year

ha well, mercury got very hot from 3

best shooter on the CC debut day: The GOAT Taurasi

i did a double take when i saw her name on the roster bc i had a brief notion that she retired and i guess i got her swapped in my brain with her broadcasting partner sue bird for a second

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5535002/2024/06/02/caitlin-clark-chennedy-carter-angel-reese-foul-wnba/?source=user_shared_articlem

I guess there’s a league full of role players who are draymond wannabes now?

the “coversation” about this is so funny

I do actually understand why other players might have animosity towards her, obviously it's not her fault and I think she's taken her ambassador role seriously but still I don't think it's great for a sports league to have their far and away most popular player be a rookie on a 2-8 team, someone's gotta position themselves as her Wario

https://fox59.com/indianapolitics/rep-jim-banks-presses-wnba-over-attack-on-caitlin-clark/

everyone who fouls Caitlin Clark needs to go to jail

He's betting on games clearly

sweet shot

KFC FOR THE WIN 😤

Kahleah Copper seals the deal with a clutch corner 3 for the @PhoenixMercury, securing the 81-80 victory over the Lynx 🔥

WNBA Commissioner's Cup presented by @coinbase pic.twitter.com/QEtST4ayi8

— WNBA (@WNBA) June 8, 2024

I miss Kah. Sky glory days.

Nice win for the Liberty and Jonquel Jones, stopped Connecticut from starting 10-0

and that's the big women's basketball story in the sports media this morning of course

kinda over the caitlyn clan online already

she's a legitimately fun player, it sucks for her that she's become the sole focus of the discourse

yeah thats it, i think she's a thrilling player! its the wackass male stan culture, its exhausting

the WNBA is full of great ballers right now. a lot of them came into the league in the past 3 or 4 drafts, filled out the league's rosters, and elevated the overall level of talent in a big way. Clark's just at the crest of a wave of v good young players. u love to see it.

the right wing shit I see about her on Facebook is insane

not to suggest it's her fault but she's definitely the new MAGA culture war thing, it's only going to get worse now that she was left off the Olympic team

Nikki Haley posting this morning that CC has the most 3s in the league this season, maybe she'll learn about averages one day

it's not even true even when you factor out averages, she's only third in raw total

I feel bad for her I mean she didn't ask for any of this

yeah like that's the part that aggravates me. I get why other players, long-time followers of the WNBA, etc are annoyed with the excess attention given to one newcomer. but so many people actually taking it out on her, as if this is something of her creation.

her fans could really, really, really do her a favor and pump their brakes on their neo-Swiftian devotion, though. it ain't helping

its unfortunate that the Fever aren't very good I mean what would be really great for the WNBA is if she was in a good playoff series which featured a few star players, maybe even have a rivalry develop, also have it be something you could actually see on regular TV

a lot of the noise will prob die down sooner than later, im just assuming that most of the people stirring the pot are outside agitators who dont really care about the wnba too much, people not known for their attention spans

i do like that the established players are taking clarks hype personal tho thats good stuff get out there and mix it up

there's definitely a big element of opportunism in media hype around Clark that the league wants to take advantage of and can benefit from, but it's only natural that established star players want to take her down a few pegs. Clark's collegiate records don't mean much to them. she has to prove her ability to compete at the highest pro level to earn the respect of her peers. until then, she's just a rookie with a lot to learn.

fuckin tired of the dumb-ass christian laettner argument. that was a million fuckin years ago dweebs

Clark is probably having the best season of any current rookie (with the major caveat of having two-thirds of the season left to go)--but she's not exactly having a "Candace Parker in 2008" season.

I feel like some of her fans expected her to immediately dominate the league as the "2015 Steph" of the WNBA, and since that's not happening they are searching for a reason because it just can't be that she's not the best player.

And that's opening the door for a bunch of dipshit racists and culture war opportunists to get involved, it sucks

Some of the discourse i see is like if in 2011, instead of talking about lebron and the heatles, idiot talking heads were going on and on about how it isn't fair that the kings aren't starting jimmer fredette and playing it like he's a huge victim

obviously that's a totally unfair player comparison to clark fwiw

i do like that the established players are taking clarks hype personal tho thats good stuff get out there and mix it up

― lag∞n, Monday, June 10, 2024 1:46 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

sweet shot

KFC FOR THE WIN 😤

Kahleah Copper seals the deal with a clutch corner 3 for the @PhoenixMercury, securing the 81-80 victory over the Lynx 🔥

WNBA Commissioner's Cup presented by @coinbase pic.twitter.com/QEtST4ayi8
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 8, 2024
― symsymsym, Saturday, June 8, 2024 12:05 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

late on this but I was at this game and it was such an electric moment, probably the best end to a pro basketball game i've ever attended. The crowd was going totally wild, incredible feeling

https://www.theonion.com/the-onion-s-exclusive-interview-with-caitlin-clark-1851529041

lmao i definitely was like nice hat my man

melohat blog still exists by the way i took a trip down memory lane the other day

minnesota should stop turning it over imo

sabrina should stop shooting imo

*melo, it said "KITH" not sure if hes a kids in the hall fan or is hes asking for smooches with a lisp

― Cruz crews cruise through Carew's car ruse, cur ooze (m bison), Sunday, October 20, 2024 10:21 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i always thing of the kids in the hall when i see that brand too

it looks like a hat bruce mccullough would wear if he was playing a child in a sketch

lol

congrats to the champs nyc best city the world baby pizza gets folded in half trash goes on the street

subway car, giuliani, pizza rat congrats to them all

big city of dreams

good job, good game

no idea how they won with ionescu going 1-for-19

yeah thats crazy

i do vaguely wonder if, had they lost, the wnba has graduated to players getting death threats

thats what the nets were hoping to do when they traded for harden

xp

i love holly rowe

really the whole espn wnba broadcast team is solid bc they hire no nba guys

they should have a token man

must say that that foul that let stewie tie it in regulation was iffy

shhhhhhh it was a foul

genuinely happy for Jonquel

also napheesa collier should be a star (advertising-wise, as well as basketball-wise)

i do vaguely wonder if, had they lost, the wnba has graduated to players getting death threats

― mookieproof, Sunday, October 20, 2024 7:43 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

sadly no shortage of this recently

what a series, every game went down to the wire

Nyara Sabally saved their ass

i meant death threats for shooting 1-for-19, but . . . yeah point taken

I missed this game live, but heard the refs were beyond terrible? Liberty were gifted the win?

BTW the game 2 experience was tops, but probably the least controversial game with the largest margin of victory, so I missed high drama, but it was an absolute blast with great crowd energy!

happy for Ionescu winning it but I gotta say she is godawful in commercials. almost impressively so in fact. she comes off like those 3rd string linemen who do ads for local Honda dealers.

The Toronto Tempo have arrived 🏀 pic.twitter.com/YxYFQ2nDb3

— ESPN (@espn) December 5, 2024

there's gotta be a better name out there

maybe its tempo rary

i do like that logo tho nice mid century feel, isnt a snarling predator

looks like the pacers logo

or a state transit logo

^^^ this makes me like it 100 percent more, what if their mascot is a fuckin train, classic

that would be neat yeah

would be better without the T on the ball

expansion draft! every team was allowed to protect up to six players, so my sense is that a roster of 7th best players won't be great:

https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/42821131/valkyries-select-7-international-players-wnba-expansion-draft

I like the logo and the name! team names not named after mammals all the way

Perhaps irrelevant but a few years ago I repaired this lady’s broken pool at her $50 million home near Middleburg Virginia and she didn’t let me use her bathroom so I had to drive 8 miles to a gas station to pee then drive all the way back and then she asked me what took so long https://t.co/1PiV2AY0de

— Milwaukee Meade (@shammgod21) December 14, 2024

There's no excuse for not letting a worker use your bathroom. it's hella disrespectful and classist. but even I know how to pee behind a bush.

Clark is cognizant of the racial underpinnings of her stardom. “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” says Clark. “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.”

https://time.com/7200904/athlete-of-the-year-2024-caitlin-clark/

This very sensible and innocuous quote was enough to rile up right wing idiots. The whole profile is a very clear disavowal of all the toxic narratives on her behalf last season.

huge trade:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10152379-report-jewell-loyd-traded-to-aces-kelsey-plum-to-sparks-in-3-team-deal-with-storm

la sparks get:
#9 pick (SEA)
kelsey plum (LV)

lv aces get:
jewell loyd (SEA)
#13 pick (LA)

seattle storm get:
#2 pick (LA)
li yueru

After watching a dozen or so women's NCAA games this season already, I gotta say the WNBA will have some excellent talent to pick from this upcoming draft. The women's college game gains tremendously from their top talent staying through their senior year, while the men's NCAA hoops has been considerably hollowed out. Women's hoops are improving in quality by leaps and bounds lately.

i’ve watched much of the women’s regular season, esp the top 10 ranked teams, this year.

can’t remember the last college hoops season i’ve done this for, maybe the Durant UT year?

The conference tourney has been great so far and I can’t wait for the big tournament to start

Fantastic talent all around, Juju Watkins is electric to watch

I wonder if the WNBA will be more willing to integrate new talent into the league considering the limited spots.

Expansion is in the works.

good piece https://defector.com/diana-taurasi-retirement-uconn-phoenix-mercury

About anyone but Taurasi that would have been overwritten. She's a living hyperbole.

great writing