Backlash toward Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart over Caitlin Clark commentary is sexist and unfair
Iowa's Caitlin Clark (right), Sue Bird (top left inset), Diana Taurasi (top right inset) and Breanna Stewart (bottom inset). Credit: AP/Hans Pennink; Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke; Noah K. Murray
They’ve been called haters. They’ve been accused of being jealous. They’ve been pilloried for not being supportive enough of their own gender.
The venom that has been directed at Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird over the past couple of days for honestly sharing an opinion about Iowa star Caitlin Clark during ESPN’s coverage of the NCAA women’s championship game is not only mind boggling, it is outright sexist.
A record 18.7 million viewers tuned in to the game on Sunday, which will likely go down as a historic turning point in the popularity of women’s basketball. Yet, the catfight-driven coverage of the event shows that female athletes — and women in general — are still held to some sort of weird standard where they are expected to be nurturing and supportive at all costs.
First, some quick background. Clark, whose Iowa team lost to South Carolina in the title game, is expected to be the first pick of the Indiana Fever in Monday’s WNBA Draft in Brooklyn. Taurasi, who has received the brunt of the criticism, had been hired by ESPN along with Bird as commentators on a simulcast commentary during the game.
Promoting that broadcast on SportsCenter, Taurasi was truthful when Scott Van Pelt asked her what Clark, who broke the NCAA career scoring record this year while playing in front of sellout crowds, could expect when she came to the WNBA.
“Reality is coming,” Taurasi told Van Pelt. “You look superhuman playing against some 18-year-olds but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.”
She then added: “There is gonna be a transition period where you’re going to have to give yourself some grace as a rookie."
Taurasi, the WNBA's all-time scoring leader who at age 41 is still playing for the Phoenix Mercury, had the audacity not to throw a welcome mat down and anoint Clark as the savior of a league that Clark hasn’t played a minute in. Taurasi is an elite athlete and fierce competitor, and this is what fierce competitors are supposed to do.
Bird, the greatest point guard in the history of the WNBA, had the audacity not to contradict Taurasi. And Stewart, a two-time WNBA MVP who won four national titles at UConn, had the audacity to say before the title game that Clark needed to win a national championship to be considered the GOAT.
All three of them might have been expected to have these opinions given that they went to UConn. Still, the backlash was fast and furious and out of proportion.
“If you don’t rock with Caitlin Clark game you’re just a FLAT OUT HATER!!!!!” LeBron James, who faced a handful of doubters when he broke into the NBA, wrote in a post on X.
“They sound like Debbie Downers. They sound jealous,” my respected former Newsday colleague Rob Parker said on his Fox Sports radio show.
“Ladies, this comes across as so petty,” Colin Cowherd said on his podcast.
Haters? Debbie Downers? Ladies? OK, James can be excused given that he may have faced the same kind of scrutiny when he came into the NBA straight out of high school. But the amount of negative commentary from media and fans who outright admit they haven’t watched many, if any, WNBA games has been stunning.
There’s not a lot to dislike about Clark’s game. She consistently makes three-pointers from the logo and is one of the best passers the game has ever seen. Her style of play and her chase of Pete Maravich's scoring record drew millions of new fans to the women’s game, which undoubtedly will go down as her greatest and most important achievement.
Yet, why is an honest discussion of Clark and her legacy by women who know the game considered disloyal? Why do we expect players like Taurasi, who have gotten to where they are by being fiercely competitive, to willingly pass the baton to a 22-year-old who has yet to play the pro game? Why do we hold women athletes to a different standard than men, expecting them to constantly be supportive even when it means demeaning their own goals and accomplishments?
It’s almost gotten to the point where some are afraid to say anything publicly that doesn’t acknowledge Clark as the GOAT. Privately, however, may be a different matter. In an anonymous poll of 35 women’s college coaches in March, The Athletic asked who was the best college player of all time. Clark ranked fourth, behind Cheryl Miller, Stewart and Taurasi.
Clark will meet both Stewart and Taurasi in the upcoming WNBA season and you can bet the rivalry will only help — not hurt — the women’s game.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
