Ok, but you made it sound like some conspiracy that Swift ended her multibillion dollar world tour so that she could attend a Sports Illustrated awards ceremony.
There aren’t going to be many rookies in any sport who are front runners for league MVP.
She had a good season though and was sufficiently good by July that the Olympic team admitted they probably made a mistake. But not picking a (then) untested rookie isn’t the worst decision possible.
It is true, though, that she is a big story. Ticket sales are WAY up because of her. She’s easily brought in more than 10 times her contract value to her team. The revenue increase alone due solely to one player is remarkable.
Neither of those won it solo and both were paired with big white dudes.
Sammy Sosa and McGwire in the HR record chase was the story and they won jointly.
In 2017, Altuve and JJ Watt were paired as Houston athletes doing good works in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Right, my point is WHY? She’s good, but not incredibly remarkable. Seems like a media creation rather than a creation on the court.
Fair. I think Ohtani’s press coverage is pretty damn high though. Not someone that follows baseball and I’ve heard all about him. I know nothing about Altuve. I do with Sosa, but I’m from Chicagoland. Not saying he’s a favorite, just wouldn’t discount him.
Clark broke the NCAA career scoring record this past spring – not just for women, but the overall record, which had been held by Pete Maravich.
In each of her final two seasons at the University of Iowa (2022-23, 2023-24), she won pretty much every national “player of the year” award for collegiate women’s basketball. She was a three-time unanimous first-team All-American.
She did struggle a bit early in her rookie season in the WNBA, but calling her “not incredibly remarkable” is, IMO, extremely incorrect.
In addition, beyond her on-court performance, bear in mind that the SI award is often given for an athlete’s overall impact on their sport, and society, and Clark absolutely has been the catalyst for a remarkably increased visibility of women’s basketball, both at the college and pro levels.
Has Mikaela Shiffrin ever won this? Here you have the greatest skier of all time, mens or ladies, only age 29.
No. No skier has ever won the award. Probably far too niche for SI.
I don’t think you really addressed my point. She’s a good rookie. She’s not an MVP. Why do people that don’t give a shit about women’s basketball care about her? She’s not in the top 10 for efficiency or win shares. She has more than 50% the turnovers of the 2nd worst player in that category. The most flattering stat for her (ppg) she’s 7th. A’ja Wilson is apparently by far the best player in the league. What does her being an all american 3 years ago have to do with anything?
Is being the 10th-15th best player in the league for a rookie a great start to a career? Absolutely. IS it deserving of the media attention she’s gotten? I don’t see it. YMMV, of course.
Don’t just look at her rookie WNBA season. She was one of the very best college basketball players ever, and I think you’re forgetting (or unaware of) just how much attention she got as she wrapped up her college career at Iowa in the spring.
She was a unanimous All-American, and won every Player of the Year Award, this year.
And, again, on-field performance is, clearly, not the sole dimension that SI looks at when they make the award. Beyond that, thinking of this purely cynically, SI wants to generate clicks with the award, and sell more magazines, which is the only way that one can rationalize last year’s award recipient.
Isn’t every player of the year an all-american?
Yes. I know. This is the entire point I’m trying to make. She’s super popular for reasons that aren’t clear to me based on her performance on the court. She doesn’t have some off the court story sob story of overcoming adversity. I know that some of the hype is Fox/right wing white-grievance narrative, but that seems insufficient to me.
“Good rookie season” vs “Shohei Ohtani is possible the greatest baseball player of all time” is weird.
If you’re only willing to look at her WNBA season, sure. You don’t seem to be impressed by, or care about, her outstanding college performance, which did extend into 2024.
You don’t need to reply; I think that you and I see it very differently, and aren’t going to convince each other.
She’s arguably the greatest college basketball player who ever lived - and she finished being that in 2024, this year, the year the award is for - so that caused rather a lot of fuss, and she might not have been the WNBA’s best player but she was a hell of a rookie.
And she’s just AMAZING to watch. She’s the Wayne Gretzky of basketball; she’s not the biggest player out there but there is just a basketball sense she possesses that makes games revolve around her. Her three point shooting is often nothing short of breathtaking. She is easily the most entertaining player in the league.
You’re sitting here saying you don’t think she should be a big deal. That is irrelevant. She IS a big deal. That is objective fact. There is no women’s basketball player who has ever lived who was this famous, this transformative, this important. She did things to her league no one has ever does to any league.
What the appeal precisely is I think I understand and you may not but it doesn’t matter. If you asked me who the biggest music star in the world was, the most important and influential musician of 2024, I would unhesitatingly say Taylor Swift. As it happens, I really can’t quite grasp why; her music is not original, memorable, technically outstanding, or especially interesting to me, and there’s nothing about it or her talents that really sets her apart from other talented musicians who are attractive young women. But it is objective fact that she is a huge goddamned deal and her music DOES appeal to way, way more people than anyone else’s does right now and really her influence and importance can only be adequately compared to a few other giants of music history. My opinions don’t change that.
If they’re going to give it to Deion Sanders in 2023 for using the “transfer window” or whatever the hell that was about, implying that the effect on viewership matters and not just athletic accomplishment, a pro athlete who completed maybe the greatest NCAA career a man or woman ever had, joined a pro league, and caused that league’s attendance to climb MORE THAN FORTY PERCENT IN ONE YEAR is an easy choice. Shohei Ohtani didn’t do that. Frickin’ Jordan didn’t do that. Gretzky didn’t do that. I don’t think, though it’s harder to figure out, Tiger Woods did that.
Ohtani would be a good choice too but who was the last non-American to win this by themselves? Wayne Gretzky, more than 40 years ago. It’s an award for Americans. Gretzky had to basically break his sport.
I don’t know why everyone is tap dancing around it, but it’s because she’s a lightning rod in the culture wars.
Also, regardless how dominate they are outside of it, someone in an Olympic sport is only going to get it the year of that Olympics.
Great post on the case for Clark. I don’t follow women’s basketball but she has made everyone sit up and take notice. I personally think it should be Ohtani for accomplishing something I never thought possible, but I couldn’t argue if Clark got it. Don’t really see the case for anyone else being close.
Pffft. She has a perfectly good case for SI Athlete of the Year based on being an athlete. This “culture war” stuff I’m honestly not sure what her role is supposed to be in.
I didn’t claim she wanted to part of the culture war, but she undoubtedly is.
She is an amazing generational talent, but she’s also unfortunately in the middle of something much bigger than sports.
Why unfortunate?
There are plenty of examples of athletes caught up in things bigger than sports. Some unfortunate and some not.
What Jesse Owens did in 1936 was something much bigger than sports. His treatment by Americans back home after the Olympics was reprehensible and demonstrated exactly why.
Clark is getting vastly better treatment and there is a much more respectful discussion despite the dysfunction that seems to be gripping the country. And making tens of millions while doing it. Maybe that’s unfortunate and maybe it’s not but the mere fact of it is not.
I don’t think she likes getting used for pushing racist and anti-LGBTQ agendas. She’s being put into a spot where she she’s having to defend what total strangers are using her name for.
Welcome to being a public figure!
It is unfortunate that some people will use celebrities to push personal agendas regardless of their personal desires, but that is part of being a professional athlete or any well known public figure.
There is no such thing as “shut up and play” even for athletes who want to keep a lower profile. Actually, there’s no such thing as a ‘low profile’ when it comes to professional athletes. It’s part of the job description and has been for a long time now.
Yes, that’s why I said “unfortunately”.
We’re veering off topic I am afraid. I just wanted to answer that poster’s question about why her popularity was transcending the ordinary WNBA audience.