WNBA All-Star and current ESPN analyst Chiney Ogwumike believes Caitlin Clark has more on her shoulders than basketball.
Ogwumike, who is not playing this WNBA season but hasn’t formally announced her retirement, tabbed Clark as the new “face of the league.”
And with that, she said Friday on ESPN’s “First Take,” comes more than just what we see on the court.
“If you ask me two years ago, or even a couple months ago, who is the face of the WNBA, I would tell you it’s A’ja Wilson,” Ogwumike said. “She is the most dominant player in the WNBA right now. But we are experiencing a shift where, for better or worse, she is not necessarily the face of the league. The face of the league is now Caitlin Clark.”
Ogwumike later added, “She’s not just representing herself as an individual, as a basketball player, she is the face of a league that has built it’s backbone consistently but over the last few years, I would even say from 2020, has been known for advocacy.”
The comments come on the heels of Clark suggesting that her name not be used to push anyone’s agenda.
Clark said in a media scrum Thursday that the discourse around her isn’t something she can control, nor does she see a lot of it, adding, “People can talk about what they want to talk about. … I’m just here to play basketball.”
After Clark was later asked directly about her thoughts on people using her name in regard to racism or misogyny, adding: “It’s disappointing … people should not be using my name to push those agendas.”
The Sun’s DiJonai Carrington, who has guarded the Iowa alumna well in meetings against Clark, spoke out on X on Thursday about Clark’s initial comments.
“How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionalities of them all is nuts. We all see the s–t. We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury,” Carrington posted on X.
Ogwumike, on Friday, added that this is all part of growing the game, and that Clark has a role in doing that beyond basketball.
“I think that with all of the growth that Caitlin [Clark] has brought, it has brought a lot of growing pains,” she said.
She later added: “Now you have the opportunity to educate people who are coming with you … so that hopefully the focus can be on the game.”