DEERFIELD, Ill. — Before Saturday’s Chicago Sky game against the Indiana Fever, I wrote a short post on our live blog that was headlined: “Don’t overlook Chennedy Carter.”
Carter led the Sky with 19 points, 6 assists and one hard foul on Caitlin Clark during the game. You can guess which stat was the story after the Fever’s 71-70 win. No one has been overlooking her since.
Advertisement
Carter was the No. 4 pick in the 2020 draft and she averaged around 17 points a game in her rookie year, but everyone knows her name now that she’s become entangled in the Caitlin Clark story that combines race, basketball and fame in a social-media world.
Let’s make it clear: It was a dumb, unnecessary foul away from the ball and Carter, who had just hit a jumper, should’ve gotten a flagrant-1 at the time, not after the fact. It was just a hip check, not a capital crime, but the referees should’ve made a point to call it.
Ok so here is the whole entire sequence of the Carter & Clark incident. It started when Carter bump Clark from behind trying to steal the ball. And then it continued under the basket and then to the other end of the court. #indianafever pic.twitter.com/hR3lZrbsIC
— LiveWire Sports Media (@LiveWireSports1) June 2, 2024
And because it involved Clark, it caused a media storm that raged from Saturday afternoon until, well, it’s probably still going. They were gabbing about it on ESPN on Monday afternoon. People are still arguing about it on social media.
A bunch of reporters were at Sky practice to get their takes after the team put out a statement from Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon after the team’s tepid postgame reaction added fuel to the fire.
“Unfortunately, Chennedy got caught up into a heated moment, because what we’re teaching here is to have a cool head in a hot game, a cool head in any situation,” Weatherspoon said Monday. “And that didn’t happen. So that was a conversation between myself and Chennedy of how we conduct ourselves and that was not appropriate. We don’t do that, we don’t act like that, we don’t conduct ourselves like that. And the message is clear. The message is very clear.”
“It was just one of those things that was in the heat of the moment,” Carter said.
Advertisement
“She’s taking accountability for what happened and we move forward from that,” Sky rookie star Angel Reese said of her veteran teammate. “Obviously, she probably won’t do that again.”
Probably. Whether she meant to or not, Reese gave herself an out there. Carter is a bit of a live wire, so you never know.
“At the end of the day, it’s all love outside of basketball,” Carter said. “When we’re in those four lines, it’s smoke. After, it’s all love, I promise. We’re a genuine team. We’re genuine people. We didn’t hit her like she was out on the streets. It’s just basketball.”
To some, the Sky, and particularly Carter, are the villains in the story — and it’s kind of true, to be honest — but as the saying goes, just make sure to spell their names right. The Chicago beer company that makes Anti-Hero is a major Sky sponsor, so I see some advertising potential there.
“It all started from the national championship game,” Reese said of her 2023 win over Clark and Iowa, when she taunted Clark after LSU’s victory. “I’ve been dealing with this for two years now and understanding like, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but honestly, I’ll take that because look where women’s basketball is. People are talking about women’s basketball that you never would think would be talking about women’s basketball. People are pulling up to games, we got celebrities coming to games, sold-out arenas, just because of one single game.
“And just looking at that, I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role and I’ll continue to take that and be that for my teammates. And if I want to be that, I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years and be like, yeah, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me, too. And I want y’all to realize that, like, it’s not just because of one person. A lot of us have done so much for this game, and Chennedy has been here before, obviously, but there are so many great players in this league that have deserved this for a really, really long time and luckily it’s coming now.”
Advertisement
Because of her outsized success in college, the entertaining way she plays and her marketability, Clark is a star who transcends her sport.
But it’s natural that opposing players are tired of hearing pundits (professional and otherwise) tell them they should be thankful for Clark, a rookie who is not on their team. It’s inarguable that Clark, and Reese to a certain extent, have brought more attention to a league that has struggled to gain a foothold in a crowded national sporting conversation. The merits of that attention have come with discussions about race, given that Clark is a White player in a league of athletes who are predominantly Black, like Reese.
When it comes to marketability, the league itself has often been the issue, not the quality of the players. There’s no arguing that the WNBA has been gifted a blessing with the likes of Clark and Reese and with a new spotlight on how competitive this league really is, everyone will have to adapt to the changing times. Players will have to deal with the scrutiny. Reporters, TV hosts and the rest of us will have to learn the league.
Carter got criticized for her postgame news conference — her “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions” is actually a great quote in and of itself — and when she was asked about it on Monday, she said she wasn’t in the right headspace to talk about this after the game.
“I’m a person that when something happens, I need time to get my thoughts together,” she said.
Of course, after the game, Carter also hit Clark on social media, writing “beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man.” On Monday, Carter said it was just “jokes.”
“We’ve been able to take a lot of hits in the past 24, 48 hours, but I’m out here smiling,” Carter added. “I’m not complaining.”
As far as I can tell, Clark is not asking for any kind of special treatment in the WNBA and neither is Reese, who can fit anywhere from the Met Gala to the low post. It was Reese who was choke-slammed to the ground by veteran Alyssa Thomas while fighting for a rebound in the Sky’s home opener. After that game, Reese took offense when I brought up the idea of a rookie being shown her place.
Angel Reese on that hard foul by Alyssa Thomas which led to an ejection: “They don’t give a damn if I’m a rookie. … They’re not supposed to be nice to me. … Thank you AT for sending a message to me because I got back up and I kept going.” pic.twitter.com/tZUsMjSm8g
— Julia Poe (@byjuliapoe) May 26, 2024
“I mean, they’re not supposed to be nice to me,” she said. “I hope y’all know that. They’re not supposed to be nice to me or lay down because I’m Angel Reese or because I’m a rookie.”
On Monday, Reese said, “You can’t pick and choose who can get touched and who can’t get touched. Everybody can get touched.”
Advertisement
“Including me!” Carter said. “I can get touched as well. But I’m going to make sure I’m always going to bring it. You know what I’m saying?”
We do. Carter has been in trouble before, but she is also a really good basketball player. She’s got handles befitting a Chicago point guard and she can finish in the paint. If the Sky (3-4) are going to be something more tangible than part of a narrative, she’ll be in the thick of it.
Physicality is a part of the WNBA’s legacy, and it’s integral to its current reality. Elbows, shoves, choke slams. It’s all fair game in love and basketball.
And rivalries are a necessity to keep us talking. You can bet that the Sky will be cheered in Chicago when they play the Liberty on Tuesday night, and when the Fever come to town later this month, it’ll be absolutely electric inside Wintrust Arena. When they go on the road, they’ll get booed. But the Sky won’t be ignored.
“You know, all of the stuff that happened is really just great for our league,” Carter said. “It’s great competition. We’re two great players competing on a national stage. … It’s all love. It was just sports. You got to understand that even though we are girls, we love this game. We’re passionate about it. Guys, I was working hard in China and Turkey to come over here and play. I love this game. I bleed it.”
And if a little blood is spilled in the process, we’ll deal with it.
(Photo of Angel Reese and Chennedy Carter: Jeff Haynes / NBAE via Getty Images)