Former ESPN writer and co-host Jemele Hill has questioned the hype around Caitlin in women’s college basketball, as she accused media outlets of not covering black players just as much as the Iowa star.
While speaking to uproxx.com last week about Clark’s rise to fame last week, Hill said that the Lady Hawkeyes star is only benefiting from a sudden rise in attention despite acknowledging the 22-year-old point guard ‘stoking overall curiosity.’
‘Everything about this sport has been trending up for years now. It did not just start with Caitlin Clark, but they’re treating it like it did,’ Hill, who’s now a contributing writer for The Atlantic, told the outlet. ‘And so it’s already creating a false narrative that is doing the public a disservice.’
Hill then slammed the media for doing a ‘terrible job’ at covering women sports, as she said that when it does, it tends to only ‘overload in one direction,’ referring to the coverage that white players such as Clark or UConn star Paige Bueckers receive in comparison to former South Carolina star and current Aces forward, A’ja Wilson.
‘(Wilson’s) probably the best player in the world right now,’ Hill said. ‘And I’m not trying to act like gets no coverage, but the coverage that sometimes non-white women get, or specifically Black women get, is not even close. It’s two-to-one.’
Ex- ESPN writer & co-host Jemele Hill isn’t all about the hype the media is giving to Caitlin Clark
Hill referred to UConn star Paige Bueckers as another white female basketball player who has more coverage than her black counterparts
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‘I mean, Aliyah Boston was the best player in college just a couple of years ago. And she did not get even a tenth of this media coverage that Caitlin Clark did. Now, some people would say, ”Oh, it’s her game.” But I don’t think it was that. She’s tremendous on television, and I’m thinking, ‘what a missed opportunity for the national media to really elevate who she was as a person.
‘Caitlin Clark seems to be a great personality, but it is not like Caitlin Clark is walking around saying crazy stuff. They’re just covering her excellence, and that’s good enough. Whereas it feels like for Black athletes to get the same amount of coverage or even fair coverage, there has to be something extra [beyond basketball].’
Hill did praise Clark for her mindset and overall game, as she believes that the NCAA women’s record holder for total amount of points will adapt to the WNBA without any issues and will also help the league grow.
Clark’s double-double performance (41 points and 12 assists) in Iowa’s Elite Eight win over LSU – the national reigning champs -set a basketball viewership record of 12.3 million viewers on average ,and received the most best ever for a women’s sporting event.
Hill said A’ja Wilson gets less covered than Clark despite being the best WNBA player out there
Stephen Curry has been named as the male hooper that Clark draws inspiration from by Hill
Clark and her Iowa teammates will now face Bueckers and UConn on Friday in the Final Four, with the winner of that game going up against either undefeated South Carolina or NC State in Sunday’s national championship game.
‘To me, Caitlin Clark was always Steph Curry. It was always him,’ Hill said while comparing both players. ‘And even if you consider LeBron (James) to be the greatest player of this generation, which would be accurate, the biggest effect on basketball at every level was Steph Curry.
‘I feel like Caitlin Clark’s going to continue that because even the reasons she plays, the way she plays, is because of Steph Curry.
‘I can only imagine the number of little girls and young female athletes who are trying to copy everything she’s doing, and I think that’s a great thing for the sport.’
