I have started and discarded several posts about Caitlin Clark. There’s so much to write. But here’s a little something that started out as a Note and grew.
Modern life is one big crazy-maker. Here is one example among many.
Ladies: equality means playing on the team team as a man, on a level playing field.
Oh, but the field is not level, you say? We need a separate — and equal — league. (This is the inevitable pivot.) OK. Have it your way. Here’s your separate league. But don’t demand equality and separation.
Of course the playing field isn’t level!
Physically men have every advantage over women.
Emotional IQ: women leave men in the dust (for better or worse, often the latter).1
Fun fact: The Indiana Pacers and the Fever are owned by the same guy, Herb Simon2, who bought the Pacers in 1983 for $10.5 million - they are now worth about $3.5 billion.
No one knows the valuation of the Fever. It’s anyone’s guess. But recently a WNBA team was sold for… $10 million. That was in Atlanta.
The Fever are probably worth quite a bit more than that, because of one remarkable woman, Caitlin Clark. Without her, a women’s basketball team in Indianapolis would be worth bupkis.
Sabrina Ionescu is a first-class woman basketball player for the NY Liberty. You really could call her the proto-Caitlin: a physically attractive3 six foot point guard who can do everything and who attracted attention because of her three-pointers. In 2023, she set the WNBA record shooting for three in one season, hitting 124 . (By contrast, Caitlin hit 86, a rookie record.) That’s awesome.4
BC (Before Caitlin), Sabrina was touted as “the female Steph Curry.” It’s such a tired, insulting trope. When a woman comes along who excels at something traditionally associated with men, she will be dubbed “the female so-and so.” But it’s inevitable.
Sabrina, like Caitlin, is a Nike athlete. In March, she toured Asia, visiting the Philippines, China, and Hong Kong. The tour was designed to “inspire young basketball players and promote her Nike Sabrina 2 collaboration.”5
The tour kicked off in Manila on March 11, 2025, where she hosted youth basketball clinics, visited Nike stores, and participated in the Show Her Love basketball showcase at a packed coliseum.
During the exhibition game, Ionescu had a heated moment with Filipino junior Kieffer Alas. Alas, a high school standout, played tough defense on Ionescu. In one sequence, after Alas beat her to a spot, Ionescu responded with a hard shoulder check. This IG video shows the interaction up close. She threw the ball at his chest after a foul was called.
Sabrina didn’t show Kieffer much love. He responded with a gentlemanly salute.
That’s basketball: it may not be a collision sport like football, but it’s a contact sport. Players get in each others faces, jostle and hound each other every which way they can.
The gap in physicality as the WNBA star visibly lost her cool at being guarded by a kid was stark. I think that at some point, Sabrina’s amygdala took over and she was no longer a basketball player but a woman being manhandled. And she reacted.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Caitlin Clark would not have reacted in such a fashion, but she wouldn’t even have put herself in this position. She’s too smart.
Clark declined an invitation to participate in a proposed NBA vs. WNBA 3-point contest at the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco, which was set to include Stephen Curry, Sabrina Ionescu, and Klay Thompson. (Sabrina had already done this the previous year.) Her reps stated that she preferred her first 3-point contest to be at the WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis in July 2025. They also cited discomfort with shooting off a ball rack—she’s a movement artist, not a robotic shooter. The NBA-WNBA crossover event was cancelled.
In other words: As soon as the possibility of a Caitlin appearance is floated and it doesn’t happen, that event becomes a dud. Her blast radius is unique.
I don’t for a moment believe that she didn’t want to shoot 3’s off a ball rack. I think she just didn’t want to take part in some “beggars can’t be choosers” gimmick. Men don’t come to the WNBA All-Star 3-point competition. Why should she go to theirs, especially when she would be the biggest draw they have?
Caitlin is the biggest draw in sports now, man or woman - but that doesn’t rewrite nature’s script. It illustrates it. A great woman athlete is that unicorn that everyone wants to see because she is so unlike the others.
Although I don’t think CC would have gotten as flustered as Sabrina did playing the high school kid, I do think he would have pushed her around.
It’s all part of the game. Nature’s game.
Even Caitlin Clark needs protection from sick, predatory men who want to invade women’s sports and destroy it.
What could be more feminine than that?
Samuel Johnson: "Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little." This is from a letter written in the mid-18th century.
Who deserves a post.
Straight
The NBA record belongs to Steph Curry who hit 402 in 2015-2016. I had to check this in several places. I could not believe it. The men have a far longer season: 82 v. 40. Curry averaged 4.9 three-pointers per game. Sabrina? 3.6.
Amazingly, the Sabrina 2 has become a huge hit in the NBA, where it's the second-most worn sneaker in the 2024-25 season. It even beat out signature shoes from NBA stars like Kevin Durant and LeBron James.