Last week’s incident involving Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter and Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark showed why politics need to infiltrate sports, and how sports can help bridge divides and have difficult conversations.
The opportunity, which lasted just six seconds, began when Carter came off a screen on the weak side of the court, received the ball on the baseline and then drained a mid-range jump shot to cut Chicago’s lead to four (49-53) late in the third quarter as the team made a comeback.
After the shot is made, Carter can be seen calling out to Clark as he waits for the inbounds pass.
Carter approaches Clark and puts his shoulder on him, causing Clark to fall to the ground with his back to the field. Carter is called for a common foul for the shove and Clark is awarded a free throw.
After the game, the WNBA upgraded the call to a Flagrant 1 violation, a more severe penalty.
The game ended in a 71-70 victory for the Fever, their first home win of the season, but what happened after sparked a heated debate across the sports world and among WNBA fans.
Wait a second, what does Detroit have to do with this?
This reminded me of the 2008 brawl between the Detroit Shock and the Los Angeles Sparks that I had heard about years ago, but considering I was eight years old at the time and probably somewhere playing my Wii or riding my bike with friends, I had to do a bit of research.
Caitlin Clark’s WhitenessHer market value increases. That’s not racism. It’s true.
The brawl began when Los Angeles Sparks’ Candace Parker, another rookie star, and Detroit Shocks’ Prenette Pearson, the first WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year and star player in history, got tangled while running down the court after making a free throw.
The brawl resulted in fines and suspensions.
As a Detroit sports fan growing up, I’m no stranger to brawls and, more importantly, the conversations that ensue.
The 2004 game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills, “The Malice at the Palace,” continued to shape negative perceptions of Detroit and a generation of NBA players involved, and prompted the NBA to implement stricter policies, including increased security and restrictions on alcoholic beverages.
This incident changed how we evaluate player-fan interactions and shaped how we think about what is acceptable in crowds and arenas today. I would argue it also challenged how society thinks about black men, following backlash against media portrayals of players as “black thugs” and the like.
And what does this have to do with politics?
Some have argued that “Clark’s talent privilege” put a target on her back, and that the shove from Carter would be considered “assault” outside of basketball.
Some say other WNBA players are jealous of Clark and should be grateful for the attention she brings to the league, while others say the sports media hasn’t had a long history of covering the WNBA properly until recently.
There are many columns that cover these points.
I argue that incidents like the Clark Carter controversy open up conversations about inequality in the gender pay gap, intersectionality in sports, and how to adequately and appropriately cover women’s sports leagues.
These examples are the literal meaning of politics in sports, and we should embrace it.
Moreover, the WNBA is unique in that it cannot operate in isolation from these politics: it’s an all-women’s league, a fact that some fans remain uncomfortable with, and its membership is largely made up of queer and black women.
These issues have a lot to do with who players are off the court, and as we’ve seen, they have no problem being at the forefront of the justice movement in professional sports.
And while I don’t think we need the physical act of sports to have these conversations, I don’t think these moments need to be isolated from the broader conversations we have at school, at the dinner table, or around the water cooler.
Sport provides an excellent framework for having tough conversations about who we are as people, and I would argue that it challenges our values and forces us to consider alternative perspectives while remaining fun and stimulating.
Jalen Williams is an intern at the Detroit Free Press. He can be reached at jawilliams1@freepress.com..
