When I drove the two-day, one-night triangle from the Twin Cities to Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, and back home in early February 2022, it was to investigate the long-range shooting from a thin Hawkeyes sophomore named Caitlin Clark.
She had been witnessed on TV a couple days earlier making shots from Steph Curry-land as Iowa played at Michigan.
At that point, Stephen A. Smith might not have been aware of the existence of Iowa, and veteran columnist Christine Brennan might have been worked up over issues such as the Washington Spirit receiving much less tribute for their women’s pro soccer title in November 2021 than did the Nationals for a World Series victory two autumns earlier.
What’s amazing, with my standing as a pioneer of Caitlin Mania, is to wind up so far removed from the vehement opinions of media superstars such as Stephen A. and Brennan, and even legends of new-age irreverence like David Portnoy of Barstool Sports.
They share an outrage that it appears the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team will be winning its traditional gold medal at the Olympics this summer in Paris without Clark on the roster.
There’s still a chance USA Basketball could capitulate to the crusaders for Clark if there are openings due to injury or illness, but for now, someone else must be the 11th or 12th player in coach Cheryl Reeve’s rotation and come off the bench when the Yanks are leading Belgium or Japan by 40 late in the third quarter.
One reason for being 180 degrees opposite of Smith, Brennan, Portnoy and apparently tens of thousands of others on this issue is that I never considered Clark being on the Olympic team to be an issue.
Women’s pro leagues came and went in the U.S. until the WNBA was formed with eight teams in 1996. The U.S. women are 7-for-7 in gold medals starting that summer in Atlanta, and there’s no reason to suspect that streak will end this August — with or without Clark.