Christine Brennan's new book 'On Her Game' chronicles rise of Caitlin Clark

Transcript

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Amna Nawaz: She’s one of the biggest names in all of sports today, and a new book takes a deeper look at how Caitlin Clark got there.

From college stardom at Iowa to shattering attendance records and now as a top financial driver for the WNBA, Clark’s rise and her arrival to the league have come with some controversy.

I talked with sportswriter Christine Brennan about her book “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports,” and asked her how and why playing for the University of Iowa helped to make Clark a superstar.

Christine Brennan, Author, “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports”: Because, at Iowa, she could shoot from anywhere and everywhere, including the next county and the parking lot.

And it would go in. She’s the high-wire act in that way. She’s a basketball player, of course, as you know, but she is also an entertainer. And I think the allure and the reason Caitlin Clark is Caitlin Clark, and obviously other women’s basketball players over the years have not risen to this transcendent figure in our culture, is because she does have those incredible shots, passes, et cetera.

Well, that, of course, is where Caitlin Clark was able to do that, at Iowa. If you have her go to Notre Dame, which she actually committed, a soft commit, Muffet McGraw, her coach there, said to me for the book, she said, if she’d come here, it would have been different.

Amna Nawaz: Yes.

Christine Brennan: She wouldn’t have been able to just shoot threes left and right. The team around her would have been different. Yukon as well, she would have been a cog in a great machine, those schools being perennial favorites, whereas Iowa hadn’t been to the Final Four a long time.

It’s incredible how, by Caitlin making that decision to stay home, everything changed.

Amna Nawaz: She goes on to break scoring records. She has at least 11 NIL deals, you report in the book, worth more than $3 million by the time she’s done with college.

But, in the book, I was surprised, you really go hard after the league, after the WNBA, for what you say is being unprepared for her arrival. The league itself and also not preparing the players. You write about a call that you have with the WNBA official.

And you write: “What was I hearing in that WNBA’s official’s voice? Not happiness, not anticipation, not excitement. No, it was something else.”

What was it? What do you think they got wrong?

Christine Brennan: You have got people barnstorming — Caitlin is barnstorming around the country. You have got people lined up in January and February for games, the TV ratings, four million more people watching the women’s final with Caitlin Clark in South Carolina than watched the men the next night.

I mean, that’s a sentence I thought I could never utter. And here it’s all coming to the WNBA. And as that official told me, I said, do you realize how big this is? And this person said, yes, this is the biggest thing to happen to the WNBA since Maya Moore.

We heard from several people saying the players were having some tough times dealing with this, or Sheila Johnson, of course, talks about that would be hurt feelings if Caitlin Clark winning an award, but the other players not. So if the league had been more prepared — and these are not necessarily my words.

Dr. Harry Edwards, the great civil rights leader, the man who was the impetus for the Black power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and Briana Scurry, the great goalkeeper, their words in the book, I’m so appreciative that they talked to me about, you have to understand that a 74 percent Black league, and you have now got a white woman who’s becoming the biggest star they have ever had.

In our polarized society today, we can see that could be an issue. I can understand that. We all do. And so if the league, as Harry Edwards says, seminars, Zoom calls, talk to the players, explain to these wonderful players that she’s coming along after them, and that this is that opportunity, and you were there to start this process.

And that’s where the WNBA failed the players, according to Dr. Harry Edwards.

Amna Nawaz: And, as you know, a lot of the conversation around the hits she takes, around some of the rivalries that followed her from college to the league do break down along racial lines, because this is a league, as you mentioned, built on the backs and run by, dominated by Black women athletes here.

You get pulled into this in one reporting incident too. There’s a clip that goes viral, a player named DiJonai Carrington who accidentally hits Clark in the eye during a game, and you ask her about that moment, whether she intended to, what that play was about. And the Players Association comes after you.

They issue a very strong statement. They accuse you of trying to bait an athlete into participating in a narrative that’s false, designed to fuel racist, homophobic, misogynistic vitriol. They call for your credentials to be pulled. What did you take away from that interaction? And I know you respond in the book, but I want to give you a chance to respond here as well.

Christine Brennan: Sure. No, thank you. And, obviously, that failed. I did not lose my credentials.

Amna Nawaz: Right.

Christine Brennan: I have asked tough questions of athletes, male and female, for years. Was the Players Association saying that these female athletes couldn’t handle those questions, that we shouldn’t be asking similar questions?

And you ask a specific question, Amna, to give that athlete the chance to hit it out of the park, to take it any which way she wants. And what was happening online was terrible. We know that Twitter/X is a cesspool. It’s worse for women than men, and it’s certainly worse for Black women than white women.

And there were millions of responses and tweets and posts talking about DiJonai Carrington, accusing her of going after Caitlin Clark. How do you, as a journalist, try to get an answer, which also then gives the athlete the chance to clear the air? You ask the specific question. That’s exactly what I did.

And I do feel a sadness for the league as I’m reporting this, I’m a journalist, I’m reporting it, but as someone who’s cared about women’s sports, for years and covered the WNBA these years, that they weren’t more prepared for the national scrutiny that was coming.

How on earth is DiJonai Carrington not prepared to be able to answer that question without getting angry that it was asked? And, again, it’s something that most pro athletes understand. They have been helped by their leagues or their players association, whatever, their agent, to the point where they know you get a question like that, you want that question because then you can clear the air.

And that’s all that was.

Amna Nawaz: Underscoring all of your reporting in this book is the idea of the business of the game around Caitlin Clark and how it has completely changed with her arrival at the WNBA.

You note that the videos that the Indiana Fever produced have been top among all the Major Leagues. No team in the NBA, NFL, MLB or WNBA got more video views, ticket sales, jersey sales all up exponentially. The impact beyond just her team though, are we seeing that? Is this a sense of like a rising tide lifting all boats?

Christine Brennan: We saw a statistic just a few weeks ago that I think tells the story, not in the book because it just happened. Caitlin Clark, when she was injured the first time, missed five games. And during those five games, more than half of the viewership of the entire WNBA, not just the Fever, but the entire WNBA, more than half, disappeared, meaning that when Caitlin Clark is gone, more than half of the audience goes.

You now have tangible proof of just the importance of Caitlin Clark, is that, when she is gone, then more than half the viewership leaves the league. That is wonderful actually to know for the players as they go into the collective bargaining agreement, because she is, as you said, the economic rocket ship leading the way.

Use her. You can — she’s obviously a player that you will all make more money and have a better contract knowing the power of Caitlin Clark and knowing that that light shines on her, and it also shines on all the other players.

Amna Nawaz: The book is “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports.” The author is Christine Brennan.

Christine, always great to see you. Thank you so much.

Christine Brennan: Great to see you. Thank you, Amna.