Caitlin Clark’s rookie season came to an end on Wednesday night as the Connecticut Sun completed a 2-0 sweep of the Indiana Fever. Clark, the presumptive rookie of the year, set a ton of records and generated a wild amount of interest and eyeballs in the WNBA in her debut season. She’s also inspired a lot of unnecessary or uncomfortable conversations as she continued to be used in the culture wars.
But all that pales in comparison to the hyperbole. No matter how great she was, the hyperbole always finds a way. And that’s exactly what happened on Thursday as ESPN ran a truly outrageous graphic comparing Clark’s rookie season to the career of Serena Williams and vast Olympic resumes of Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky.
There are a lot of ways to talk about Caitlin Clark’s great rookie season, but this is not it.
As many people pointed out, WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson or perhaps Diana Taurasi, a legend who also saw her season come to an end last night, might have been better choices. Fitting choices even. The attempt to shoehorn Clark in here does nothing but make people upset—either with Clark or ESPN.