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WNBA star A’ja Wilson has been quick to push back on the reasons the league has gained in popularity over the last two years and the narrative that Caitlin Clark is the major driver.
The Indiana Fever star has certainly helped expand the WNBA’s popularity since she entered the league in 2024.
The Fever’s regular-season game against the Chicago Sky in May drew an average of 2.7 million viewers for the most watched regular-season game in history. There’s no denying that Clark has played a huge role in those numbers.
In an interview with Time magazine after being named the outlet’s player of the year, Wilson said she believed the history of the WNBA was being “erased for a minute” in the midst of Clark’s emergence.
“It wasn’t a hit at me because I’m going to do me regardless,” Wilson said. “I’m going to win this MVP. I’ll win a gold medal. Y’all can’t shake my resume. It was more so, let’s not lose the recipe. Let’s not lose the history. It was erased for a minute. And I don’t like that. Because we have tons of women that have been through the grimiest of grimy things to get the league where it is today.”
The Las Vegas Aces center has made her thoughts about Clark clear.
Wilson, in an interview with The Associated Press in 2024, agreed there was a race element to the sharpshooter’s popularity.
“I think it’s a huge thing. I think a lot of people may say it’s not about Black and White, but to me, it is,” Wilson said. “It really is because you can be top-notch at what you are as a Black woman, but yet maybe that’s something that people don’t want to see.
ACES STAR A’JA WILSON MAKES WNBA HISTORY AFTER WINNING 4TH MVP AWARD
“They don’t see it as marketable, so it doesn’t matter how hard I work. It doesn’t matter what we all do as Black women, we’re still going to be swept underneath the rug. That’s why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is.”
She then broached the subject of a racial double standard in a separate interview with Time earlier this year. She spoke about Clark talking about the supposed “privilege” she benefits from.
“I know [Clark] got a lot of backlash from that because, obviously, we live in a world where they don’t want that, and it’s exhausting,” Wilson said in February. “But imagine dealing with that and then having to go out and play every single night, having to constantly have to worry, ‘How are they about to downgrade my résumé now? What more do I have to do in order to showcase how elite and how serious I take my job?’ But I also do it with love and passion and fun.
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“A lot of people don’t want to see me at the top, and that’s fine, but I’m gonna be there because I worked my butt off to get there.”
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