The Shoes Don't Fit

Caitlin Clark has a signature shoe deal before she plays her first WNBA game. But what about the many current Black players who don't have the same deals?

The Shoes Don’t Fit

It was an innocuous social media post that I liked before I thought about it.

It was a post about incoming WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark getting a signature shoe deal, making her the third WNBA player with such a deal, joining Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu.

Then it struck me.

I looked at their pictures and realized that the only current players with WNBA signature shoe deals are all White.

Understand that this is criticism directed at Clark, Stewart, and Ionescu.

We know that Clark has been catching a lot of flak.

There has been a lot of talk, justified talk, about the unbalanced treatment and publicity around Clark versus her Black counterparts.

But to her credit, she has done nothing except be a great basketball player.

She does not seek the spotlight to the diminishment of other players.

Proof of that is the fact that she was not only women’s college basketball’s leading scorer, but she also led the country in assists.

She shared the spotlight with her fellow Iowa Hawkeyes and takes every opportunity to speak highly of her competitors and women’s basketball trailblazers both Black and White.

All of the discussion about the unequal pay between men and women professional basketball players has centered on how much Clark’s rookie contract will be compared to an NBA’s rookie’s contract.

Few have cared up to now until a White superstar WNBA player is underpaid.

The reason Brittney Griner was playing professional basketball in Russia was because of her relatively paltry WNBA salary.

Griner being in the wrong country at the wrong time with the wrong things in her luggage wasn’t enough to raise an outcry about WNBA players making much less money than men.

But again, this is not Caitlin Clark’s fault.

Don’t hate the player.

Don’t hate the game.

Hate the racism and prejudice that causes White women to move the needle when Black women barely rate a mention.

There are plenty of great Black WNBA players like Griner who deserve their own shoe deals.

Candace Parker has a signature shoe deal, but what about other Black star WNBA players like Jewell Loyd?

They deserve the endorsements.

Deserve the press.

Deserve the attention and adoration.

It’s not Caitlin Clark’s fault, not Brittney Griner, not any WNBA player, past or present, Black or White’s fault.

It’s the fault of those who attach more money-making opportunities to White people than Black people.

In a game and league dominated by Black players, you would think that things would be better.

But you would only seriously think that if you were living in a different world.