The WNBA's Jealousy of Caitlin Clark Has Never Been More Obvious as Players Vote Her the NINTH Best Guard

Alex Slitz. Getty Images.

I've used this quote recently in a different context, but it's never applied any better than it will right now. From Act 3, Scene of Othello where Iago offers the titular character this warning:  

"O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; 

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock   

The meat it feeds on."

There can be no other way to describe the way the WNBA players filled out their All Star ballots. While the public spoke in a loud, clear, united, universal voice about who they wanted to see:

Clark's peers - and I'm using that word in the loosest possible sense - went against the Will of the People:

CBS Sports - Clark's outsized popularity with fans is no secret, as is the fact that a segment of her fellow players do not share that enthusiasm. The latter was once again confirmed on Monday when the league revealed the voting results for the All-Star Game starters. 

While Clark finished first in fan voting and third in media voting, she was a stunning ninth in player voting. In fact, Clark wasn't even the highest ranked Fever guard among the player vote. That was Kelsey Mitchell. As a result, Clark did not have the highest weighted score among guards. That honor went to No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers, whose 3.25 edged out Clark's 3.5.

Which is not only an insult to the fanbase that Clark has brought to a league that could not have been less relevant before she arrived, it did something much worse. It enraged Dick Vitale:

Advertisement

Listen up, ladies. You can carry out your petty grudges. You can make yourselves look small in front of the world with your blatant envy. But when you upset a true national treasure like Dick Vitale, you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me. 

So this is where Clark is in her career now. She's the People's Champion. By an order of magnitude, the most popular figure in the league she put on the map. The one who's putting asses in seats and eyeballs on screens. She's increased revenue to the point where everyone benefits. And instead of being grateful, they resent her for it. 

It's pure envy, in its most obvious form. The whole league is like one of those Girl Band they'd profile on VH1's Behind the Music where they get all catty because one member of the group starts getting more attention and landing on all the magazine covers. The WNBA was more popular than ever before. They were selling out arenas. They were at the top of the charts and everyone was talking about them. But off stage for the band, things were falling apart. It's a tale as old as time. 

So we live in a world where the near-unanimous choice of the vox populi is the Captain of an All Star Team despite the people she plays against thinking she's the second best player at her position on her own team. Got it. She's that movie on Rotten Tomatoes that has a critic's score in the 20 percents but an audience score in the 90s, like Tommy Boy or Super Troopers. The major difference is what Dickie V pointed out. The people who love her (the public) will pay to see her. While the people who hate her, are getting paid more than ever because of her. And their juvenile attitude is not going the league any favors. That much is certain.