Credit: Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Sports fans haven’t exactly been impressed with “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” for the last several years.
Much of it has to do with poor takes and injecting a particular brand of politics into the programming. But this time, ESPN (or rather, a few of its personalities) had a good take.
Which is – Caitlin Clark deserved a unanimous vote for Rookie of the Year, and the anonymous voter who put a giant fly in the punchbowl by voting for Angel Reese is a recalcitrant.
See? Told you it was a good take!
On Friday’s WNBA Countdown, hosts Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike let it be known that the punchbowl-ruining voter is a big dope.
Bizarro World: ESPN Rips Bad Takes
Ogwumike and Carter were talking about Clark’s outsized (unprecedented) impact on the WNBA, when the subject of the ROTY vote came up.
“Hats off to Caitlin, should have been unanimous, but I’ll stop there,” Carter said, attempting to bring up the controversy without perhaps getting herself in hot water.
But Ogwumike did want all that smoke, keeping the topic alive:
“No no no, I’mma pick it up. Because [Clark] should have been a unanimous rookie of the year… Ever since Angel Reese had that injury, and also coming off of Olympic break, Caitlin Clark separated herself. She should have been unanimous.
“Now to celebrate her… as a rookie, she was the most blitzed player in the WNBA. And she still put up 19 [points], 5 [rebounds, and 8 assists… To be able to do that as a rookie, in the face of that much defensive pressure, should’ve been unanimous. And this is why we would love for the WNBA to make voting not anonymous. Because if you were the person that had that one vote… we should be able to know who you are.”
This is the correct position. Because the voter either 1) doesn’t know ball, which is bad, or 2) does know ball, and they’re just a political actor.
Watch the segment:
Andraya Carter & Chiney Ogwumike feels Caitlin Clark should've been UNANIMOUS ROTY
"Coming off of Olympic break Caitlin Clark separated herself, to do that as a rookie in the face of that much defensive pressure should've been unanimous"#WNBA#FeverRisingpic.twitter.com/tsHqlfCLyq
Which brings me to my next point. Caitlin Clark is obviously the Rookie of the Year. Her game stats bare that out.
But if we zoom out a little bit, and use the official criteria that the league MVP is not the “best” player but rather the most valuable player to their team, Caitlin Clark is the runaway MVP.
If we zoom that out even further, Caitlin Clark is the most valuable player for the entire league. Everything bears this out – from attendance numbers, to jersey sales, to TV ratings, to even quadrupling the league’s TV revenue.
Look: When Caitlin Clark was in the playoffs, she was drawing 1.84 million viewers.
