The debate over whether Caitlin Clark is the outright face of the WNBA has been perennial. NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar argued that calling Caitlin Clark the face of the WNBA was a disservice to veteran stars. Former NFL player Emmanuel Acho later agreed with the 19x NBA All-Star’s take on the Speakeasy podcast. Now another NBA veteran, Eddie Johnson, has shared his two cents.
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“Caitlin is a very good basketball player with an excitable game, and yes, she is a magnet, but in order to be the Face, you got to be the best or close to it,” Johnson’s wrote X. “Aja Wilson is the best player in the WNBA, and there are numerous others that are ahead of Caitlin. She’s not there yet!”
The root of this entire controversy stems from the official letter that the Congress members sent to the WNBA on July 8. In their letter, Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. August Pfluger and other members urged the WNBA to protect Caitlin Clark, who they saw as the face of the league.
Reacting to it on his Substack, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stated that his initial reaction to the letter was to “make sure it wasn’t April Fool’s Day.” The former LA Lakers center argued that Clark doesn’t have the hardware or accolades yet to warrant such a title.
“Don’t get me wrong: Clark is a very good, possibly even a great, player,” he said. “But calling any one player the face of the league, absent the sort of on-court and cross-platform dominance of a Michael Jordan or a LeBron James, is an insult to an awful lot of great players.”
Subsequently, Eddie Johnson has echoed the same sentiment as Abdul-Jabbar. From an economic and relevance perspective, Caitlin Clark is up there. She drew a record 2.45 million viewers during her 2024 debut season. The July 8 games against the LA Sparks, where she returned after missing two games due to a back injury, averaged 1.04 million and became the most-watched WNBA game in USA Network’s history.
However, the on-court dynamics flip the debate against her. Since her arrival, Caitlin Clark hasn’t been able to even contend in the Championship game. Meanwhile, veterans like Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson have already clinched a title each.
While Clark continues to set milestones, when it comes to winning titles, Wilson and Stewart largely outrank CC for now. We got a glimpse of it in the WNBA GM Survey before the season. In the MVP predictions for the season, Wilson and Stewart dominated 87% of the votes.
In the near future, there’s a high possibility that the league will be identified through her name. But before that, Caitlin Clark will have to prove herself like Wilson and Stewart by winning titles on the court alongside personal accolades.