Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson: 2 Giants – 2 Fierce Rivals – But 1 Shared Voice that Turns WNBA into more than Sports: A Symbol of Unity!

Caitlin Clark received several honors following her first season in the WNBA. In addition to being named the league’s rookie of the year, Clark was also selected as the 2024 Time “Athlete of the Year.”

While Clark produced a strong stat line during her time at Iowa and at the WNBA level, there has been much debate about whether she also had an inherent pr1vil3ge that helped her rise to stardom. During her interview with Time magazine, Clark admitted to having a particular built-in benefit.

Caitlin Clark of Team WNBA, right, hugs A’ja Wilson of Team USA after the 2024 WNBA All Star Game at Footprint Center in Phoenix on July 20, 2024. (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)

“I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a Wh1te pers0n, there is pr1vil3ge. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Bl@ck players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that… I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that,” Clark said.

“The more we can elevate Bl@ck w0men, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

Those comments received mixed reactions within the basketball world. Last May, two-time WNBA champion A’ja Wilson was asked whether race and double standards in sports played a role in Clark’s meteoric rise.

“I think it’s a huge thing. I think a lot of people may say it’s not about Bl@ck and Wh1te, but to me, it is,” the Las Vegas Aces star told The Associated Press at the time and shortly before she inked a major endorsement deal with Nike for her first signature shoe. “It really is because you can be top-notch at what you are as a Bl@ck woman, but yet maybe that’s something that people don’t want to see.

“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 Bl@ck w0men, 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.”

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever talks to the media during an introductory press conference at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on April 17, 2024. (Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

Wilson once again broached the subject during a recent interview with Time magazine.

“It’s powerful to me,” Wilson, who was featured in Time’s “Women of the Year” issue, said. American gymnastics star Jordan Chiles was also featured in the issue.

“As a Bl@ck w0man in the WNBA, we have our struggles in showcasing who we really are. A lot of agendas get pushed on a lot of different platforms that may shadow us. You work so hard, but you still have to work 10 times harder just to be seen. So when we can have our counterparts speak up, it speaks volumes to me, because they’re in spaces where my path is never supposed to go. It’s crazy that we’re talking about that in 2025, but it’s real. We see those things as Bl@ck w0men. We see where people stand up and speak for us,” said Wilson.

A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces shoots a free throw during the game against the Indiana Fever at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas on June 24, 2023. (David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images)

Wilson did speak about the pushback Clark received for her remarks, but the Las Vegas Aces center also acknowledged the barriers she has faced throughout her standout career.

“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. 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. 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,” she continued.

Wilson said she intends to continue speaking out and using her own pr1vil3ge in a variety of ways.

“I have a pr1vil3ge in a lot of different ways,” she said. “I can be in spaces where a lot of other Bl@ck w0men, Wh1te w0men, however you want to see it, are not — but that’s where I’m going to try to use my pr1vil3ge of being a professional athlete to help others, because that’s what gives me my why. So claps, steps, all the in-between, because I know it’s hard to speak out on that. That’s why I try to speak out as much as I can, but people just see it a different way. That’s OK. I just want people to understand that when people can speak up about us as Bl@ck w0men in rooms that we may not be in, that means a lot. Because it’s a little piece of us in there — they can hold that door open for us to walk through. So I’m grateful.”