Mark Madden: How the WNBA is failing Caitlin Clark

I knew the WNBA was going to blow it with Caitlin Clark and said so in this space.

But I didn’t think they would butcher it this bad, this quick.

The groundwork for killing Clark’s buzz got laid when she went to a lousy team that’s not in a big market.

That’s what the standings and draft dictated, yeah. But Clark is a once-in-a-lifetime golden ticket. The WNBA needed to finagle her to New York. Good team, huge market.

Instead, Clark is in Indianapolis, where it’s easy to disappear. Her team has played 11 games in 20 days. Such a furious schedule was likely to exacerbate their lack of talent, and it has: The Fever are 2-9 and often look clueless.

Clark is 18th in WNBA scoring at 15.6 points per game. She’s 44th in 3-point field goal percentage, which is supposed to be her thing. She’s drawing tenacious defense, not least on the perimeter. That’s going to happen when you’re the primary threat on a bad team.

That’s also going to happen when most of the WNBA’s players want you to fail.

Clark is straight and white. She’s a rookie but has been presented as the savior of women’s basketball. She signed a $28 million deal with Nike. Clark’s Indiana Fever got the WNBA’s first charter flight of the season, and it was on a Delta VIP jet.

Clark didn’t figure to be welcomed with open arms, and she hasn’t been.

The gatekeeping boiled over Saturday when Chicago’s Chennedy Carter rocked Clark with a hard shoulder away from the ball. It was basically a body check like the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t throw.

Carter initially was charged with a standard foul, but the WNBA upgraded it to a flagrant foul the next day.

Protecting the golden girl off the court helps a little. But the Fever failed to do it on the court. Nobody responded or even rushed to Clark’s side.

That’s no surprise. That’s what happens with bad teams. They don’t rally around each other. That’s not even taking into account potential in-house resentment toward Clark. Unless the Fever sign Bill Laimbeer, Clark will keep getting roughed up.

Carter’s foul was bad but hardly extreme. Similar fouls are perpetrated frequently in basketball. But they’re not shown on “SportsCenter” over and over because they don’t happen to Clark. Going viral fuels discontent toward Clark.

Clark absorbing hard fouls as a celebrated rookie is hardly unique. The Detroit Pistons absolutely hammered Michael Jordan during Jordan’s salad days.

Carter refused to answer questions about Clark after Saturday’s game. But on social media, Carter reposted a fan’s comment saying Clark had exaggerated the incident. Carter also posted, “Besides three-point shooting, what does she bring to the table?”

Carter’s teammate Angel Reese, Clark’s collegiate rival, no-showed the press briefing and was fined $1,000. Reese appeared to celebrate Carter’s hard foul from Chicago’s bench.

Will all of this take a toll on Clark?

It might be already: Clark had just three points Sunday as Indiana got squashed at New York, 104-68.

Retired tennis great Martina Navratilova took to X/Twitter to chastise resentment toward Clark: “The players in the WNBA need to realize that Clark is helping all of them, now and in the long run. She is the tide that will raise all boats!”

Navratilova is correct. But the WNBA’s players don’t care. Clark’s benefit to them is not yet tangible. It’s not money in their pockets.

Clark’s haters within the WNBA see her in a vulnerable position with a bad team. Clark isn’t playing one-on-one. It’s not tennis.

If Clark is going to get protected on the court, the referees have to do it. But favorable calls will fuel resentment toward Clark.

For her part, Clark has handled her heightened circumstances perfectly. She’s played her best, said and done all the right things. She’s increased TV ratings and attendance.

It’s still amazing that the WNBA had so much time to think about what to do with Clark and still put her in the most difficult situation possible. When you’re handed the golden ticket, it must be maximized. Being fair takes a back seat.

Clark isn’t failing the WNBA.

The WNBA is failing Clark. Almost nonstop.