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There comes a point when a person can only take so much sniping, criticisms, doubts, arrows, and shots. Then, they figure out it will never stop so they might as well not try to be classy and nice anymore because it won’t work.
This is when they start fighting back and standing up for themselves because it’s the only path to self-respect and gaining respect from others who are trying to tell you they either don’t respect you or want to knock you off your pedestal and wish they had your fame and money because it makes them feel inferior. So they aggressively push you around mentally and physically hoping they might break you and then they will rise up, be the stars, and replace your fame with theirs.
Caitlin Clark has been hacked in the face driving for a layup, shoved, pushed, and not been treated warmly by teams she’s been competing against in the WNBA. It’s fine that they’re competing and making it hard for her to be as great as she was in college because they want to be rich and famous themselves. They want to keep their jobs as WNBA players. All fine.
But this situation will wear Clark out if she doesn’t start pushing back more, which is true in so many other situations, such as when a boss bullies someone who works for them. At some point, the subordinate has to stand up and say “No, you’re not going to keep treating me this way. Stop or I’ll fight back harder.”
In these cases often the subordinate ends up leaving the job. This won’t be the case with Caitlin. She’s always wanted to be a WNBA player and aspires to be the best ever. So she’s not going to just quit and find other work.
Earlier this week Clark received a technical foul in her last game – her third of the season – after sticking a long three-pointer in a defender’s face while getting roughed up and verbally taunted.
She had had enough. She barked back at the defender in obvious anger and the two got so close their chests touched. Serious anger and acrimony, interpersonal strife.
“Cut the crap,” she was saying, essentially. “You aren’t going to talk that way to me, and push me around, and get away with it.”
This is a huge moment in Clark’s journey into the WNBA, which seems hell-bent on hurling hostility her way.
You see, this is the thing. Caitlin Clark didn’t break the all-time college scoring record by being meek and kind. She did this because she’s a Tom Brady-like competitor who dedicated her life to being great at basketball. Competitors of her level of intensity are ultra-rare and they’re not overly concerned with how other people feel about how great she wants to be and prove it to the world.
So these ladies in the WNBA can keep trying to knock her down but I think they’re going to find out they’re up against a force greater than them. If they were as determined as her, they might have broken the scoring record.
But they didn’t. Caitlin did.
She won the battle of personal discipline.
It wasn’t any of them scoring all those hoops. It was her.
So fight and scratch her all you want, but know that the more you do that the more fuel you’re pumping into Caitlin’s boiling hot inferno and she’s going to practice more than you and shoot better than all of you and you’re going to end up in that fire she ignites and stokes. Do you really want that?
You can keep bitching about her and trying to shake her confidence and push her around – engage in psychological battles to test her mettle. Just know you’re only lighting a flame inside this young woman that blazes hotter than you ever have.
Keep it up. Keep doing your petty and un-pretty things on the court.
Galvanize, all of you, around this mission to take out Caitlin Clark, to rid this person who is helping enrich your pockets.
Make her more upset. Push her harder. Get in her face and tell her you don’t like her and don’t think she’s all that good, that she played at Iowa which is not really, in your mind, a big-time basketball school.
Belittle her accomplishments. Show here how tough you are.
And get ready to be caught up in a firestorm you never wanted to be in the middle of.
You’re not going to stop this woman.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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