Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has claimed the 11 Republican lawmakers who wrote to the WNBA over Caitlin Clark's treatment from rival players are only getting involved because the Indiana Fever star is white.
Clark has been targeted by opposing players across the league since the Fever chose her with the first pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft. Observers, but not Clark herself, have questioned whether there is a racial element to the incidents.
The topic resurfaced when Alyssa Thomas of the Phoenix Mercury appeared to drive a closed fist into Clark's neck during a game in late June. Thomas was banned for one game after initially escaping without a flagrant foul following an intense backlash.
The incident prompted 11 Republican lawmakers, led by August Pfluger of Texas, to send WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert a letter saying they were concerned attacks on Clark "may be racially motivated."
That letter prompted six-time NBA champion Abdul-Jabbar, 79, to respond on his Substack in a scathing post that also ridiculed the lawmakers' claim that Clark is "the face" of the WNBA.
"My first reaction to this letter was to check the calendar and make sure it wasn't April Fools' Day," he wrote. "Clark is white and Thomas is Black, and I guess that was enough for these intrepid lawmakers to decide the play might have been racially motivated."
Abdul-Jabbar questions lawmakers' motives
"You don't have to ask what race these eleven GOP congresspeople are, as there are only two Black Republicans currently in the House of Representatives," Abdul-Jabbar wrote. "So forgive me if it strikes me as much more likely that the letter was racially motivated, rather than the play. Not surprisingly, Thomas and her family subsequently received racist abuse and death threats on the internet."
The letter requested a response from Engelbert by July 24. The Fever said they did not know the letter was going to be sent to the WNBA. Clark has repeatedly denounced opponents being targeted with online racist abuse, and did so again after the Thomas incident.
Clark is midway through her third WNBA season. She missed most of her second season through injury, but excitement around her involvement swept across the United States in her first season, with many games moved to NBA arenas and still selling out. The extra attention led to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement this year that has brought more cash into the league and more lucrative salaries for players.
Who is the face of the league?
Even so, Abdul-Jabbar argued it is success on the court, not profile away from it, that makes a player the league's leading figure.
"Don't get me wrong: Clark is a very good, possibly even a great, player," he wrote.
"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, starting with A'ja Wilson, who has won three titles and four MVP awards in her first seven years in the WNBA."
Clark's latest on-court controversy
The comments came as Clark, 24, was embroiled in new controversy on Wednesday night when her team lost 88-75 to the Golden State Valkyries. She erupted at the referee after Aliyah Boston was penalized for a foul on Golden State's Veronica Burton, moments after Clark was denied a foul call of her own. Minutes earlier, Clark had made a layup while falling to the ground after being challenged by Kiah Stokes, but the referee did not call a foul.
