Jason Whitlock: Nike and the WNBA fumbled the Caitlin Clark phenomenon

When Caitlin Clark was breaking records, packing arenas, and transforming women’s basketball into a national sensation, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock thought it was an appropriate time to drop a Nike shoe for the star.

Instead, the sportswear giant waited until Clark’s third WNBA season to launch one.

“Looks like a sharp shoe. But the timing of when they’re releasing, now, when Caitlin Clark’s popularity is at the lowest it’s been since 2022. Caitlin Clark starting her junior year of college started to become a force of nature,” Whitlock says.

“And by the time she got to her senior year in college, by the time she got to the national championship game her senior year, the ratings for women’s college basketball went through the roof. They set records, unprecedented records,” he continues, adding, “Caitlin Clark had arrived.”

However, despite taking the WNBA to a new level, she was never rewarded.

“No Nike shoe her senior year in college. No Nike shoe when she’s a rookie in the WNBA. No Nike shoe when she’s coming into her second season in the WNBA after setting the league on fire. No shoe then,” Whitlock says, pointing out that now she finally gets her shoe the same year “they’re struggling to sell out the arena in Indiana.”

“They missed the Caitlin Clark window, and they’ve undermined Caitlin Clark, and Caitlin Clark has undermined herself,” he continues, explaining that it should be examined why they “fumbled” her.

“It’s the alphabet mafia. It’s the LGBTQIA+, BLM,” he adds.

Whitlock points to the “sexual and racial politics that have been injected into all of corporate America” as the aggressor but notes that Clark fell for it as well.

“Caitlin Clark being a white, heterosexual woman, a tiny bit reluctant to bend the knee to the alphabet mafia, but she did bend the knee,” he says.

“But she didn’t have the complexion or the right sexual desires for Nike and for the alphabet crew. She didn’t have the right sexual arousal. She didn’t have the right skin color,” he continues, adding, “And so, Nike blew a golden opportunity.”

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