Hello readers, welcome to the latest issue of O For 4. Thank you if you are a repeat reader. I am doing this a little differently this week and am going to put this out in two parts. I am publishing three topics tonight. Tomorrow, if the Boston Celtics complete the sweep to win the NBA title, I will write up a reaction to that as the fourth topic. If the Dallas Mavericks stave off the sweep, I will drop another essay I have waiting in the wings. For now, here are some thoughts on Caitlin Clark getting bullied, Dan Hurley’s rejection of the Los Angeles Lakers’ offer, and a report from today about the Big 12 conference selling off naming rights.
Update: Since the Celtics did not win the title last night, I am adding a piece on the news of Real Madrid adding Kylian Mbappe to their already stacked lineup.
1. Caitlin Clark: How Should Her Peers Respond To Her?
A baker’s dozen games into her WNBA career, it already seems like a safe thing to say that Cailtin Clark is the biggest star in the league. Do not confuse that with me saying she is the best player, just the biggest draw. I need not look any further to validate that statement than the fact that her debut game, about a month ago, had 2.1 million viewers, making it the most-viewed WNBA game since 2001. Any night her Indiana Fever are playing, that is the marquis game that night, and the highlights of that game lead off Sportscenter’s WNBA coverage (and maybe constitute the entirety of that coverage).
For the executives of the WNBA, Caitlin Clark is certainly good for business. She is perhaps the most marketable star the league has ever had, someone who will bring more endorsement opportunities to the league and its players moving forward, much like Michael Jordan did for the NBA in the 1980s. But for other players currently in the WNBA, particularly the ones who are below all-star level but not necessarily limited to them, her presence and disproportionate media attention have created feelings of resentment. Clark has not done anything wrong, but that does not mean the animosity she draws from her peers is unwarranted.
This actually began a little over a year ago, during her junior year at Iowa when they took on LSU in the National Championship Game. Leading up to that game, Caitlin Clark had been getting the majority of the press coverage. So, naturally, when LSU’s victory began to look assured, LSU’s star player (and fellow current WNBA rookie) Angel Reese began making taunting gestures toward her opponent. Caitlin’s case was not helped when, in the aftermath of that game, First Lady Jill Biden made public comments that she wanted to invite Iowa to the White House in addition to the champion LSU team. I have not researched the matter, but I am willing to bet a runner-up has never received a White House invitation before.
Fast forward to the tenth game of Caitlin’s rookie season and that animosity came to a boiling point, at least for one WNBA opponent. You’ve probably seen the footage by now. Chicago Sky player, Chennedy Carter, had just sunk a jumper when she approached Caitlin Clark from behind, who was positioned to accept the inbounds pass, and aggressively hip checked Clark and knocked her down. Predictably, the incident led to a whirlwind of attention for the next several days. And while this was the first case of a physical manifestation of another player taking their frustrations out on Caitlin, there have been others who have given a quote to the media expressing their displeasure with Clark’s monopoly on the media’s attention.
I said above that Caitlin has done nothing wrong. Now I will take it a step further and say she has been doing everything correctly. Her comments to the media about the hip check incident were great. She was not upset about the incident. She said she expects to deal with physicality. She knows she just has to keep on her game. Caitlin was back in the headlines just the other day when the USA Women’s Olympic roster was revealed and she was not on it. There was outrage from all the talking heads. When she was questioned about her omission, Clark simply said it gives her a goal to work for next time. Again, answered correctly.
Now, the questions are what is the best way for her WNBA opponents to play against her, and how should they respond to the media attention Clark receives. I think my answer is to, borrowing a Blackjack term here, double down. In terms of the media attention, they should continue to say it bothers them and keep reminding the sports writers and the sponsors and everyone else that Caitlin is not the only player in the WNBA. I think this could accomplish two things. First, it creates a controversy. More controversy leads to more eyes. More eyes leads to more marketing opportunities. More marketing opportunities leads to more endorsements and other chances for the league and its players to make more money.
The second thing this can do, if enough other players can do it the right way and for a long enough period of time, is turn Caitlin into the villain in the narrative. And maybe that has effects on her on-court play and, thus, the games themselves. Maybe that gets in her head. Maybe fans at Indiana road games boo her. The fans can still come out to see her as she is still a big draw, but maybe the reception given changes.
Back to the first question of how opponents should play against her, they need to keep up with the physicality. I am not saying to do what Chennedy Carter did; that probably was closer to dirty than it was to just being chippy. But we have already heard opposing players talk about having to pick her up further from the basket, way beyond the arc. But picking her up on defense sooner cannot be the full strategy. Fouls need to be used intelligently. Bump her off course if you think she is going to use her dribbling to get open on the perimeter. Hit her arm as she is going up for a shot to ensure she cannot get the shot off cleanly. Run through her after her shot when possession changes and play transitions the other way. Again, her opponents need to be smart with this strategy. They cannot foul out. But they can make life difficult, especially early to send a message, or at other crucial times of the game. If they can frustrate Caitlin, maybe that will prevent her from being the weapon she is capable of.
I think they need to go all in, to use another casino card game term. Her opponents need to try everything they can to prevent her star from continuing to rise to prevent her from becoming the WNBA’s best player, much like she was the best player in college. Or maybe none of this works. Maybe it all backfires on them and this just adds more fuel to Caitlin Clark’s fire. Maybe this just further creates the parallel between Clark and Jordan. It will be a good story either way it plays out.
2. Dan Hurley: The Lakers Were Dreaming
In true Lakers fashion, despite being eliminated from the playoffs three rounds ago, they managed to dominate headlines for a couple of days in the middle of the NBA Finals. The NBA’s most storied franchise attempted to lure the NCAA’s most in-demand coach away from his job at the University of Connecticut. Dan Hurley decided to turn down the Lakers’ offer and return to the Huskies’ sideline. Hurley had announced that he would have an answer on Monday, so everyone was awaiting his decision. And when it came out, there was a massive shockwave that swept through the community of sports journalists. Though, in my opinion, there would have been an equal but opposite shockwave had he accepted the Lakers job. That is just the nature of sports journalism these days.
On my podcast, dOllar betZ, my cohost and I discussed the pros and cons for Hurley earlier on Monday before his announcement came out. Simply put, there were many more cons. The list of pros were pretty much getting to live in SoCal, the money, and the distinction of being the coach of the NBA’s marquis team. But that is where that ends. The cons list had several items on it. For me, though, there really only needed to be one.
The management and ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers have shown great impatience with their coaches in recent history. Since Phil Jackson’s departure after the 2010-11 season, the Lakers have employed seven head coaches. None have lasted longer than 3 seasons, and that includes one who coached them to an NBA title. All seven were fired.
Dan Hurley, being the intelligent person that I can only assume he is, made the correct decision. I imagine that, despite his calling the Lakers’ offer “compelling”, it was an easy decision. If he analyzed the state of the Lakers’ roster, he could not have seen much that gave him much optimism. This is a team that has been on the cusp of playoff contention each of the past two seasons (made it in through the play-in games both years), has its best player battling (quite valiantly I must say) Father Time, and a young bench that has not been given the chance to develop as a result of the deference to, and reliance on, Lebron James and Anthony Davis. They have among the highest payrolls going into the 2024-25 season, they do not have their first round pick in two of the next three drafts (top-four protected in 2027), and limited options for improving their roster for next season. Hurley looked at this Lakers roster and, correctly, saw a team not built to be a competitor in the near future.
On the other hand, Coach Hurley also must have realized he could not give up what he has built at UConn. After winning the last two NCAA Tournaments, he is in position to do what has never been done in college basketball, win three straight titles. The Huskies do appear high in many way-too-early top 25 polls for next year. But even if they do not accomplish the never-been-done, Dan Hurley, at just 51 years old, has a chance to build a dynasty in Connecticut. UConn was already one of the blue-bloods of the sport and Hurley has the chance to raise the bar even higher to become one of the most feared entities in the history of the game. There were John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins. There were Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils. Maybe Dan Hurley’s Huskies will be the next perennial contender.
There are very low odds Hurley could achieve anything as coach of the Lakers that would upstage what he can accomplish at UConn. Even with his talent as a coach, it is unlikely he could lift this current Lakers team to a level that would convince management to keep him beyond the two or three seasons which has been the limit of their patience of late. So while we have already established that it is required behavior for sports journalists to show outrage over every major story, it feels foolish in this instance. Hurley should not have spent that much time with this decision.
3. Big 12 Selling Naming Rights: This Could Be Fun
Reports came out Thursday that the Big 12, which will have sixteen members beginning this fall, is considering selling the name of the conference to a corporate sponsor. The idea is that whoever wins the bidding process will have their name replace “Big” in the name of the conference. My initial reaction was that I hate this idea. You all know me by know. I am not a fan of any of the changes occuring in the NCAA for no reason other than being a cash grab.
After a few seconds to get over my feelings, I began to think about how to write about this. I know trying to protest this development was going to be an exercise in futility. So instead, I realized that this could be an opportunity for some companies to have some fun. I would hope that they try to push the limits of that fun. I know that, from my laptop, I am free to imagine some names that have no chance of coming to fruition. But I imagine brainstorming conversations will be taking place in every college dorm and frat house and in every sports bar and man cave from sea to shining sea.
That is what I did. I tried to think of what the name of the Big 12 could evolve to. As I mentioned earlier, the plan is to sell off “Big” for a company name. I asked myself what do I think of when I hear the number twelve? The answer was obvious. Beer. A few seconds later, I also thought about donuts. My instinctive thought, a beer company getting the naming rights, is what I am hoping for. I’ll be looking forward to watching Utah battle BYU in a Bud Light 12 game in the future.
Now, we all know that if the Big 12 does this, they will not be the only conference to do so. Nope, if there is money to be had, everyone will jump on the chance to stuff some more cash in their account. And that realization led me to thinking about what my alma mater’s conference, the Big Ten, could do with selling off their name. Would they do the same thing as the Big 12 and replace “Big” with a sponsor’s name? Or would they go the other way and sell off the “Ten”? I am hoping for the latter, as it has been time to change the number for decades at this point.
What would be some good company names to follow “Big” in the new conference name? Department store chain Target? Technology company Apple? Courier service UPS (“Big Ups”)? Sporting goods stores Dick’s?
And what about the other conferences? Maybe Ortho sponsors the Ivy League. Maybe Delta Airlines buys the Southwestern Athletic Conference. I am hoping some corporate advertising executives earn their paychecks with some of the opportunities this will create. And I am hoping this topic starts getting more of you to write comments at the bottom of this week’s blog. Let me hear your thoughts.
4. Kylian Mbappe To Real Madrid: This Isn’t Fair
Let’s turn our attention to the European continent a moment where the UEFA Euro 2024 competition just began yesterday in Germany with the host nation easily dispatching Scotland 5-1. Many soccer/football/futbol aficionados will tell you that the every-four-years Euro competition is an even tougher competition than the World Cup as there are very few bad teams. I cannot confirm or deny that claim; the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Euro each saw three teams qualify from outside the top 50 of FIFA’s World Rankings. I’ll go ahead and make my predictions for this competition, which will have its Final on July 14. I think Portugal will win the European Crown.
That is not what I am here to discuss, however. Rather, I want to focus on the club teams and the national leagues that really are the heart of European (and really the world) soccer. This is where most of the revenue is earned and where most of the passion is displayed. Unlike the leagues we have in the United States, the top leagues in each European nation run under an unregulated market system where there is no salary cap and, as a result, no limits on how much talent one team can accumulate. This has resulted in very little competition for each country’s yearly championship and the same teams competing in the annual Champions League (for those unfamiliar with European football, compare this to college hoops’ NCAA tournament where the top teams from different conferences come together after their own conference competitions are completed, kind of). For example, in Italy’s Serie A, only five clubs have won the league since the 2001-02 season, and two of those teams have won 18 of those titles. In Germany’s Bundesliga, one team, Bayern Munich has captured 16 titles since that 2001-02 season including 11 straight before not winning this past year. In Spain’s La Liga, four teams have won all the titles in this span, and two of those teams account for 19 of them. In France’s Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain, the former team of Kylian Mbappe, has won 10 of the last 12 years. And in England’s Premier League, the league with the most parity, there has still only been six different clubs to hoist the trophy since 2001-02.
Moving beyond the national competitions to the Champions League, recent history has seen a similar oligarchy by the most dominant teams of each country. Since the turn of the century, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Chelsea, Milan, Barcelona, and Real Madrid have won Europe’s top trophy 20 times.
This past year, Real Madrid were the champions of champions, as they have been in six of the past eleven years. And as if that was not enough, just two days after securing their 15th title all-time, they announced the signing of Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain. Right now, Kylian is arguably the top player on the planet. He has already led his home nation of France to one World Cup trophy and then scored a hat trick in the next World Cup Final four years later only to see his country fall to Argentina in penalty kicks (which are a horrible way to end a game and I will eventually give my proposal on how to replace them in a future blog).
What happens when the best team in the world adds the best player in the world? If I am going to try to find a comparison from American sports, I think the closest example I can think of is when the Golden State Warriors added Kevin Durant ahead of the 2016-17 season. But even that example is not perfect as, at that time, Durant was certainly not the undisputed best player (he could have been ranked anywhere between first and third along with Steph Curry and Lebron James) and the Warriors had actually just lost in that year’s NBA Finals. But what happened next was no surprise. Golden State cruised to the next two championships, and it would have been a third had Durant not been lost to an injury during the playoffs.
Similarly, it should be no surprise if/when Real Madrid wins the Spanish crown and the Champions League title again next year. This, of course, is not a good thing. An attempt to avoid such predictable results and monopolistic franchises is precisely why American sports leagues utilize a salary cap. It is why there is a system that gives the worse teams the best chances at acquiring new talent coming up from college. It is why the NFL rewards poor seasons with easier schedules in the ensuing season. Parity is vital for the long-term health of these sports leagues. If we saw the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL get to spend more than other teams on players because they had deeper pockets or if the Los Angeles Lakers continuously got to pay the top college prospects to come to southern California, and that was resulting in sustained dominance at the expense of other teams, we would see a diminished interest from fans and eventually a loss of profits being made by the leagues.
Granted, in most of Europe, there is only one sport that matters, and that can help shield these leagues from fans turning away. Still, the inability to compete against the top dogs certainly disadvantages the lesser teams beyond the field of play. Companies will be less inclined to sponsor these teams, and will pay less for it when they do. Fans may choose only to attend the games when the top teams come to visit, looking to see at least one good team take the field and see a higher level of play. All this just contributes to a (downward) spiral of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Here’s hoping the brass governing UEFA and the individual leagues in each country eventually come to their senses and figure a way to level the field somewhat. It does not necessarily have to be taken to the extent that the American sports take it to (though admittedly even stateside there are teams with innate advantages), but making a couple tweaks could go along way in adding some surprise to the European competitions.
I have long been a fan of Real Madrid, really since the 2010 World Cup which saw many Madrid players, including goalie Iker Casillas, lead Spain to the Cup. And I have no issues with Kylian Mbappe, despite not being able to hear his name without being reminded of a certain pop-song that got an abusive amount of radio play back in 1997 (I will not say the name just in case you do not already have it in your head). All that said, I think I have to turn my fandom elsewhere at this point. Continuing to cheer for Real Madrid now feels like putting a rat in a snake’s cage and cheering for the snake. Obviously, the snake is going to eat that rat. And obviously Real Madrid is going to be an absolute Goliath of a team next season. So I will be hoping for some team to come be David and knock off the giant… so long as it is not Barcelona.
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