“Beside three-point shooting, what does she bring to the table man?” asked Chennedy Carter on Threads after shoving Caitlin Clark to the floor last week. The Clark-Carter fiasco has taken the basketball world by storm. This has turned into something serious, which is leading people to call for the league to intervene. The sentiment was echoed in our exclusive discussion with Shaquille O’Neal’s former agent, Leonard Armato, hosted by our Bay Area correspondent, Vishal Kolar.
It all started on June 1 during the game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever. After Carter knocked down a midrange jumper, she marched straight towards Clark, yelling at the top of her voice as she lay her shoulder into her. Post this, Carter refused to answer any questions. Rather, she only decided to show her apparent “hatred” towards the former NCAA Queen on social media. Carter then also slammed a Clark supporter and called herself a “TROLL”, subtly pointing to the fact that she was difficult to defeat in the war of words.
Meanwhile, Clark maintained her silence. She didn’t jump in the tussle and has been praised by other athletes and analysts for the same. Suddenly, we saw a rush of disgruntled reactions coming in against Carter’s foul. Even GSW star Draymond Green came to Caitlin’s defense.
Tactical fouling and being overly physical are some of the methods regularly devised by some WNBA stars, especially to ensure someone like Clark’s offensive output is low. But at the same time, many fans have displayed their displeasure with the proceedings. And that’s where Armato came in with his opinion. Our correspondent Kolar sought Armato’s views on any advice for Caitlin Clark’s team that they could utilize at such a time, especially with rough comments coming in. This is what the NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-agent had to say during the freewheeling conversation.
Armato: I mean, I think her agents are… I think Jeff Shwore is in the Excel company, done a really nice job with her. Obviously, she had a lot of great marketing deals that are lucrative and far in excess of the 80-90k dollars of the WNBA salary. But it’s done a pretty nice job with the media and I wouldn’t comment on anything if I was her. I wouldn’t think she has. She can just go out and play. Be gracious. Humble. I think she’s handled herself very, very nicely.
USA Today via Reuters
Excel Sports Management is based out of New York City and has a lot of famous clients including Nikola Jokic, Arike Ogunbowale, and Tiger Woods. The estimated playing contracts under the agency were around $3.6 billion, as per Forbes. Whereas, the agency had a maximum commission of $499 million with the non-playing contracts of $2.15 billion. Therefore, the agency looks to be managing Clark pretty well. They’re doing so well, probably they’re grooming Clark to handle such cases most humbly.
Clark’s maturity made us all wonder about her response. There was nothing, except for a 10-word response that talked about the gameplay and not the “particular incident“. She was careful and meticulous with the way she answered anything, as it could affect her team’s chances of winning. The 22-year-old remained poised in the moment, rather than lashing out, as it would have turned things massively against her.
Clark did respond after the game. But only after she was calm. Till then, she let her gameplay do the talking.
Caitlin Clark’s silence gains unity among basketball players
Clark’s silence and humility against Carter’s aggressiveness said a lot. The silence was so loud that it united everyone to come in to support her. From Austin Reaves, Matt Barnes, and Draymond Green, to Brittany Mahomes, everyone’s coming in to speak on her behalf. One thing echoes through all of their support. They’re not here to digest the “cheap shots” against Clark.
Even Clark’s Indiana coach did not hesitate to comment. Christie Sides backed her player up by saying, “[Clark] got up and kept playing. All she did was ask the officials to review it. They didn’t want to listen to it. I applaud her for how she handled it last night.”
In an episode of Speak, 2x Super Bowl Champion LeSean McCoy also came forward and took sides with Clark and stated that Carter was unnecessarily carrying on with the issue to “get her name out.” “She’s been on with three teams so far so up player like that’s not known that’s trying to get her name out,” McCoy stated.
The competitive feeling towards Clark was also visible when Angel Reese recently enumerated that “I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years and be like, ‘Yeah, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball isn’t just because of one person. It’s because of me, too.’”
Perhaps now that Armato has also spoken on Clark’s valuable silence, she would try to maintain the same and instead focus on her next games. Meanwhile, WNBA athletes can go on with their hate as hopefully for Clark’s fans, she would emulate her NCAA performances where she broke numerous records.
