Caitlin Clark

[Al-O-Meter]

I kind of hate discussing an other person's intentions, so I apologize for bringing it up, you very well could be right about him on this.

He's not. I'm referring to injuring her. If Caitlin Clark is not on the floor then less people will watch, and there will be less revenue with which to pay salaries.

Also, you are not imagining the increased viciousness toward Caitlin Clark. So far this year, Caitlin Clark has been on the receiving end of 5 flagrant fouls. Only 3 players in the entire WNBA have been on the receiving end of more than 1 this season. This is not normal. The flagrant foul data from last year for the whole season among those being on the receiving end more than once is as follows:



Last year, Satou Sabally (Player ID 1340) was on the receiving end of 4 flagrant fouls. There were four others who were on the receiving end of 3 flagrant fouls, and nine on the receiving end of two flagrants. That is what a reasonable distribution looks like. There were a total of 65 flagrant fouls in the 2023 WNBA season, which means the most targeted player, Satou Sabally, accounted for just over , 6%. At one point this season, Caitlin Clark was on the receiving end of over 17% of all flagrant fouls. I can pull the data for any year going back to 1997 and none will look like this year.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

There is a line between a hard foul and an excessively hard foul that is more likely to cause injury, and that line is where flagrant fouls are called. I took his comment to mean that players should not, in their best interest, commit flagrant fouls on Clark. I suppose he might have meant hard fouls in general, but since he was quoting a statistic about flagrant fouls, that's what I assumed he meant.

I kind of hate discussing an other person's intentions, so I apologize for bringing it up, you very well could be right about him on this.

It's Al-O-Meter......

 

[Al-O-Meter]

She's a great player and players are trying to rough her up. That's completely normal.

Show your work. Show us all that such a disproportionate level of being targeted by flagrant fouls in any other season of the WNBA, or the NBA, at the college level, or even at the High School level is "completely normal".

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Show your work. Show us all that such a disproportionate level of being targeted by flagrant fouls in any other season of the WNBA, or the NBA, at the college level, or even at the High School level is "completely normal".

Nah, because it's pointless. Leagues call flagrants differently and differently throughout eras. A number of the flagrants called have been players just running into Clark. There's an uptick in aggression against Clark, but there is also an uptick in the league trying to protect her by making these calls. I know at least two of them have been on 3 pointers from closeouts, because she is a lethal shooter, not because people were trying to hurt her.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

there is also an uptick in the league trying to protect her by making these calls.

That sounds plausible but it doesn't fit comfortably with the data. It is the calls made in the beginning of games that set the tone for the game. I'd think that if the WNBA were trying to establish a protected status for their star player, the flagrants would be called early, but that isn't what we see. 4 of the 5 flagrants that were targeting Caitlin were in the second half. The lone first half flagrant was in the second quarter. There have been zero flagrant calls in the beginning of a game where Caitlin Clark was targeted.

The timing is a better fit for opponents being frustrated and taking their frustrations out on Caitlin Clark in a way that could result in injury.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

That sounds plausible but it doesn't fit comfortably with the data. It is the calls made in the beginning of games that set the tone for the game. I'd think that if the WNBA were trying to establish a protected status for their star player, the flagrants would be called early, but that isn't what we see. 4 of the 5 flagrants that were targeting Caitlin were in the second half. The lone first half flagrant was in the second quarter. There have been zero flagrant calls in the beginning of a game where Caitlin Clark was targeted.

The timing is a better fit for opponents being frustrated and taking their frustrations out on Caitlin Clark in a way that could result in injury.

Any foul can result in injury. There has only been a single really hard foul on Clark, and it was probably one of the cleaner ones, the attempted block that ended up getting all face. A lot of the fouls are just players running into her hard.

 

[KqWIN]

If you thought Caitlin Clark was only relevant because Sheryl Swoops said her name, you don’t get to have any opinion of any kind about her. Completely unserious.

CC is awesome….dragging her into culture war **** every way possible is embarrassing.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

If you thought Caitlin Clark was only relevant because Sheryl Swoops said her name, you don’t get to have any opinion of any kind about her. Completely unserious.

CC is awesome….dragging her into culture war **** every way possible is embarrassing.

Lmao, I forgot this thread started with Al saying CC was relevant because of SS. Now he's a huge CC fan....

 

[Al-O-Meter]

If you thought Caitlin Clark was only relevant because Sheryl Swoops said her name, you don’t get to have any opinion of any kind about her.

You are saying Sheryl Swoopes doesn't get to have any opinion of any kind about Caitlin Clark? It was Sheryl Swoopes' opinion I presented to this thread. It can't be because you don't think Sheryl Swoopes knows basketball. Is it because she's black?

 

[Al-O-Meter]

Now he's a huge CC fan....

I never said I was a huge CC fan. I openly admitted the WNBA as a whole isn't high on my list of interests. I admit that CC is an incredible athlete, but what I like is data. I am a data engineer professionally. When I came across an SI article detailing how excessively CC was being targeted by flagrant fouls, I pulled the data to see if it was hype or real. It is real. She is being targeted excessively. I presented that information for the purposes of discussion.

 

[KqWIN]

Lmao, I forgot this thread started with Al saying CC was relevant because of SS. Now he's a huge CC fan....

I was reminded of that **** when I saw the first page of this thread lol. Guy literally tried to say that CC’s popularity is only because Swoops said her name and tried to diminish her success because Livy Dunne was more popular on instagram (she’s not anymore btw). Now the bot is a big fan and trying to twist that another way. Get out of of here!

I think CC’s reception/treatment from the other players is a real conversation….but conservative talking point bots have no place in that conversation.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

I think CC’s reception/treatment from the other players is a real conversation.

Great. ...and it is Swoopes, not Swoops.