Sparks rookie Cameron Brink: ‘There’s a privilege’ for WNBA’s younger white players
Discussion of the WNBA has reached a fever pitch this week, and not for entirely positive reasons.
It might have been bound to happen as Caitlin Clark proceeded through the league’s most high-profile rookie season, but Chennedy Carter’s shoulder has sparked a referendum on the nature of WNBA stardom.
Should the WNBA have given special treatment to Clark because of what she means for the league’s finances? Are the WNBA’s veterans bitter about Clark’s fame? Should the WNBA’s players be grateful that the league is getting a long-awaited moment?
Is Clark failing to meet expectations? Were Clark’s expectations reasonable? Does Clark owe some of her mainstream popularity to being white? What changes if that’s true?
The whole thing has turned the discussion around Clark and her fellow WNBA rookies into an online thorn bush, which Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink — who was drafted one pick after Clark at No. 2 overall — navigated in an interview with Uproxx’s Megan Armstrong published Wednesday.
She started with a realistic evaluation of both how rookies are treated in the WNBA and how they should be expected to play:
“What is the most tired narrative around women’s sports?”
“Oh, that’s a great question. The most tired narrative is that the vets are against the rookies — this old-school versus new-school narrative — and the narrative that the rookies need to be perfect.
I feel like Caitlin Clark has that the worst right now, but even I get that. She had three points the other night [against New York on June 2]. I had three points the other night [against Indiana on May 28].
We’re expected to be perfect. We were drafted to high-drafting teams coming off of losing seasons, which is fine.
It’s a learning process. But people expect us to be perfect, and it’s freaking exhausting. I feel like we learn how to tune it out, but still, it’s unrealistic, and it kind of just shows that people don’t know basketball.”