ESPN didn’t make the masses happy by comparing Caitlin Clark to Serena Williams, Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky after failing to win a title in her rookie season.
On Wednesday, Clark’s monumental rookie campaign in the WNBA came to an end after the Indiana Fever were swept by the Connecticut Sun in the first round.
To commemorate his first year in the league, ESPN created a graphic comparing Clark’s rookie stats to the legendary careers of Williams, Biles and Ledecky. While Clark wondered about the WNBA, her fans criticized her online and forced her into the conversation so early.
‘I feel like we’ve lost our minds a bit here,’ wrote the user who posted a photo of the graph.
Other user published a graph of Diana Taurasi and her trophy case, suggesting the decorated basketball player should have been on the list instead of Clark.
Fans criticized ESPN for comparing Caitlin Clark to Simone Biles and Serena Williams
Clark’s rookie season ended with the Indiana Fever eliminated from the WNBA Playoffs.
‘Lol, the pioneer on the list just played her last game. (There’s no doubt that CC will be one of the all-said-and-done moments from now on? Let’s be serious.)’ she captioned.
A third user pointed out the statistics and titles won by three-time and recently crowned WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson. writing: ‘1021 points, 451 rebounds; the most of any player in a single season 3x MVP. Olympic MVP. 2x DPOY. But of course, A’ja is not a pioneering athlete.
Meanwhile, a fourth responded with a graph that put Thaddeus Young in the same category as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Williams’ achievements included 23 Grand Slam titles, the second most of any player. Biles is the most decorated Olympic gymnast with 11 medals, seven of which are gold. Meanwhile, Ledecky is in her own swimming league with nine Olympic golds.
Serena Williams’ achievements include 23 Grand Slam titles, the second most of all time.
Simone Biles is the most decorated Olympic gymnast with seven gold medals
Katie Ledecky is in her own swimming league with nine Olympic golds
Clark was crowned Rookie of the Year and finished the season with 769 points and 337 assists, the most of any rookie in the WNBA.
While the Fever star sparked a stampede of fans in the WNBA and led Indiana to its first playoff appearance since 2016, fans continued to criticize the hyperbolic nature of the graphic.
A fifth user wrote as “CC is forced to engage in a ton of conversations that are unnecessary and take something away from others,” while a sixth simply said “That doesn’t make sense.”