Basketball legend Lynette Woodard is walking back negative comments she made about basketball phenom Caitlin Clark.
According to Fox News, Woodard changed her tune on Clark becoming the NCAA women’s all-time leading scorer, a record previously held by Woodard.
Woodard previously said that she did not believe that Clark had actually broke her record during a speech at the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association convention in Cleveland on Saturday, according to the New York Post.
Her reason? Clark had an unfair advantage.
Woodard noted that, when she played for the University of Kansas in the 1970s and 1980s, there was no three-point shot, and the women had to use a men’s basketball.
Clark has utilized the three-point shot to her advantage, draining over 500 shots from beyond the arc during her four seasons at Iowa. The men’s basketball used in Woodard’s day was also larger than the current basketball women use today.
“I’ll just go ahead and get the elephant out of the room: I don’t think my record has been broken,” Woodard said, the Post reported.
Hall of Famer Lynette Woodard says her all-time scoring record has NOT been broken by Caitlin Clark
#caitlinclark #lynettewoodard #ncaabasketball #collegebasketball #womenscollegebasketball #wfinalfour #finalfour #marchmadness pic.twitter.com/R9X1neT9Bo
— Chrystal Stone (@chrystalstone_) April 6, 2024
But apparently, Woodard has come to see the light, acknowledging, “Caitlin holds the scoring record,” Fox reported.
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“To clarify my remarks made at an awards ceremony on Saturday, no one respects Caitlin Clark’s accomplishments more than I do,” Woodard wrote.
“My message was: a lot has changed, on and off the court, which makes it difficult to compare statistical accomplishments from different eras,” she explained.
Woodard’s previous comments were not well received, being labeled “jealous,” “salty,” and “the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen in sports,” according to Unilad.
It’s comments like these that demonstrate why Caitlin Clark has catapulted women’s basketball to the forefront of the sports world. She stands for everything that sports fans love and not what they hate.
Caitlin Clark embodies the ideal face of a sport: exceptionally talented, tenacious yet humble, and uninterested in using her platform to impose her political beliefs on the audience.
Her popularity has only continued to skyrocket, as her final three collegiate games set viewership records.
She even reportedly received a $5 million offer to play in Ice Cube’s BIG3 3-on-3 basketball league.
So, while Clark is currently on top of the sporting world, it’s sad to see Woodard try and tear down the best thing that’s happened to women’s sports in years.
The sports media has largely taken a woke approach to women’s sports over the past few years, campaigning for pay increases and arguing that transgender athletes should be able to compete against women. This has stymied any possible chance for women’s sports to grow, as coverage of such feels more like a lecture on politics rather than reporting on sports.
Many perceive female athletes have exhibited jealously akin to Woodard’s at the success of their male counterparts and demand that they receive the pay and recognition that male athletes do, all in the name of equity.
Do these people seriously think that promulgating wokeness is really what is going to bring people to watch women’s sports?
This is why Clark has been so good for women’s sports. Her skill and lack of woke agenda have led to women’s basketball becoming the most talked about sport this year.
And now that women’s sports are center stage, sports media pundits should drop their politics and allow the interest in stars like Clark to carry women’s sports into the future.
Woodard was right to acknowledge Clark as the all-time scoring leader, and its admirable she walked back her previous remarks.
Hopefully, athletes like Caitlin Clark can bring about positive change in the world of sports, where the sport itself, and not some nefarious woke agenda, can go back to being the primary focus.
