Evanson: Caitlin Clark's problems are not of her doing, but rather a result of everything around her

Say what you will about the circus that’s become Caitlin Clark, but if there’s one person you can’t blame for the discourse surrounding the transcendent star — it’s her.

Since the former Iowa standout arrived on the WNBA scene, it’s been seemingly open season on the 22-year-old. For reasons ranging from competitiveness to jealousy, further to pride, and further yet to the agenda-driven drivel of people weaponizing the rookie in the interests of their cause, players and pundits have and continue to go hard at Clark, and with a zest that speaks to something more.

But through the hard fouls, harsh words, and theatrics that have ensued in the wake of her never-before seen college career, Clark has remained on the high road despite ample opportunity to do something quite different.

In response to the Chicago Sky’s Chennedy Carter’s cheap shot delivered at the tail end of their game with Clark’s Indiana Fever on June 1, Clark said the following:

“Sometimes your emotions get the best of you,” she said. “Happened to me multiple times throughout the course of my career. People are competitive. It is what it is.”

To the talk surrounding the bevy of hard fouls she’s taken in general over the season’s first month:

“I think at this point I know I’m going to take a couple of hard shots a game and that’s what it is,” Clark said postgame. “I’m trying not to let it bother me.”

And following her omission from the Olympic team that will represent the country in next month’s Paris games:

“I’m excited for the girls who are on the team. I know it’s the most competitive team in the world and I know it could’ve gone either way – me being on the team, me not being on the team,” she said, via The Athletic. “So, I’m excited for them. I’m going to be rooting them on to win gold. I was a kid that grew up watching the Olympics. So, yeah, it’ll be fun to watch them.”

None of that sounds like whining, sniveling, entitlement or sour grapes to me, but rather an understanding of the dues even people of her ilk are often required to pay as a means to the respect of those that came before them.

So, if Clark’s not the driving force behind the controversy surrounding the basketball phenom, who is?

The media?

Maybe. After all, the attention she’s been given over the past year-and-change — despite being par for the course in 2024 — can be maddening to even the most rational of beings

Her fans?

Possibly, for there are few things more frustrating and/or annoying than the nonsense that flies in the face of sensical thought as the result of blind loyalty. Clark has a legion of fans behind her, and as fanatics, their behavior often walks a bit too closely to the literal definition of such. As a result, people naturally push back.

Clark’s WNBA peers?

Sure, to an extent. Not because their instinctual response lacks understanding, but rather because they’ve allowed that instinct coupled with emotion to direct their angst towards the player in the spotlight opposed to the people responsible for repeatedly shining that light on her.

But in all of those instances, it’s not Clark who’s the problem, but rather the atmosphere surrounding her.

Caitlin Clark is being humbled. There’s no question about that. She’s finding her way and understandably struggling in the WNBA game, is at odds with the players playing it, and is squarely in the crosshairs of outsiders who’ve been waiting anxiously for her to fail — or at least labor — on the biggest stage. But while it’s easy hate the “game,” it’s just as easy — and I’d argue lazy — to hate the player because of it. That might be Clark’s problem, but she’s not at the root of it—maybe everyone else is?