Hartman called Clark the most ‘valuable’ player in league history and a generational fire starter to a WNBA that had previously appeared flameless for three decades. Huskey, however, argued that Clark’s value only resides within her own brand and confined to her own franchise, saying the blistering hype and popularity around the WNBA this season has never been about the league, but simply fascination for Clark herself and her Hollywood rivalry with Angel Reese. Huskey says Fever games may be breaking TV and attendance ratings every week, but says the rest of the teams in the WNBA aren't gaining any 'value' from Clark as a disconnected entity.
Steve Hartman: “If you’re actually talking about who is the most ‘valuable’ player in the WNBA, it should unanimously be Caitlin Clark because she puts butts in seats. Value to the WNBA means you are one that is making us money. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best player, but it means you’re the most ‘valuable’ player, and no one has ever exemplified ‘value’ to a league more than Caitlin Clark.”
Veejay Huskey: “The ‘value to the league’ thing I punch back at. She’s ‘valuable’ to the Fever, she hasn’t been valuable to the league.”
Hartman: “She hasn’t been valuable to the league??”
Huskey: “The ‘value to the league’ is a false narrative so it looks like she’s really helping build the league. Go look at the ratings. The Fever games are what people are watching. People aren’t really watching all these other games. Go look at the disparity between the ratings in the Fever games and all the other games. Con’t tell me she is a ‘value’ to the league when she’s a value to the Fever and her brand. Which is fine, she can be that, but this narrative that she’s a value to the league? How many people are watching the Mystic games??”
Hartman: “How many people were talking about the WNBA before she arrived??”
Huskey: “They’re not talking about the WNBA, they’re talking about HER and Angel Reese. They’re not talking about the league. If that were the case, we’d be talking about the Liberty. We’d be talking about Breanna [Stewart]; we’d be talking about [A’ja] Wilson. We’re not.”
Hartman: “The bottom line is that they’re filling arenas. Maybe there isn’t the full carryover to the rest of the league because people that are sampling the WNBA are seeing a lot of what you just said with Angel Reese. She’s shooting 41% as a big. That seems impossible when most of your shots are literally under the basket. If you watch this league for the first time, you realize the ‘sell’ on the women’s game is that they play the ‘fundamental’ game well. They play below the rim. It’s not all the spectacular and they realize that they don’t shoot all that well. You see blown layups, you see the kind of shots missed in the WNBA that if it were to happen in the NBA you’d be out of the league. You can’t play in the NBA if you can’t make that shot, and that’s commonplace in the WNBA.
You can talk about three-point shooting – right now, Caitlin Clark is barely over 30% [.332]. Everyone seems to be caught up on this Caitlin Clark thing, ‘I’m gonna check it out because everyone else is’ -- Whether that is gong to have any residual effects, I don’t know. Right now, she is the most ‘valuable’ player in this league. She might not even be a top 25 player in this league, but in terms of her value to this league, they have been given an opportunity that they’ve never had before and may never have again.”
Huskey: “I look at the ratings. People aren’t watching other games so I’m trying to figure out what this ‘value’ is. To the Fever, to her brand, yes. And then you have to have a villain, so Angel Reese is the villain, and everybody is looking at the Chicago Sky. It’s either her or Angel, that is who people are talking about. The best team in the league is the New York Liberty. Without looking it up, can any radio guy name me three starters off their offense? We want to create this narrative that I just don’t agree with. I’m just looking at the facts and the figures, and when I look at the Fever games and then I look at the ratings for the rest of the league not including the Fever or the Sky, that’s when I go ‘OK, where is this league value coming from?’ They still can’t draw 7,000 if it’s not Angel Reese or Caitlin Clark. This game got 500,000 views, but the Chicago Sky and the Fever game got 1.5 million. Who was playing in that game? Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.”
Hartman: “How long do you think this is going to last?”
Huskey: “After this year, because of the young lady from UConn [Paige Bueckers], and Juju [Watkins] is coming. This is just for the moment. It was created as a narrative, it was created as a story. America loves ‘good guy vs. Bad guy’. I don’t think these two ladies genuinely dislike each other. We’ve been told to make it that way so now we have to pick a side.”
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