WNBA (DR) / The Why (DR)

New star of the WNBA circuit, Caitlin Clark has not really received a welcome worthy of this status. Constantly pushed around by her opponents since her debut in the league, the Fever leader has just been the subject of merciless comments from Dwyane Wade.

A real attraction on the NCAA courts last year, she combined XXL performances with record audiences.

However, until now, Caitlin Clark has only managed to reproduce one of these two feats in the WNBA.

Indeed, the craze surrounding her remains as impressive as ever, unlike her statistics which are showing a certain decline. However, this can be explained in several ways.

Thus, in addition to a period of adaptation specific to any rookie, the 22-year-old leader clearly cannot count on the competition to give her the slightest gift.

An observation that could even apply to her teammates given her recent cold admission .

But when some people call all this jealousy, or even hazing, Dwyane Wade defends a very different point of view.

Dwyane Wade goes against the grain in the Caitlin Clark case

Recently the owner of his own podcast, entitled The Why , Wade recently spoke about Clark’s beginnings in the WNBA and compared them to his own in the NBA:

Dwyane Wade: I see this talk about Caitlin Clark being hazed and I remember going through the same thing my rookie year when I was just coming into the league.

I remember Jamaal Magloire and PJ Brown running into me every time I was driving in the paint. They were like, “You’re going to eat up the floor more than once if you keep going in like that.” People call it hazing when they see that, but it’s just part of the process of showing that you’re tough enough to play in this league.

According to the legendary Heat guard, this harsh reception reserved for Clark would not be new and would not be observed only in the WNBA.

Surrounded by high expectations himself when he left university, Flash had to justify them by meeting the physical challenge imposed on him in the NBA.

Enough to echo the comments previously made by another former star, namely Nick Van Exel:

It’s just basketball. We must match words with actions. CC can handle this. This is a good thing for the WNBA.

While some observers are outraged by the physical treatment inflicted on Caitlin Clark in the WNBA, Dwyane Wade sees it as a test that is also present in the NBA. It remains to be seen whether the young star from Indiana will be able to overcome it quickly.