Paige Bueckers sparks debate with comments about Black women WNBA coaches amid Caitlin Clark comparisons
Paige Bueckers once again advocated for Black women in women's basketball. The Dallas Wings superstar made viral comments at a postgame press conference on Sunday after defeating the Chicago Sky, when she was asked about the number of Black female coaches in the WNBA.
There are currently no Black female head coaches in the league.
"I'm for equal opportunity, no discrimination based on what you look like, who you like and anything of that nature. I grew up with a lot of prominent Black women in my life that were very important to me in how I was raised and how I grew up, being my stepmom, my AAU coach," Bueckers said.
"I understand how amazing they are and how they should get the same equal opportunity as a white woman, as a white man to be an important piece of this league. And it was built on a lot of Black women, this league, so it's definitely right for them to get the same equal opportunity as everyone else."
Bueckers' comments garnered mixed reactions and debate on social media.
Bueckers has been under a brighter spotlight in recent days amid comparisons to Caitlin Clark, after former NFL wide receiver Harry Douglas claimed on ESPN that "everything we expected Caitlin Clark to be, Paige Bueckers has been in the WNBA."
The two stars have been particularly compared in terms of their cultural perceptions in conversations about race in the WNBA. After the death of George Floyd in summer 2020, Bueckers, as an incoming freshman at UConn, participated in Black Lives Matter protests in her home community of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. She cited her love for her half-brother Drew, who is biracial and part Black, as the motivation.There is no record of Clark making any statement or demonstrating any activism after the death of George Floyd.
One year later, Bueckers stepped on stage at the 2021 ESPYs awards to accept the "Best Female College Athlete" award.
In her speech, which has since become a polarizing flashpoint in the WNBA culture wars, Bueckers insisted that Black women "don't get the media coverage that they deserve."
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"As a White woman who leads a Black lead sport and celebrated here i want to show a light on black women, they don't get the media coverage that they deserve they've given so much to this sport," she said.
"Everyone who voted thank you but i think we should use this power together to also celebrate black women."
When Clark and Bueckers faced off in the Final Four of the 2024 NCAA tournament, WNBA great A'ja Wilson made a comment that also became flashpoint in the sport's ongoing cultural conversations. While speaking with WNBA star Kelsey Plum in a now-infamous hot mic moment, Wilson praised Bueckers for recognizing her "privilege."
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"Paige reminds me a lot of you. She knows how her privilege got her to that point, and also like, she's good at basketball obviously. But like, she understands her privilege and pushes her over the top. It reminds me a lot of you, and I mean that's a compliment," Wilson said to Plum.
After Clark's record-breaking rookie season, she infamously dabbled in the topic of race during a TIME Magazine interview, where she uttered the quote, "I want to say I've earned every single thing, but as a White person, there is privilege."
The quote prompted frustration and disappointment from many of her fans. But the quote has seemingly faded with time, as it hardly ever plays a role in current cultural discussions around Clark today, by either side. And while Clark has regularly condemned alleged racially charged insults to Black players, she hasn't uttered any quotes that make reference of her own skin color and the conditions that come with it since then.