The John R. Wooden Award recipient, among many other accolades, point guard of the Iowa Hawkeyes, Caitlin Clark, has achieved an incredible feat as she has become the all-time leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball.
She now holds a prestigious platform in the history of NCAA women’s basketball. The all-time leading scorer has garnered attention from the sports community, especially NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal. He went further with his prominent remarks and called Clark one of the best.
O’Neal shared, as per SI, “She’s incredible. Congratulations to her and her family. The greatest thing is I’m just seeing her last year when they played LSU. She’s phenomenal. I’m gonna go on the record and say she’s the best female collegiate player ever.”
Further continuing, “I said what I said. This is my opinion and I’m not changing it. I ain’t disrespecting nobody. It’s my opinion and I ain’t going to change it. How about that?”
Jay Williams is unwilling to say that Caitlin Clark is great…yet pic.twitter.com/zCxyUbV8bm
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 17, 2024
However, analyst Jay Williams has recently shared his opinions as well. He stated that he would wait to award the “great” title just now to Clark. According to awful announcing, he shared, “I think she is the Stephen Curry of women’s college basketball. I think she has changed the dynamic of the way the game is played. I think the way she plays — the pizzazz — she’s probably the most prolific scorer the game of basketball has ever seen. I am unwilling — and maybe it’s more the Kobe (Bryant) mentorship around me — to say that she is great yet.”
“I think she’s the most prolific scorer the game has ever seen. I hold great, or the levels of immortality or the pantheon, to when you win championships. That’s just me. So, Diana Taurasi, when you win three consecutive championships, two-time National Player of the Year, it has to culminate with a chip; it has to. I mean, Breanna Stewart, if we’re talking about GOAT, legends of the game, she’s won four chips — four chips, multiple National Players of the Year.”
“I’m not saying that she’s not at a high, high, high level, but for it to go to the state of immortality — in my opinion — it has to culminate with your team winning a championship.”
The other analyst, Jay Bilas, shared his own opinions, accepting the current remarks while also assessing Clark’s prominent additions to the game. He further stated that the “great” claims were further debatable, but Clark’s game and its impact distinguish her, making her talents unique.
Good luck with that narrative. Caitlin Clark is the real deal. Love that she stayed home.
— Chris Lail 🇺🇸 (@AChrisLail) February 18, 2024
Jay Williams is an unserious and biased ESPN talking head. Most prolific scorer the game has ever seen and you can’t call her great? Lol
— Chris Polo (@ChrisPolo__) February 17, 2024
i wonder why he said that …
— Vic Monte (@TheVicMonte) February 18, 2024
She’s the best women’s basketball player of all time period
— Bart Bordelon (@BartBordelon) February 18, 2024
Full stop. Joke opinion. She is carrying women's college hoops to unseen heights and brought a .500 roster to a final and may do so again. Not a sound take.
— BHorn (@BhornGator) February 17, 2024
Breanna Stewart is on another level from Clark. Shout out to Jay Will for recognizing. She didn’t just win four (4!) titles she won THREE player of the year awards. Come on now.
— Phins Liftoff 🐬 🚀 (@PhinsLiftoff) February 17, 2024
I understand what he means. I say she's great, but the level that people are putting her on is absurd. She's not Taurasi, Miller, Stewart, or Moore. The crazy thing is she's getting all the shine, and nobody is talking about JuJu, who's prob the best player as a freshman
— King Pak (@pakmann864) February 17, 2024
THIS IS DISGUSTING TO
Cheryl Miller (112-20 in College !)
83' 84' Ncaa CHAMP & 2x Tournament MVP) 3x NCAA PLAYER OF THE YEAR
& more! (Scored 105 in high school EVEN!)& moreMAYA MOORE !!!! GOAT
(SPORTS ILLUSTRATED in 2017 NAMED THE 'GREATEST WINNER IN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL… pic.twitter.com/nI1vSqCbW5— Reese In Real Life (@Reese929IndAtl) February 16, 2024
Cheryl Miller would cook her stop it pic.twitter.com/ekohWlPWSQ
— GSPAR (@gspar116) February 16, 2024
CC definitely the Steph Curry of women sports. So in that case… Steph Curry is the GOAT, the best NBA player of all time ever… better than MJ, Kobe, Lebron or you. I mean if we're going to forget there's more to basketball than just offense, rather the best all around.
— Faith (@FloresMelenda) February 16, 2024
Everyone has their own metric for great and Jay says you need titles…that’s fine and fair. He uses Diana and Breanna as examples at UCONN… Clark chose to build at a place that had nowhere near the history. Pretty sure Clark would have multiple national titles at South Carolina… https://t.co/Rp3GWdYgKV
— Kyle Bowlsby (@kbowlsby) February 17, 2024
The basketball community was divided on their opinions, with some saying that Clark was the best while others stated that there had been many other women’s basketball icons before her.
