Competitors, well they compete, and in some cases, they are so good at what they do, while competing that they become an “idol” to many, no matter what they do for a living, a sport, or in life in general.
My idol was my father, sure I looked up to the likes of Micheal Jordan, to Dr. J (Julius Ervin) and many others, but my main idol, the one I looked up to the most was my father.
While watching the men’s and women’s final four games this past weekend, excluding the men’s title game, since I was covering a meeting Monday night, I have to say that the men’s tournament, and even more so, the women’s tournament this year were something else.
I’m sure most of you know where I’m going with this week’s Bull by now, and as much as I dislike anything Iowa Hawkeye, nobody can deny that Caitlin Clark has become one of the most iconic women’s players, maybe of all time, setting all sorts of scoring records, assist record, and so much more.
There are times where I really question her actions on the court, and even a few times I’ve yelled at my television, well at her, through by television, telling her that her actions, as one of the biggest idols in the women’s game, maybe ever, is showing young girls, and yes boys, that it’s okay to yell, or get in the face of a referee, and well, it’s not.
Anyway, when push comes to shove, and not just through her actions on and off the court, it’s also easy to see that Clark is a natural at the game of basketball, and honestly, if I was a father of a young daughter, or son, I’d be beyond good with my kids idolizing Clark, while explaining that sometimes, when you are competing, like Clark, and at the level that she plays, sometimes a little “ugly” shows up.
At one point, as we all seen, her father even “lip synced” to her, after her reaction to what she felt was a bad referee call and told her to “shut up and just play.”
I’m competitive, and get caught up in the referees of life once in a while, and I too “spout off,” even if the person I’m upset with doesn’t deserve my attitude...life IS competitive, and even at times, it might be unfair, but in the light of the thousands of kids that look up to the Caitlin Clarks of the world as their idols, that is okay, because they could do so much worse, even if at times she makes me mad by her actions.
I can only imagine what life for Clark has to be like, and after Iowa fell to South Carolina in the title game, all I could think about, with her playing her final game in a Hawkeye uniform, what she must feel like. As a competitor, she hurt, she was mad, but she also knows the weight of the world, filled with young kids who idolize her. It had to be hard knowing that there were young kids physically upset, crying and let down that Clark and Iowa lost the title game during the final game of her college career.
It’s good to be an idol, in a competitive world, but being an idol at the level of Clark, I can’t even fathom what that weight felt like.
This young woman put the women’s game of basketball on another stage, another level, and that is awesome, really it’s unbelievable what she did for the women’s game, and her legacy, at least in my opinion, won’t be that she broke and set all sorts of records, or that she lost in back-to-back national championship games.
No, I feel that her legacy should be, what she did for not just women’s basketball but the game of basketball in general, regardless of gender.
She taught us all, whether you like it or not, that when you compete, it’s okay to “lose it,” as long as you back it up, and that you show class in victory, and also in defeat, and I certainly feel that for the most part, she played the game with class, dignity, and she will continue to do that as she turns pro.
I’m honored that I was able to watch this young woman put the women’s game on an entirely different level, and I’m thinking that there might just be another young lady, who will become that next woman to keep the game growing on the women’s side over the next several years at Nebraska, Britt Prince.
Time will tell.
