She made 61 percent of her shots last night. For reference, anything at or very close to 50 percent is excellent, for men or women. Caitlin and her fans have surely been disconcerted that her shooting percentage has been low, especially from 3-point range, so a game like this, combined with others recently, has to feel good, especially when the Fever are winning games. Caitlin is famous for her facility for three point shooting, so you really want those shots and others to go in. Shots in the normal run of play while the clock is moving are called “field goals” if they go in, and field goal attempts in general. Shooting percentage is just the fraction of shots made by shots taken. The stats geniuses across many sports have been developing advanced stats that help them understand why games turn, or to explain why one player impacts a game more than another player. Competitive sports is just a giant math problem, from one angle, and that is personally terrifying to me. On the other hand, it’s usually pretty tough to make it through life without some math. Thank a math teacher, because math rules, honestly. If you can watch any sport without ending up in hopeless confusion, math isn’t impossible for you. I probably should have tried harder in school, especially with math. I digress.
Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III (affectionately abbreviated to RGIII) has posted his rankings for the WNBA Most Valuable Player. In short, he’s put Caitlin Clark first, and A’ja Wilson second. I love Caitlin Clark, man. She’s my favorite player on my favorite team. But A’ja Wilson is winning and should win yet another MVP. She’s making 55 percent of her shots. She’s rebounding 10 missed shots per game. She’s scoring 26 points every game on average. Caitlin: 21. She’s the best defender, also. Did you know that A’ja is statistically the all time leader in scoring average per game? That was true before the season. Unless she just doesn’t play the last 10 games or so, she’s got my metaphorical vote. Caitlin and these recent classes of players are harbingers of a type of player that does almost everything needed in a basketball game well. Especially in Europe and Asia, so-called “positionless basketball” flourishes, because the players are more fundamentally sound than in the US. Winning team basketball is about motion and passing more than raw athletic ability. On defense, it’s about covering for each other’s mistakes, and stopping as far as possible the offense’s effort at exploiting vulnerabilities.
On offense, I have heard Coach Popovich say at least 10 times on TV: “Shooting percentage is largely a function of ball movement,” and, “The ball moves faster than the man!” He’s the winningest coach by number of wins in NBA history. The basic key to scoring points is easy buckets, and open shots. Any team will miss easy shots, and open shots. But professionals generally don’t miss those shots forever.
Caitlin Clark is terrifying, because she can score, but she loves to pass. She loves it more than scoring. Anybody remember Magic Johnson? Could absolutely take over by scoring himself, but those Lakers didn’t need him to do that, usually. They also had James Worthy, Michael Cooper, AC Green, and oh, by the way, the all-time leading scorer by total career points, Kareem Abdul Jabbar (until surpassed a few years ago by LeBron James). Caitlin is Magic Johnson. Actually, the record in the NBA for assists is held by John Stockton. That raw total is so far out of reach that I will probably die before it’s broken. Perhaps my nieces and nephews will have died as well. Caitlin is already a young Magic Johnson. She could become John Stockton, also the all-time NBA leader in steals. He said it about his friend Larry Bird, but Magic could easily say it about Stockton: “That white boy is the truth!” Well, this white girl is the truth.
One unfortunate but obvious reason why Caitlin Clark probably can’t win the MVP this season is that her own teammate Kelsey “Principal” Mitchell—she’s finishing a doctorate in educational administration; how cool is that?—is putting in a word for MVP herself. I don’t think people should just forget A’ja Wilson, but there’s no way that a sneaky dark horse vote for Kelsey Mitchell would bother Caitlin. I’m just going to call her “Principal Mitchell” from now on. Charles Barkley said that between basketball players and teachers, teachers are the real heroes. Who am I to argue with the second-greatest power forward in NBA history? Goodness knows it will be written in my obituary that the greatest privilege of my life was that I was a teacher.
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