Paige Bueckers echoes Caitlin Clark’s views on lower coverage of black women in sports

Many will expect 2025 No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers to have a stellar year in comparison to 2024 1st overall pick Caitlin Clark.

Paige Bueckers echoes Caitlin Clark’s views on lower coverage of black women in sports

Paige Bueckers agrees she and Caitlin Clark enjoy 'white privilege' (Image via Firstsportz)

Paige Bueckers was the second consecutive white women’s basketball player, after Caitlin Clark, to be selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft. The new Dallas Wings star has a massive fan following of her own, which the league hopes will help fuel the next stage in its growth.

She has played in one preseason game so far, which is not a good enough yardstick to measure how many of her fans have transitioned to the professional league. The expectation is that they will once the regular season begins.

However, many believe Bueckers’ ability to draw fans might not be as great as the Indiana Fever star, but it is still way beyond what other players can. All of this suggests that the two most popular women’s basketball players in the WNBA are white.

Many of Clark’s peers and league veterans did not appreciate how the ‘white girl’ was receiving all the attention. She spoke about it during her interview with Time. Her words citing ‘white privilege’ and black women are undercovered, were met with a lot of backlash. When Time interviewed Bueckers and asked the same question, she agreed with Clark’s point.

There’s not ever equal coverage. There’s white privilege every single day that I see. I feel like I’ve worked extremely hard, blessed by God. But I do think there’s more opportunities for me. I feel like even just marketability, people tend to favor white people, white males, white women. I think it should be equal opportunity.

Paige Bueckers told Time magazine

The Dallas Wings guard believes she, too, has white privilege when it comes to getting opportunities that black women do not get. Paige Bueckers wants to counteract this inequality with the way she will go about her business.

Paige Bueckers understands media wants to compare her to Caitlin Clark

Caitlin Clark is a pure point guard who looks to set the game up for her teammates and passes the ball for them to score. In the event she does not see an opening, or she wants to hoodwink the opponent, she will score on her own. Paige Bueckers’ game is nothing like Clark’s. But she knows the media wants to compare them.

Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark battling in college
Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark battling in college (Image via Open Source/X)

That’s what the media cares about. That’s what everybody who watches basketball cares about. I used to be bothered by it. But I’ve done so much work on myself and my approach. The ability to not run a race in comparison to run my own race and worry about that. We’re also completely different players

Paige Bueckers told Time magazine

The UConn alum understands that the media will try and pit the two No. 1 overall picks. Even if they have vastly different games, they both understand that the narrative will try to figure out who is better. That helps women’s basketball, which she and Clark are completely fine with.

This is similar to how the media pitted Clark and Angel Reese last season. Both believed they were not rivals, but that narrative did not stop. Even the league wants to milk that rivalry after scheduling five games between their teams.

Clark helps WNBA set preseason record

Caitlin Clark’s rise to stardom does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Paige Bueckers’ team, along with other franchises, has been forced to shift to larger arenas to accommodate the increasing demand for tickets.

If that was not good enough proof, the WNBA received some more good news from ESPN’s PR department. The Indiana Fever’s second preseason game against the Brazilian National Team drew an average of 1.3 million viewers, with a peak of 1.6 million.

In fact, that number was 13% higher than ESPN’s 2024 WNBA season schedule. This could be a positive sign as the league is hoping it can build on last year’s growth. If Bueckers can draw numbers close to what Clark does, the league should be looking to break even pretty soon.

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