The legend of Caitlin Clark continues to grow. Earlier this week, TIME Magazine named the Indiana Fever guard their Athlete of the Year, making her only the second basketball player after Lakers superstar LeBron James to get the prestigious title. That wasn’t all. The wildly popular stats website Basketball Reference revealed that the 22-year-old’s profile was the most-visited page on their platform in all 50 US states in 2024. Clark’s accolades and impact have prompted many to declare her the face of women’s basketball. But Lou Williams disagrees and believes that the title belongs to A’ja Wilson.
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On FanDuel TV’s Run It Back show, he detailed why he believes Clark hasn’t usurped the reigning WNBA MVP as the face of the sport. Williams said,
“I still think that [the title of face of women’s basketball] still belongs to A’ja Wilson. A’ja has done a tremendous job of being a champion, being an MVP, doing all of these things. And now her visibility has gone up. You’re starting to see her in commercials…. [So] I still feel like it’s A’ja Wilson.”
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The three-time Sixth Man of the Year did not forget about Clark. He gave her flowers for her role in boosting the popularity of women’s basketball. However, Williams added that popularity isn’t the ideal metric to determine who the face of the sport is. He argued that accolades are all that matter, and thus, Wilson deserves the tag of the face of women’s basketball.
A’ja Wilson is already a Hall of Famer
If accolades are the metric, Williams is spot on. None of A’ja Wilson’s peers operate in the same stratosphere as the Aces’ center. Her resume is simply astonishing.
Wilson is a 6x All-Star, 4x All-NBA First Team, 4x blocks leader, 3x All-Defensive First Team, 3x WNBA MVP, 2x Olympic gold medalist, 2x WNBA champion, and 2x Finals MVP. The wildest part of it all? She’s only 28 years old.
No player in the history of basketball — LeBron James and Michael Jordan included — has compiled a resume as impressive as Wilson at her age. She’s inarguably the best and most dominant player in the league.
But does being the best in the world automatically make an athlete the face of their sport? In Lou Williams’ estimation, it does. In some fans, analysts, and former and current players’ books, it does. For several others, it’s about how many people tune in to watch that athlete.
In the 1980s, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was inarguably the Lakers’ best and most consistent player. However, Magic Johnson was regarded as the face of that team and that era; alongside Larry Bird. Does that same logic apply in Wilson and Clark’s case? It’s a subjective debate and everyone’s entitled to have their opinion.
However, there are undisputable facts: A’ja Wilson is the best women’s basketball player on the planet and Caitlin Clark is the most popular. Which of the two distinctions makes an athlete the face of their sport? That’s for each viewer to decide for themselves.
