Source: Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
Serena Williams praised Caitlin Clark’s approach to dealing with the pressures of being in the WNBA, including the press attention.
As Caitlin Clark’s rookie season in the WNBA has progressed this summer, she’s gotten a heaping amount of scrutiny from the press and has been the subject of social media squabbles. Tennis great Serena Williams can sympathize, and she expressed that sentiment while at the Tribeca Film Festival last Thursday (June 13). Williams, who was present for the premiere of the ESPN+ documentary series, In The Arena: Serena Williams, praised Clark for her poise so far and referenced her own experiences.
“I just love that she tries to stay grounded. She said that she doesn’t look at her social [media],” Williams said. “I get it. I don’t look at it either. It’s so important to continue to do what she’s doing. No matter what other people do, if people are negative, it’s because they can’t do what you do, basically. Hopefully, she’ll continue to do what she’s doing.” Clark has been the subject of heavy conversation during her rookie season with the Indiana Fever, especially as news broke that she wasn’t named to the senior women’s national basketball team.
“I was bullied. Things that I had to go through, people would be canceled for saying now,” Williams continued, referring to the intense media attention she and her sister Venus Williams received as they began their careers as adolescents. “My position in growing up, as a teenager, I kind of had to be guarded to kind of stay sane. Just [getting] so much press and doing everything I was doing and traveling the globe every year. It was every week. It was a grind.”
The 23-time Grand Slam champion has previously talked about her interest in WNBA ownership. Serena Williams is already part of the ownership group of Angel City FC of the NWSL. “I absolutely would be (interested). With the right market, I would definitely be super interested in that,” Williams said in an interview with CNN. As for Caitlin Clark, she has recently been more adamant about those using her name to demean other WNBA players. “People should not be using my name to push those agendas. It’s disappointing. It’s not acceptable,” she said Thursday to the press. “Treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect, I think, it’s just a basic human thing that everybody should do.”