A’ja Wilson ‘grateful’ for Caitlin Clark comments on white privilege

Reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson is known to choose her words carefully, including the constant controversy surrounding Caitlin Clark and her arrival in the league.

But as part of the latest Women Of the Year issue in TIME Magazine, Wilson responded to Clark’s controversial comments about her privilege as a white basketball star in the same magazine last year. Wilson called Clark’s statements “powerful” and expressed appreciation for the rookie going out on a limb to stick up for the Black players in the WNBA.

“It’s powerful to me. As a Black woman in the WNBA, we have our struggles in showcasing who we really are,” Wilson told TIME. “A lot of agendas get pushed on a lot of different platforms that may shadow us. You work so hard, but you still have to work 10 times harder just to be seen. So when we can have our counterparts speak up, it speaks volumes to me, because they’re in spaces where my path is never supposed to go. It’s crazy that we’re talking about that in 2025, but it’s real. We see those things as Black women. We see where people stand up and speak for us.”

Clark received significant backlash from conservative cultural commentators and news pundits in December with her initial comments. At that time, Clark used the opportunity of being named TIME’s Athlete Of the Year to finally go deep on the ways in which she believes her race played a role in the excitement around her, from Iowa to the Indiana Fever.

“I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” Clark said then. “A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

That led everyone from Megyn Kelly to Dave Portnoy to Stephen A. Smith to weigh in, with the core question being whether Clark was being sincere. Did Clark really believe that she had not “earned” her status in the sport, or was she engaging in “self-flagellation,” as Kelly called it?

Fortunately for Clark, she got the last word in, doubling down at a TIME event hosted by Maria Taylor the same week.

It was impossible to miss the news cycle, especially for a fellow face of the league in A’ja Wilson. Still, it was interesting to see Wilson go deep on how she received Clark’s support and the uproar that followed.

More from Wilson via TIME:

“I know [Clark] got a lot of backlash from that, because obviously we live in a world where they don’t want that, and it’s exhausting. But imagine dealing with that and then having to go out and play every single night, having to constantly have to worry, How are they about to downgrade my resume now? What more do I have to do in order to showcase how elite and how serious I take my job? But I also do it with love and passion and fun. A lot of people don’t want to see me at the top, and that’s fine, but I’m gonna be there, because I worked my butt off to get there. 

“I have a privilege in a lot of different ways. I can be in spaces where a lot of other Black women, white women, however you want to see it, are not—but that’s where I’m going to try to use my privilege of being a professional athlete to help others, because that’s what gives me my why. So claps, steps, all the in-between, because I know it’s hard to speak out on that. That’s why I try to speak out as much as I can, but people just see it a different way. That’s OK. I just want people to understand that when people can speak up about us as Black women in rooms that we may not be in, that means a lot. Because it’s a little piece of us in there—they can hold that door open for us to walk through. So I’m grateful.”

Everyone can and will continue to debate Clark’s impact on the league and analyze her every move. She is far from the first athlete or celebrity to speak carefully and with intention in public venues.

It’s possible for Kelly to be correct that Clark was being self-deprecating to make a point — and for Clark to still mean what she said. Parsing anyone’s genuine views or intentions through magazine features is goofy no matter who you’re doing it with. But insofar as these comments equate to a real relationship between Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson or alignment among WNBA stars, Wilson’s response indicates things are moving in the right direction.