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Barry Sanders, Ken Griffey Jr, Charles Barkley, Marcel Dionne, and Angel McCoughtry. These esteemed athletes have left indelible marks on their respective sports, their legacies destined to endure.

Yet, a shared characteristic binds these legends: the absence of championship victories. (While Barkely, Dionne, and McCoughtry secured gold medals representing their countries in the Olympics, they never clinched championship trophies in their professional leagues.)

Nevertheless, it would be unjust to dismiss these athletes from the pantheon of all-time greats simply because they fell short of championship glory during their illustrious careers.

On this note, the case of Iowa guard Caitlin Clark demands attention. Following four remarkable seasons with the Hawkeyes, concluded with an 87-75 defeat to South Carolina in the national championship, Clark warrants recognition as one of the GOATs in women’s collegiate basketball.

As Iowa navigated past formidable opponents like LSU and UConn to secure a consecutive national championship appearance, numerous luminaries of the women’s game—both past and present—publicly asserted their views on Clark’s stature.

Breanna Stewart, reigning WNBA MVP and four-time national champion at UConn from 2012-16, emphasized prior to Iowa’s clash with South Carolina that Clark’s legacy would hinge on overcoming the Gamecocks.

“You’re going to look 10 years back, and you’re going to see all the records she’s broken. But anybody knows that your goal when you play is to win a national championship,” Stewart said in an interview with SiriusXM’s Nicole Auerbach.

Even South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley agreed with Stewart’s sentiments, saying Clark’s “really damn good regardless,” but winning the championship would seal the deal.

“You’ve got to win a championship,” Staley said in a press conference leading up to the national championship. “That’s me personally. Like I had a great career, but it’s always, did you win a championship?”

Stewart and Staley have every right to share their thoughts on Clark’s game, and they are not entirely wrong. Unlike golf or boxing, basketball is a team sport, and there are examples of one player collecting numerous accolades that didn’t translate into their team winning the big one.

But that’s just it. Basketball IS a team sport, and unlike Stewart and fellow UConn alumni Diana Taurasi, Clark didn’t have the same supporting cast as these two GOATS during their national title runs.

As noted by one X user, Stewart had the opportunity to play alongside not just one or two, but a total of 12 teammates at UConn who later went on to pursue careers in the WNBA, while Taurasi had 10 such teammates. In contrast, Clark’s experience differs; she had only one teammate, center Monika Czinano, drafted into the WNBA, although Czinano ultimately didn’t secure a spot on the Los Angeles Sparks’ final roster.

This observation doesn’t cast any shadow on the contributions of Clark’s current or former teammates. Her synergy with Czinano and fellow guards Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall not only made Iowa women’s basketball captivating to watch but also propelled the program to unprecedented success in its 50-year history. It underscores the fact that Clark bore a heavier burden in terms of playmaking responsibilities and serving as the primary scorer for Iowa.

What concerns me most is the apparent tendency among some esteemed figures in women’s basketball to downplay Clark’s achievements and records in the GOAT discourse.

This season, Clark achieved numerous milestones: she became the all-time leading scorer in both men’s and women’s basketball with 3,951 points, she became the sole player in Division I history to lead the nation in both points and assists per game, accomplishing this feat twice, and most recently, she set records for three-pointers and scoring in the NCAA Tournament, among others.

Even more remarkable is that she accomplished all this under the intense scrutiny of a global audience. Iowa’s games consistently set or broke attendance records throughout the regular season, and their televised matches garnered unprecedented viewership almost every time.

However, despite these feats, several prominent figures attempted to diminish Clark and Iowa’s achievements.

Hall of Famer Sheryl Swoopes erroneously claimed that Clark’s surpassing of former Washington guard Kelsey Plum as the all-time scoring leader shouldn’t count because she had five years to achieve it, whereas Plum had four. This assertion was proven false, as Clark broke the record with four regular-season games remaining in her fourth season with Iowa.

Another Hall of Famer, Lynette Woodard, suggested that Clark didn’t truly break her all-time scoring record because she didn’t have to compete with a men’s basketball or without a three-point line, as Woodard did. More recently, Taurasi insinuated that Clark wouldn’t replicate her collegiate success in the professional arena.

“There are levels to this thing, and that’s just life,” Taurasi told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt. “You look superhuman playing 18-year-olds, but you’re going to [go against] some grown women who’ve been playing professional basketball for a long time.”

Why is this the case? Why are former greats so quick to tear down Clark instead of appreciating that she has brought so much attention to the game? I don’t want to suggest jealousy, but Taurasi’s comments coming after Iowa took down her for her alma mater, UConn, came off a bit like she was hating.


It hasn’t all been negative, though. In South Carolina’s post-game celebration, Staley promptly gave Clark her flowers.

“I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” Staley said after winning her third national championship as a coach. “It’s not going to stop here on the collegiate tour, [and] when she is the number one pick in the WNBA Draft, she’s going to lift that league up as well. So, Caitlin Clark, if you’re out there, you’re one of the GOATs of our sport.”

So yes, Clark never brought a national championship back to her home state of Iowa, but this should not define her legacy. The 22-year-old has her whole career ahead of her to continue doing great things for the sport of women’s basketball.

“I don’t want my legacy to be, ‘Oh, Caitlin won X amount of games, or Caitlin scored X amount of points,” Clark said following the national championship. “I hope [it’s] what I was able to do for the game of women’s basketball. I hope it is the young boys and young girls that are inspired to play this sport or dream to do whatever they want to do in their lives.”