Mac Engel: Ken Paxton's lame political stunt did not overshadow the Caitlin Clark show

DALLAS — One of the more popular myths accepted as fact is that the WNBA has bricked the breakaway slam dunk that is Caitlin Clark phenomenon.

If the WNBA had blown this chance, Clark’s Indiana Fever would not be selling out larger arenas like they did on Thursday night when they lost to the Dallas Wings, 91-85, at the American Airlines Center. A legit capacity crowd of 18,000-plus showed up to watch the most popular female athlete of her generation.

If the WNBA had blown this chance, aspiring U.S. Senator Ken Paxton would not have been in attendance to use the game as a lame stunt to score free campaign coverage.

Clark has created a new standard for what is possible for this league, and women’s professional sports. It has not been perfect, but there is an element working against her that neither she, nor her league, can do much to control.

It can’t eject Ken Paxton from the stands.

“People are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Thursday in Dallas at a ‘fireside chat’ before the game with Wings CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb.

“We’re being the center of political football for people who have never watched the WNBA, never have written about the WNBA or reported on the WNBA.”

She’s not wrong. The WNBA is in a losing war with lazy media platforms, and voices, that use this league, and its players, for something to talk about to kill time. Or, to score some a few votes.

The WNBA’s ‘Fox News’ challenge

On Thursday night, there were fans holding signs about protecting girls sports, in support of a position that Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham recently expressed regarding transgender people. We’re not talking thousands, but they were there.

And there was Uncle Kenny, who took a break from his schedule of saving Texas, securing our border, fighting crime, combating the mainstream media, and taking on the D.C. machine to watch a basketball game with his kid.

Don’t think Kenny P is a Wings season-ticket holder. He is a campaigning politician who recognizes the chance to score free publicity in his bid to “protect girls sports.”

“As a dad of female athletes I’ll fight to keep men out of women’s sports. Proud to be repping xx-xy with my daughter tonight,” Kenneth wrote on his Twitter account; he included a photo of himself and his daughter at the game.

This is not the type of celebrity endorsement the WNBA wants. The only thing worse would have been had Ted Cruz shown up in his Dallas Wings Azzi Fudd jersey.

Through no fault, or aspiration, of its own, the WNBA has turned into a vehicle to talk about an array of divisive societal issues.

This is mostly done by news TV shows that need something to talk about for a segment or two, or 10, in between commercials for hair-loss treatment for men. These are news outlets that don’t follow the league, have no idea who its players are, but can turn the WNBA into a way to discuss a handful of political talking points in the hopes of engaging its audience.

The people talking about it don’t give a bleep about the WNBA. They just need something to talk about that will enrage consumers.

All of it acts as a drag on marketing, and selling, the league and its players.

The impact Caitlin Clark makes on the WNBA is in the stands

On Thursday night, fans lined up and waited in the 100-degree heat outside the American Airlines Center for an early look at Clark during warmups. By the middle of the first quarter, an arena that was built for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and NHL’s Dallas Stars was full.

“I don’t know if you ever get used to it,” her teammate, Kelsey Mitchell, said after the game. “I think, honestly, I’m just in awe. Really. I look up (in the stands), and, I’m like, ‘Oh, don’t look up,’ I’m like, ‘Damn.’ ”

Half of them, at least, were here for one reason. Mitchell is one of so many players in this league who grew up playing that when they looked up in the stands, there were a few hundred. Not thousands.

“(I am) grateful for the transition, but I think you just always be grateful for the game, (and) where it’s going, how you can watch us play it. I think that it shows where the growth in a change is going, the way the transition is coming from,” Mitchell said. “But I don’t think it’s something that you ever want to really get used to.”

Clark is having a legit MVP-caliber season, but Thursday night she was not the best player on the floor. Other than one long 3-pointer, and a few nice passes, this was one of her worst performances of the season; she finished with 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

The WNBA, and Clark’s shoe sponsor, Nike, could have done a better job of handling her arrival to the league. Do not believe her pro career has made no impact on the WNBA, and women’s sports. Believe the people who were here before she arrived; they’re the experts.

The expectations for her arrival to the league in 2024 were preposterous; no athlete could have achieved what was mandated of Clark.

The NBA existed for decades before Larry Bird and Magic Johnson arrived to elevate both the league, and the sport. Michael Jordan rode in a few years later to push it across the globe.

Clark was expected to be all three. She’s one player, and her impact on the WNBA is massive. Just look in the stands, and try to ignore the rest.