NFL Builds Aaron Donald Super Team. WNBA Torches Caitlin Clark Super Team | Ep 1229

**Jason Whitlock** (0:00)
The Los Angeles Rams just built a super team, and America is cheering. The Indiana Fever already have won, and America is trying to tear it apart. That difference is not about basketball. It is about what men will do for each other, and what women's basketball refuses to do for itself. The Rams have the reigning MVP at quarterback in Matt Stafford. They acquired the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Myles Garrett. And yesterday, after months of speculation, Aaron Donald, arguably the greatest defensive lineman in NFL history, came out of retirement on a one year $20 million deal to join Garrett in pursuit of opposing quarterbacks.
Everyone across the NFL landscape is excited. Great players coming together to dominate. It is a bit like LeBron James taking his talents to South Beach to join Wayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
Wade had one title and LeBron had none when they partnered with the Heat. And with Bosh, they took less money to chase a shared accomplishment over a maximum paycheck.
Miami was equally condemned and celebrated for that alignment. Stars choosing each other to do something historic. Everyone likes and respects Aaron Donald, so there is none of the LeBron polarization. The Rams get the credit the Heat never fully receive. Men come together to do great things.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:33)
This is that fire. Grab your popcorn.

**Jason Whitlock** (1:37)
Now let's look at Indianapolis. Women's basketball is playing the Hunger Games with Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Aaliyah Boston, the most electrifying trio the women's game has ever put on one roster.
Rather than celebrating the three complimentary stars, learning how to win together, the ecosystem is working to isolate one and diminish the others. The fever sit fifth in the standings. Mitchell leads the team in win shares, Boston is second, Clark is third. That is not a shot at Caitlin Clark. It's just reality. Yet a national army of content creators, not Indiana fans, not people who live with this team, is campaigning to force Clark into a photo finish with Asia Wilson for MVP.
Winning that MVP trophy would qualify Clark for a super max contract and pretty much break up the Indiana Fever.
Who benefits from blowing up the Indiana Fever? Sports fans in Indianapolis? No, I don't think so. Caitlin Clark content creators benefit. They prefer a Caitlin solo act. They do not really care about winning. They care about clicks, views, and Nike gift bags. They care about their larger war with black lesbian feminists. That is a one woman stats driven war. Caitlin versus everybody. Fever fans care about winning. Trust me, I'm one. In the sports world, social media has finished what ESPN started decades ago. Stealing the authority of sports coverage from local media personalities and outlets. ESPN made your local newspaper obsolete the same way Walmart crushed the local store owner. First, the national network decided your town's writers were too small to matter. Then the algorithm decided your town's fans were too small to matter. Social media has stolen the authority of local sports fans. The guy calling the local sports talk show and complaining about minutes, matchups, and whether this group can actually win in May has been replaced by content creator in New Mexico or some faraway place who is a hardcore Caitlin Clark fan.
That man in New Mexico does not have to sit in Gamebridge. He does not have to live with a broken roster if the experiment fails. He needs a character. Indiana needs a team. It is the final annihilation of states' rights. Yes, I said states' rights. Jefferson Davis was wrong on slavery, but he was 100 percent on the money about the importance of states' rights. A state used to enjoy a necessary autonomy, an electric fence between itself and the federal government. America used to know the federal government was the enemy of freedom, not its great emancipator.
TJ. Simers and Bill Plasky, they used to police Los Angeles far better than Mina Kimes and Malika Andrews. A city or state used to be allowed to love its own team in its own voice. Local columnists, local radio shows, local callers. That was the immune system. It kept national myth-making from swallowing a franchise whole. That immune system is gone. Indiana does not get to decide what Indiana's team is for. A national content economy does. Hometown people who want a banner are being out-shouted by people who want a brand, and the people with the cameras have decided the brand is more valuable than the banner.
Following the lead of YouTubers and influencers and streamers, the WNBA has zeroed in on an irrelevant conversation about the face of the league, rather than doubling down on the quality of competition. Face of the league is a marketing argument dressed up as a basketball argument. It asks who should be on the poster, not who is helping the fifth best team become the fourth or third best team.