We are simultaneously living in an age where the best to ever play are on their way out and the best who ever lived are authoring their geneses. Recency bias is running rampant in the early stages of 2020. This month, we’ve simultaneously witnessed the crowning of Patrick Mahomes and Caitlin Clark as the greatest ballas to ever touch down in their respective sports.
On Sunday, Mahomes led one of the most sedate comebacks in recent Super Bowl history. There was never a doubt when San Francisco led throughout the second half that Mahomes would rally them back. On Thursday night, Caitlin Clark needed eight points to become the all-time leading scorer in NCAA women’s college hoops by tallying Iowa’s first eight points and pulled up from the logo for the record breaker. Those performances were electrifying enough to captivate us in the moment that we’ve lost all perspective.
Recency bias is a helluva drug. At least most responsible NFL gatekeepers waited until Mahomes pulled off a Super Bowl hat trick to begin the Brady-Mahomes comps in earnest. Clark supporters and detractors have been engaged in a battle over whether Clark is the best player in women’s college basketball history or just the flavor of the moment. However, can we respectively return to reality?
The latest is always the greatest. We have a compulsion to believe that our era has all the greatest athletes who’ve ever lived. This is evergreen though. Run this back in a decade if Caleb Williams is challenging Mahomes and it will still be true. The schemes may have advanced, and new skills might be unlocked, but the game’s all relative. Mahomes isn’t playing in a league where defensive backs can be as physical with receivers like they once were.
Much respect to Mahomes, but Brady having three of Mahomes’ careers has to count for something. At his current pace, Mahomes isn’t even projected to catch Brady until he’s in his 17th season. Unlike Clark, Mahomes may never catch Brady’s numbers. But ask LeBron James if that matters. Nobody has ever had a first six years like Mahomes. During the early 80s, Marino and Montana were the GOATs. In the early 2000s, Peyton Manning was considered Bradys’ superior.
Conversely, Clark doesn’t have the rings to justify her place. She’s been a generational scorer and playmaker, utilizing her tools behind the arc in an era where her strengths are maximized, but four years from now, we might be right back here having this same conversation about freshman Juju Watkins. Iowa stans and the digital militias have irradiated the spectacle of Clark’s senior year by dragging college basketball stars of yesteryear into their tiff. Sheryl Swoopes inadvertently stepped into the crosshairs with her innocuous comments about Clark.
Chamique Holdsclaw gets forgotten in history. My personal recollection can only go back far enough to watching Candace Parker’s dismantling opponents on both ends en route to earning two national titles and a pair of Wooden Awards.
History is written by victors. Parker, Cheryl Miller, and Breanna Stewart are all in the convo due to a combo of their individual talent and their bevy of national titles. Even Swoopes has the edge over Clark among offensive dynamos who were singular forces on non-traditional powerhouses. Swoopes dropping 47 points on Ohio State’s domes to win the natty in ‘93 is without a doubt one of the most balla endings to a career in the Tournament. After getting knocked out by LSU in the Final Four, Clark has some unfinished business if she’s going to gain the upper hand on Swoopes in any GOAT debate.
However, in the debate over the greatest women’s basketball players of all-time, it’s a travesty that Brittany Griner’s name has barely been mentioned. Call it basketball’s version of tall poppy syndrome. We love to cut down bigs, especially ones who played aesthetically unpleasing styles who busted up the Tennessee-UConn duopoly. Bigs get no love, but college hoops’ Vitruvian woman had it all. The accolades Lady Wilt accumulated over the course of her four-year career were overshadowed by her only winning one. However, UConn or Tennessee won 9 out of the 11 national titles claimed in that period.
Had Griner gone to either of those schools, Breanna Stewart would have been chasing Griner. Clark’s .613 career effective field goal percentage en route to her career scoring record speaks to the Steph Curryification of basketball. However, Griner finished her career second all-time all-time in scoring to Jackie Stiles and that wasn’t even her most valuable skill. She rejected more shots in a single season than anyone–as a freshman and closed out that season with a tournament run that included a 14-block party against Georgetown.
Watching Griner pour it on is what it must have felt like witnessing a prime Wilt Chamberlain barnstorming through Philadelphia, San Francisco, and that night in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Attention spans are shorter than ever, but the greatest of all-time is a man-made concept that requires us to examine beyond what’s happening right now. Let’s at least see if Clark can earn her spot by going on a revenge tour through the NCAA Tournament. Clark and Mahomes deserve to be in the conversation, but let’s slow down on the proclamations before we all end up with egg on our faces.
