Jay Williams again doubled down Wednesday night on his belief that Caitlin Clark cannot be placed among the women’s basketball GOATs [greatest of all time] until she wins a ring.
“We were talking about greatest. I hear people talking about GOATs, right. For me, I’m kinda like, ‘OK, you wanna be a GOAT.’ Fine. There’s level of greatness. You gotta win championships to be GOATs,” Williams said while calling the LSU men’s upset of Kentucky.
“So, when people want to don her as the greatest, I’m like, ‘Let’s slow down. I’ve seen Diana Taurasi, I’ve seen Breanna Stewart,’ and you can sit there and tell me all day long, ‘Well, she’s played with other great players.’ OK, great. Championships. That’s how we measure greatness overall.”
Williams initially created a media storm when he said over the weekend that he is unwilling to call Clark an all-time great, despite setting the NCAA women’s scoring record.
While he called the Iowa star the “Stephen Curry of women’s college basketball” and a “prolific scorer,” Williams said Clark has to win a national title if she is to be considered among the sport’s legends.
Iowa lost in the national title game to LSU last season and is ranked fourth this year, putting the Hawkeyes in position to finish the job.
“I’m not saying that she’s not at a high, high, high level,” Williams said Saturday, “but for her to go to the states of immortality in my opinion, it has to culminate with your team winning a championship.”
On Wednesday, Williams’ ESPN broadcast partner, Dave Pasch, semi-debated the point with the former Duke star while giving him time to expand on his point.
Pasch allowed Williams to clarify that he believes Clark is a great player but just not in the GOAT discussion, and Pasch even interjected that “she’s the best offensive player that I’ve seen,” with range that has not been seen in the women’s game.
“You’re saying she’s great. Because it came off as if you were saying she wasn’t. You’re saying she’s great, you’re just not putting her in the (Tom) Brady category of the best we’ve ever seen,” Pasch said. “And I think that’s fair. I think we need to see how the rest of the season plays out. I’m with you on that. I don’t think it’s an outrageous comment based on how you just clarified it.”
Williams seemed perturbed with the presentation of his comments.
“People didn’t hear words like ‘prolific,’ people didn’t hear words like ‘in order to be in the pantheon’ or ‘into the levels of immortality,'” Williams said.
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Pasch replied: “You mean we’re just gonna clip three seconds of a 30-second comment and blow that up?”
Said Williams: “That’s apparently what happens in the media world.”
Following Wednesday’s game, Williams posted a video to X in which he called out individuals making this about race in light of him shooting with LSU’s Angel Reese before Wednesday’s game, and also again clarified that he was not attempting to diminish Clark’s abilities.
He then called out folks attacking him and his playing career. The Bulls drafted Williams with the No. 2 pick in the 1999 draft, but a motorcycle accident derailed his career.
“To all you keyboard, courageous people that want to call me a people or make fun of my career,” Williams said, “none of y’all can hold me. None of y’all.
“Ninety percent of ya’ll didn’t even pick up a basketball. You can’t even dribble the rock. You can’t even shoot. So, let’s stop being tough guys on the keyboard just because you disagree with someone…”
Clark and Iowa have a tough matchup on tap Thursday when they visit No. 14 Indiana in a game that will have major Big Ten regular-season standings implications.
