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Caitlin Clark Fans Find Issue With Viral Paige Bueckers Take

A viral Paige Bueckers support video wasn't very flattering to Caitlin Clark, and her fanbase isn't happy about it.

Grant Young

Apr 5, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark (22) and Connecticut Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) react in the second quarter in the semifinals of the Final Four of the womens 2024 NCAA Tournament at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Apr 5, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark (22) and Connecticut Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) react in the second quarter in the semifinals of the Final Four of the womens 2024 NCAA Tournament at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

If there is one peer who can compare to the superstardom that Caitlin Clark has acquired in recent years, it's UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers.

Clark and Bueckers' respective careers have always felt somewhat intertwined, especially since they entered college at the same time, competed for the country's top awards as freshmen, and faced off multiple times in crucial NCAA games.

Fan comparisons between these two iconic guards have continued, even though Clark is now in the WNBA while Bueckers is in her (likely) final season at UConn.

The most recent viral instance of this came when one fan created a video that praised Bueckers (while throwing a few stray shots Clark's way) that is making major waves on social media.

Sports media personality Mariah Rose (@mariahcrose_ posted an over three-minute long X video with the caption, "Why everyone LOVES Paige Bueckers 👀" that, in the first few seconds, included her saying, "[Bueckers] was basically Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark."

Later on in the video, Rose discusses the Final Four game between Clark's Hawkeyes and Bueckers' Huskies in the 2024 NCAA Tournament (which Iowa won 71-69) and says, "[Bueckers] led UConn to the Final Four again where they lost to Iowa.

"But I don't think this was their fault. The refs were... they wanted Caitlin Clark to get that championship, let me tell you," she continued.

While Rose did a great job of conveying why Bueckers deserves a ton of respect, the unnecessary references to Clark have some fans feeling irked.

One fan commented on the video by posting a photo of Clark writing on a piece of paper that was captioned "dear diary everyone is obsessed with me". The caption of their post was, "Tried to sneak Caitlin hate in here".

Another fan posted a screenshot of Clark and Bueckers' freshman season stats (of which Clark's were superior) and wrote, "‘caitlin clark before caitlin clark’".

"You could've said all this without mentioning Caitlin Clark. Tell Paige not to turn her back to the inbounder ♥️," wrote a third fan, referencing a play in the aforementioned Final Four game where Clark threw an inbounds pass off of Bueckers' back.

It certainly felt like the video (which has over 500,000 views on X alone) could have gotten its point across without the Clark references.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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